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Photo – Matty Vogel

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Interview with
VIOLET MAYUGBA and
ALEXIA RODITIS
from
DESTROY BOYS

(18th July, 2024)

Interview with Dan Gray

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DAN: Hey everybody, it’s Dan Gray from Amplify here. We’re here with Destroy Boys all the way from Sacramento. But I hear they’re in Los Angeles now. Do you want to introduce yourself? What instruments do you play in Destroy Boys?
ALEXIA: Hi, I’m Alexia and I sing in the band. I also play guitar, but I’m not going to be playing guitar live anymore, which is pretty exciting.
VIOLET: My name is Violet, or Vi. I play lead guitar in Destroy Boys and I also sing a little tiny baby bit.

DAN: Okay, awesome. So I’ve got some icebreaker questions for you. What’s one random topic you’ve gotten really obsessed with recently?
VIOLET: Mine is like pretty foul. But I’ve been reading a lot about Japanese war crimes.There’s like a lot. There’s a lot of war crimes everywhere. The American ones are too long, but the Japanese ones are really interesting. I was reading about that a lot recently.

DAN: Okay interesting, what would you say, Alexia, for yours?
ALEXIA: I’ve been getting really into Trixie and Katya from the Drag Queens. They do a show called The Bald and the Beautiful. And not exactly a topic, but people of interest. And so I’ve been getting pretty into them. I’m not like huge drag race person, so it’s kind of new for me to like some drag queens.
VIOLET: The polarity in those topics haha.

DAN: Speaking of polarity, what’s one really great food you’ve had overseas recently? Like some food you’ve had, which has been a highlight for you.
ALEXIA: I went to El Salvador recently and has this fish that seemingly just got pulled off the beach and fried, it was amazing. That is mine.

DAN: Okay, that’s good.
VIOLET: I had a very very delicious sandwich in Poland. It was like a chickpea salad sandwich that I loved and I enjoyed very much. My second favorite steak I’ve ever had was in Brighton UK at The Coal shed. It was delicious.

DAN: Okay, awesome. All right, I’m going to jump into some of questions. So you came from a high school acoustic duo. Where did the idea come from to be in a punk rock band?
VIOLET: Me. I wanted to be in a punk rock band really bad. I’ve been in a couple of other ones where we covered Green Day and Blink 182 songs and they were not good. And then I heard Alexia sing and I was like, bro, eventually we have to add drums to this. This is sick. And it just went on and on and on from there.
ALEXIA: Yeah. And I’d also gone to a bunch of punk shows and I was like, you know what? All right. That’s cool. That looks cool. I can do that.

DAN: Who were some of your favorite local bands you saw when you’re growing up?
ALEXIA: A band called RAT, It was cool. Crude Studs is really good. Death Rogen was big for me. Yard party, yes. This isn’t a local band but No Parents, we saw them at Gellman Street a lot. DAN: Sounds good. I love the American punk scene. I don’t even know that many American punk bands, but the ones I do love are The Oh Sees.

DAN: This is a funny question, if you had to use a food to describe the sound of Destroy Boys. What do think you would say?
VIOLET: Curry.
ALEXIA: What kind?
VIOLET: Indian curry because there’s so much stuff that goes into it that you wouldn’t think would be in there. It’s just this very homogenous thing that’s delicious and you can’t identify all the flavors in it.

DAN: Let’s go with the curry, that’s a good one. So when I first came across you guys, I didn’t realize you were so successful. I was looking at your Spotify and I was quite blown away.
ALEXIA: Thank you.

DAN: Why do think people resonate with your music so much?
ALEXIA: I think because we’re like brutally honest in the lyrics and in the songwriting itself. I feel like both of us do this, but I’ll speak for myself. Even when I’m writing a guitar part, I try to emulate whatever feeling it is that I want to convey like right from the beginning. So I feel like part of it is like the raw vulnerability and just like the boldness of just like saying what it is.
VIOLET: Yeah, Agreed. I think we write about a lot of topics too. Our first album came out when we were 16. So we write about dealing with high school stuff and then up to like adult problems now too.
ALEXIA: I also think that we make like a wide variety of music within rock. We have different sounding rock songs and so I kind of feel like there’s something for everybody as well.

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DAN: I’m curious to hear more about your influences. So you’ve released the single ‘Boy Feel’ quite recently. What was the inspiration behind that song?
ALEXIA: The inspiration behind that song was being like, damn, like, do I want to cut my hair and be a man? No. But like, do I feel like a woman? Like, no, not that either. And so that song was partially me trying to figure it out and try and like, convey my feelings and understand myself a little more. Yeah. It came together like really quickly. I finished it a couple of years after realizing I was non-binary. So yeah, the song is about gender nonconformity.

