ICYMI: #WomanCrushWednesday IG Live featuring Destroy Boys

BY LAURA HARPER/WWR Staff Writer

While the music industry can be notoriously tough for young female musicians to navigate, this challenge has done nothing to hinder the growing success of punk band Destroy Boys.

Destroy Boys formed in Sacramento, California in 2015 and is currently comprised of members Alexia Roditis on vocals, Violet Mayugba on guitar, and Narsai Malik on drums. Roditis and Mayugba met through a mutual friend when they were only 15 years old, and after expressing their shared interest in starting a band, Destroy Boys was formed within six months of their first meeting. Today, the band has over 40 million streams on Spotify.

Both Roditis and Mayugba find their music styles to be influenced by a wide variety of artists and genres, yet they both have a love of the punk that initially inspired them to want to pursue music in their careers.

Like many artists, Destroy Boys can credit some of their success to their growing popularity on social media. In particular, they began to notice a spike in their stream counts when one of their songs called “Probation” started circulating on TikTok after a fan uploaded the song’s audio to the platform.

Despite their success on social media, Roditis and Mayugba acknowledge the importance of unplugging and stepping away every now and then, especially since social media scrolling can turn into a huge time suck.

“I’m trying to be very present in our lives,” Mayugba said.

When the COVID-19 global pandemic put a temporary halt on live performances, Roditis and Mayugba took the time to separate from their music a little bit and focus on themselves. However, now that the world is slowly starting to reopen, Destroy Boys spent some time earlier this year finishing up their next album and will be announcing more information regarding that release in the coming weeks. They also currently have a couple shows scheduled, including performances in Anaheim, California in August and at the Sad Summer Festival at Stage AE in Pittsburgh in September.

Destroy Boys has also recently signed to Hopeless Records and said they are excited to release new music under this label and perform live shows again, in which they will be working with various organizations to make their shows more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

Despite their many successes, Destroy Boys’ journey has not been without challenges. They said their most common struggle is that people often do not take them seriously, due to either their genre of choice or people perceiving them as a “girl band.” While they want to embrace that label, they do not want to be defined by it.

In particular, Mayugba says they have had experiences with men attempting to explain to them how their own equipment works, and one man who waited until the end of a Destroy Boys set just to tell them that they played a Nirvana cover incorrectly.

“The fact that we are looked at as a ‘girl band’ instead of just a band is frustrating,” Roditis said.

For more on Destroy Boys, you can check out the entire interview on the @OfficialWomenWhoRock IGTV channel on Instagram.