The Model Modern Day Riot Grrl: An Interview With Staz Lindes
by Lana Fleischli
Last month, I got to interview Staz Lindes of The Paranoyds! I love The Paranoyds. I think they are so cool, so this was a really exciting experience for me. I had such a great time speaking with her about music, growing up, and her double life of both music and modeling!
LF: I was just watching your music videos. I was just wondering if there's a lot of like-- how do you go about making a music video?
SL: I guess a lot of the times we find like the director first rather than like immediately have an idea for a song. I feel like that's how we've usually done it. I feel like we've tried to find someone we like and then we pitch the song and then they usually come up with like, a storyline. The way we have successfully done it, or it's been like so easy as we kind of have a lot of favors just being in LA. Like Lexi the lead guitarist, she's like an accountant at a production company, so sometimes she's able to pull like a bunch of tricks, so we are able to get like a lot of stuff like cheaper or whatever. Yeah, or we’ll like make stuff by hand, or I don't know, it's just once we find someone's like vision that we love, we kind of just create together I guess. And obviously like just because she's done like three of our videos now like we normally found Ambar Navarro is like “oh here's our person!” that is like-- I mean I'm constantly texting her all day about stupid stuff. We just send each other like stupid stuff on Instagram literally all day. So we just share this like mutual vision and I feel really lucky that we like found her.
LF: When I was watching videos, I saw that it was still the classic cut back to you playing music.
SL: Yeah she loves that! She just thinks that's the traditional way to do it. So she just loves it!
LF: Is it nice to have people able to play different instruments versus like, often times, with a lot of bands like this person plays this, this person plays this. Does it help that people are able to play different things?
SL: Yeah I feel like we're all like, just into the same kind of-- We're all kind of able to like create a mission together, I guess. With like, the music as well as when we want to make creative projects it's like we all kind of like, agree on the same vibes. Yeah mostly it’s like, David’s kind of like just mostly on drums and then Laila was mostly just on keyboard, but between me and Lexi, we switch between bass and guitar, so like, we get the extra perspective on it I guess in that sense.
LF: So when you were working on Carnage Bargain, what were the experiences that you took from to create and write it?
SL: Well it was kind of like, the final kind of big compilation of stuff we already released so it was like this grown-up version of these premature demos we'd done. I mean recording is really crazy it's such a different— it's interesting as a musician to like— you're a musician but like-- I don’t know there's just so much that comes with it that's so extremely different from each other like from playing shows to writing to recording to touring it's just like-- it’s kind of a lot for one thing, and like, just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you're good at the other thing either it's like I just I have a really hard time recording, and I really have a hard time with the vocabulary and I'm really insecure about it like it's it's just interesting. Like I love touring and I love playing shows and stuff, but that's like a whole other thing I wish I'd like to studied for when I was younger just like knowing what I like recording and stuff but I mean that was like a pretty consistent amount of sessions like we did it pretty back to back like everyone else had full-time jobs so we kind of had to only do it on like the the weeknights or weekends, but it was really fun and like, just having the freedom to like experiment with different sounds, and guitars, and stuff yeah I don't know it was just sort of like this grown-up experience compared to what we have been doing and it felt really serious and it I think it sounds like pretty serious to like just more like grown up... I mean I like it. I’m just like this crippled-- like crippling insecurity...I just want to keep getting better at it and keep like, learning honestly-- learning like the right vocabulary. If you say one thing wrong it throws the engineer off, and you're like “oh that's not what I meant at all.”
LF: What do you mean by “vocabulary”?
SL: Just like “distortion” or like no I want it to have like-- Honestly even that kind of stuff like, “I want to have more treble. I want it to have delay.” Or like, “ I want it to sound like blown-out,” or like, I don't know, just learning that I like my vocals like not only through a blown-out amp, but like I actually want to sing with the mic in my hand rather than in the [air]. And then you know what I mean? It's like this whole other learning experience. And it's also interesting, and like no disrespect I love everyone we've ever recorded with, but there’s like no female engineers so you've also got this like, you know, not like the guys we’ve recorded with are like mansplainers, but there is this like, I don't know; it might just be easier with a woman sometimes. And we just haven’t found that yet. But it's pretty shocking. It's like we just don't know any. We don’t know any female producers. We know one. Our friend Sammy, but we haven't gotten the chance to record with her yet. But yeah, I mean I definitely want to try that next time… Maybe I’m an idiot, but it feels like everyone we’ve talked to kinda feels the same way. And that’s totally not saying, like-- I love every man we've recorded with. They’ve all been super respectful and helpful. And like, I've learned so much but it is something just because you like, “why are we kind of a girl band, and like, we record with men?”
LF: Who inspires you musically?