DAN: That’s interesting. I want to touch on that a little bit more. The new album is representing a different phase in your life. Like each album has represented a different phase. What’s this new phase about? What phase is that representing for you personally?
ALEXIA: I feel like this phase is about being an independent adult who actually gets to do the things that they want to do. Even the transition between 18 to 22, being in college it feels like I had just started to walk as as a adult. And so now with this album, it kind of feels I can walk instead of crawl just kind of like realize, wait, I do have complete control over my life right now. So kind of like realizing independence almost.

DAN: Yeah, that’s good. Were there any personal practices or habits you got into through your youth that shaped the mindset of this album?
VIOLET: I mean, bad ones haha. Bad ones for sure, my personal writing on this record was about letting go of the bad habits that I’ve had over the years.
ALEXIA: I journal a lot. That’s something that I’ve done since I was a teenager and before that. So feel like that’s always been really helpful. Also, when I have a feeling I tend to write a song about it or something happens, I write a song about it. Like I try to take my thoughts out of my brain and put it into a song. That’s something I do pretty regularly.

DAN: Interesting. Yeah. So in terms of influences, I noticed it says something about more Latin influences on this album. So who are your influences outside of punk rock?
ALEXIA: Mercedes Sosa, Lo Votres has a couple albums that I really like. Honestly, just going on Spotify and searching up Bossa Nova jazz mix or Cinematic French afternoons or whatever, like that kind of thing. And other things, I also like feel very influenced by like Rina Sawayama.
Another one is Sylvia Rodriguez. Those are kind of the more like Latin influences that I have.
VIOLET: I listen to a lot of hardcore music. I really love bands like Gulch and Scowl. I also love Nu Metal. I love Deftones and Korn so much. So that was like a big influence for me.
I love a band called Gloss. They’re not around anymore, which is awful, but they influenced me a lot in my vocal performance and in my songwriting. I also listen to a good amount of pop lately. I’ve been listening to lot of 2000s pop, to be honest. Like Kesha, like weird radio Disney hits. But just like almost studying them as like a songwriter’s handbook, you know, being like, wow, like how did this team of 13 writers write a song?

DAN: It sounds like you’ve got a lot of different influences. In terms of live events coming up, anything that you’re really excited for? I was actually looking at your dates last night. It looks like incredible, the festivals and stuff you have coming up. Anything you’re really looking forward to out of those dates?
ALEXIA: Okay. Yeah. I forgot that the Milwaukee thing, I knew it was Harley Davidson related, but I hadn’t connected the dots on motorcycles. And I don’t know shit about motorcycles except that I love being on a motorcycle. And so I’m really excited to be there because, someone’s got to be able to give me a ride around. Would be sick to get some free rides. I’m excited for our headline shows, connecting with our fans and having local political groups come out and speak. So excited to coordinate that.

DAN: Did you say something about a political group?
ALEXIA: Yeah, I have mutual aid groups, come and speak at our shows. Usually they do a table and then they come speak so that people can have a group to go volunteer with. And it’s just a nice way to politicize the show without having to take on all of that as I’m playing.

DAN: Yeah, got it. Yeah. Interesting. Do think you’ll make your way down to Australia anytime soon?
VIOLET: Probably. Maybe.

DAN: Sounds good, any massive goals on your bucket list for the future that been thinking about or are you just really happy and enjoying the journey?
ALEXIA: Play South America.
VIOLET: I want to get nominated for a Grammy. 

DAN: That sounds awesome, well, you’ve come a long way. I’m keen to hear more about your journey. Thanks so much for your time. Have a great rest of your day.
VIOLET: Thank you so much.
ALEXIA: Nice to meet you. All the best.

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PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE “FUNERAL SOUNDTRACK #4”

Funeral Soundtrack #4
tracklist

1. Bad Guy
2. Plucked
3. Beg For The Torture
4. Praying
5. Amor divino
6. Shadow (I’m Breaking Down)
7. Shedding Skin
8. Should’ve Been Me
9. You Don’t Know
10. You Hear Yes (feat. Mannequin Pussy and Scowl)
11. Boyfeel

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Follow DESTROY BOYS
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Spotify

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Press Release 7th June 2024 (below) HERE

DESTROY BOYS
announce new album
FUNERAL SOUNDTRACK #4

Watch the video for new song
‘BOYFEEL’

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AMNPLIFY – DB