A few weeks ago, The Linda Lindas, a band of teen and pre-teen punk rockers, went viral with a performance of “Racist Sexist Boy.” It turns out that was more than just a big internet moment: Not long after it happened, the girls signed to Epitaph Records, and last night, they were on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On the show, they turned in a raucous performance of their famous chat and also chatted with Kimmel.
Kimmel asked for the backstory behind the song and 10-year-old drummer and singer Mila said, “The backstory is that a boy from school told me that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people, and I told him that I was Chinese and he backed away from me.” 13-year-old bassist and singer Eloise added, “There’s also a lot of sexism around boys our age. […] So we were really angry and we decided to write a song about it.”
When the band signed with Epitaph, they shared some other statements about the song and its impact. Eloise said, “We knew the song would get a good reaction, but we never imagined this. Even though we started the band for fun, now it feels we can actually make a difference with what we’re doing.” Lucia also noted, “People have reached out to us from all over the world — we get a lot of messages from little girls, but we also get messages from grandmothers. We always hope that the music we put out will inspire other young girls, but we also want it to make anyone feel like they can do anything, no matter what age they are.”
Watch The Linda Lindas on Kimmel above.