On ‘Funeral Soundtrack #4,’ Destroy Boys show signs they’re really just starting to live
After nearly a decade and four albums, Destroy Boys are in an interesting spot in the band’s career. The founding duo of vocalist-guitarist Alexia Roditis and guitarist-vocalist Violet Mayugba have been running the bilingual, LGBTQ+ punk rock outfit since they were teens, toured the world multiple times over, played arena shows and major festivals with their heroes, and hosted a handful of annual events called Destroy Fest featuring all of their friends.
Yet at the same time, it’s only since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic that the band has really hit its stride.
It started with locking in its rhythm section when bassist David Orozco joined for the release of 2021’s “Open Mouth, Open Heart†and continued through the band landing coveted festival slots in Chicago’s Riot Fest and Lollapalooza and opening for Blink-182 on the pop punk heroes’ massive comeback tour. Last year, Roditis and Mayugba even made the move down to Los Angeles from their native Sacramento in part to have easier access to industry friends and resources for the growing band.
Of course, the quartet — which includes drummer Narsai Malik — has also come a long way musically since the days of Mayugba’s simple power chords and Roditis’ almost-spoken-word snarl on their early hit, “I Threw Glass at My Friend’s Eyes and Now I’m on Probation.†“Open Mouth, Open Heart†showed a massive jump in their range with tracks like “Escape,†“Ruins†and “All This Love,†a foundation the band builds further upon with the new release “Funeral Soundtrack #4.â€
“We don’t necessarily have an agenda when we go in and write stuff, it’s more just like whatever happens happens,†Mayugba said, seated around a classic diner booth with the rest of the band at Cindy’s in Eagle Rock. “Carlos [de la Garza, producer] made it more streamlined because he has such a specific sound and pop sensibility. I also like to think that as we get older, we’re listening to other bands now instead of listening to Green Day all the time.â€
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Latin folk music to the point where there’s times when I don’t want to listen to anything else,†Roditis adds, nestled in the corner between guitarist-drummer Malik. “Sometimes I’ll get really into bossa nova, but then I’ll go and listen to Chappell Roan and girly pop music.â€
While their love of bossa nova might not be immediately apparent on “Funeral Soundtrack #4,†Roditis’ growth as a singer and songwriter can be easily traced from one album to the next, as can Mayugba’s own singing and guitar work in addition to the birth of their newer rhythm section.
All of this comes together to give the new Destroy Boys album a more varied and complex sound and feel than their previous works and shows why lead single “Shadow (I’m Breaking Down)†was their first track to hit a Billboard chart.
With the exception of its most anticipated collaboration, “You Hear Yes†— featuring vocals from Marisa Dabice of Mannequin Pussy and Kat Moss of Scowl — nearly half of the album came out in a steady stream of singles leading up to the Aug. 9 release, giving fans the chance to hear the new version of Destroy Boys days, weeks and months before Hopeless Records dropped the full LP.
As the band hits the road across Europe this month and then all over North America later this fall, it’s already looking forward to seeing how those fans react to some of those tracks.
“I’m curious to see how people are going to react to the songs, because we have a couple of fast songs — ‘Muzzle’ being one of them — where people go cuckoo bananas,†Orozco says between bites of his sandwich. “‘Should’ve Been Me’ is going to be one of those I think.â€
“It’s got a bunch of scary sounds and stuff too, so we programmed a bunch of sirens and people talking gibberish and such into a little MIDI drum so we can use them live,†Mayugba adds. “I think it’s going to be a very spooky song to play live.â€
“I’m excited to play ‘Boyfeel’ and see how that goes,†Roditis says. “I can’t wait to play around with it and see what I can do. I hope I see people cry. They’re gonna be sobbing.â€
“Funeral Soundtrack #4†also marks a positive new moment for a lot of the band members as individuals. Whereas “Open Mouth, Open Heart†was largely constructed during a period of early-20s uncertainty about who they were and what Destroy Boys was about (not to mention the whole pandemic that was happening at that time), the new album comes with the certainty and authority that comes with each of them feeling more comfortable in their own skin.
While there might not be that many other punk bands fronted by nonbinary singers who write lyrics in both English and Spanish, the scene and overall industry seems to get more diverse and welcoming by the hour. Eventually, they hope the music world as a whole will stop comparing them to every other alternative band with non-male singers and guitarists, but for now, they’re happy building their own world with like-minded bands through events like their L.A.-based Destroy Fest, which happened at the Bellwether in downtown L.A. last March.
“It’s a cool movement in alternative music happening right now, and we want to facilitate that through shows like Destroy Fest,†Mayugba says. “That show was so fun.â€
“By the time we were sound checking, all the bands had arrived and it was like every direction you turned, it was a really good homie,†said Malik, the quietest member of the group, in between bites of a breakfast sandwich.
“Backstage, it was all friends,†Roditis concludes. “Every time I left the green room, I would end up kicking it for five minutes with someone I knew. We just love our friends. As we get more successful, we can bring our friends with us and keep doing that kind of thing. It’s way more fun to play shows with people you know. It makes it so much better. The energy is so on.â€
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