Destroy Boys

The title of Destroy Boys’ new album, Funeral Soundtrack #4, might seem like a bit of playful irony but the California band is being quite literal. “Looking back, our first three albums marked the deaths of things,” says guitarist Violet Mayugba. “They were soundtracks to our funerals, whether they were for our ag es, our mental states. We’ve gone through a lot of changes as a band
and as people.”

Destroy Boys formed in 2015, when founding members Mayugba and Alexia Roditis were just 15
years old, and each release has marked a period of growth and change. “The first one was our
high school album,” Mayugba explains. “On the second record, we went to college and were
saying goodbye to our childhood. On the third one, we’d just gone through COVID and, speaking
for myself, I lost my entire sense of self and gained a new one.”

Now, at 24, Mayugba and Roditis are standing firmly on solid ground with their fourth album,
more resolute and confident than ever in their place as musicians. “With Funeral Soundtrack #4, I’m done being walked all over. I’m done being taken advantage of by people in the music industry and by people I date. I’m done doing what other people tell me to do,” Roditis says.

Funeral Soundtrack #4 was recorded over 2023 with Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, The Linda
Lindas, Best Coast) and pushes Destroy Boys into new sonic territories. It’s still grounded in the band’s punk rock roots but leans into the members’ more eclectic influences, like salsa and bossanova. de la Garza also helped highlight their gothier inspirations, like the Smiths, Cocteau Twins, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Roditis’s voice, which was often buried in the chaos of their previous work, shines through more ever, and flexes an impressively wider range. “Something we’ve always prided ourselves on is making very clear ascensions and leaps with every record,” Mayugba says. “We’re in pursuit of that greatest, biggest sound.”

Themes of adulthood, maturity, and love run through
Funeral Soundtrack #4. Many of the album’s songs had been in the works for years, and fill in the gaps of Destroy Boys’ catalog. “It really feels like this album is a culmination of the last four years of writing music,” Roditis says. “Boyfeel,” a song Roditis started writing at 17, sees them exploring their evolving relationship with gender nonconformity, while “Shadow (I’m Breaking Down),” the band’s first song to chart on Alternative Radio, delves into the Jungian idea of the shadow self. “I’ve seen a lot of people on TikTok talking about confronting your shadow, but when you see stuff like that on the internet, it doesn’t go into the depths of that concept. I really wanted to put together my thoughts on the shadow side and also talk about mental health in a way that I haven’t heard in a song before,” they say. Standout single “Plucked” decisively proves Destroy Boys can craft a perfect rock hook, and Roditis belts out a Spanish love song on “Amore Divino.” Hardcore ripper “Beg for the Torture” marks the first song on which Mayugba and Roditis pull dual vocal duties, trading scathing verses back and forth, an approach which takes influence from Sleater Kinney. On “You Hear Yes,” the band teams up with fellow powerhouses, Scowl’s Kat Moss and Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice, to share experiences of male harassment. “It’s funny because we always used to get labeled as a feminist punk band, but we don’t actually sing about that very often,” Roditis says. “So on this record we wanted to make a very blatant fuck the patriarchy song.”

Destroy Boys have gained a ton of ground in the music scene over the last few years, touring with giants acts like Pierce the Veil, blink-182, and Alkaline Trio, and playing reputable festivals around the world, like Coachella, Riot Fest, and Pukkelpop. And they’ve done it all while vehemently kicking against the aspirational guilt that has historically been ingrained in the fabric of punk rock. “There’s so much shame in punk about wanting to succeed and wanting to
play music for the rest of your life,” Mayugba says. “And I feel like women in rock are especially shamed for that, where our pursuit of greatness is looked down upon even more so. And we reject that so outwardly. We’ve always wanted to be the biggest band ever. We don’t want to be a club band. We want that stadium sound.”

Funeral Soundtrack #4 captures Destroy Boys at their most evolved self, miles ahead of the scrappy, teenage sound that a new generation of rock fans fell in love with on their 2016 debut Sorry, Mom, but the record never loses the band's identity in the process.

“Funeral Soundtrack #4 is our best record yet, no question, but it’s still authentic,” Mayugba says. “It’s more presentable, it’s hookier, it’s more palatable, but it's also real Destroy Boys.”