SL: I remember in middle school you know when I first started just kind of start going to house shows, and like seeing not just like concerts my parents were taking me to I saw-- and I think Myspace like deleted all the music offline. I'm pretty sure you can't find this anymore, but for ages you still could. I went to the record store call Benway that was in Venice and then in Santa Monica and I saw this band Fallopian play. And I like went to-- I was like a freshman and they were like seniors, or maybe they're even like older than that maybe I didn't end up going to school with some of them, but there was his band Fallopian who are just like full- bad- but -good girl band and the other band was Lactaid Intolerant, which is another like Riot Grrl west side punk girl band that was just like-- I mean it just didn't even matter that it was like hard to listen to, it was just so cool and, they were so cool and they were just like pixie bleach style, like screaming and like-- I don't know that was like so crazy to me just like man like, “this is what cool is to me”, and like I want this so bad. That was like, pretty big and then I mean I kind of-- music kinda changed a lot after that kind of shifted from punk to like more like some singer-songwriter, like Rilo Kiley. Me and Laila were super obsessed with Jenny Lewis. Right before we started the band is like when like Shannon And The Clams got huge, and like we were obsessed with Shannon, and I mean we still are. Like we love Shannon And The Clams. I also was like super influenced by Kathleen Hanna when I was younger. That definitely shifted my like, perspective of not caring and like not needing to fit in the like cute girl box all the time. And like that's totally fine and your right to just do whatever you want and, like it doesn't matter if a guy approves of it or not. Because it's pretty crazy. I'm sure you still have the effects of it like in your time growing up, but like now and looking back on it and you probably see this too, just looking at ‘90s and 2000s stuff. So, I was like-- I was in middle school in 2005 and even looking back on stuff around then, it's so sexist still. I mean we had all those like teen movies, like all those prom movies where the girls are just like, blonde bimbos, and like I don't know it's just crazy. It was still very much just like, “girls are dumb blondes”, or what-- I don't know, “bimbos”, and so hearing like, Bikini Kill when I was like twelve was like, mind-blowing. And then, fast forward, in our scene, there is like a lot of really cool girl stuff happening. Like we love this group called La Femmra, and now she’s called Femme and does more of a like, sort of I don't know how to explain that-- poppier, I guess. And French Vanilla, who is female fronted, is definitely my favorite band in LA. We were lucky enough to have Allison Wolfe kind of like, around a lot when she's doing Sex Stains. And Sex Stains was like, so dope! So sad that they broke up. But that was a band that we were going to see all the time when we first started playing, and she's just so cool to have around cuz she's just like royalty. Riot Grrrl royalty just hanging around LA. Yeah, I’m sure I’m forgetting something! But after this big thing happened in the summer of like, basically the dismantling of the LA music scene, it was really interesting to just realize how much of a patriarchy it still was. Like we were still seeing male bands all the time playing in all-male lineups and we were obviously this like token female fronted band a lot of the time. Which was fine, like I love music, and I love art and like it doesn't really matter to me unless you know, they're horrible people. But doesn't matter what gender you identify as. It was just interesting to be like, you know, we don't know any female producers, we don't know any female engineers. We're always in these guy lineups, and we were always kind of like, striving to play to tour with those like, Burger bands. It was like that was like you know you're going to make it big if like, maybe The Growlers asked you to open on tour for them. We didn’t even listen to The Growlers. We didn’t care about them. Why were we so interested in that, you know? But it was just the leverage of it. I don’t know… So yeah, it's definitely interesting to like-- and then I talked to friends now and they're like, “ I was never into the scene that was in LA”. It was always like that. Like obvious to them and I was so in it, I didn’t realize. You know there's another female musician like I've always really like to call Lauren Early and we both started kind of releasing bedroom recordings in high school and then we reconnected like 5 or 6 years ago in New York and she's played in like Surf Curse and Girlpool. Oh, Girlpool is a huge one too that we love! She's really rad too!
LF: Yeah that's like so cool cuz I have a similar experience with like Bikini Kill and that whole thing because I saw Bikini Kill play like a couple years ago with my friend. It was so inspiring, because it’s like the thing you mentioned about the movies, and how sexist they are. It’s so true!
SL: Yeah it's it's definitely a lot to like, obviously I don't know how healthy it is to do this to yourself all the time, but when you get to see everything written out on the internet like everyday, like why this thing that you thought was normal was not or like, could potentially be harmful-- you know what I mean? It's like really shocking. I feel like we're particularly like, complacent here in America, and we're just like-- like not really paying attention all the time. We're just so focused on like these new trends. Like “oh! This is trendy now! It makes sense, this is the new trend.” Instead of being like, “wait what is this and who is running it” and like, you know what I mean?
LF: We are also told that we have it better than the rest of the world because we have a “free country”, but like, we still see the effects of how racism is in America and how sexism is really ingrained in American society…Well that was the other thing you mentioned. Like what do you think when it comes to sexism or any issue really? What’s something in the music industry or in the-- because you model right? So, in any of the industries that you work in. Is there like something that is just like, “oh wow that's crazy” that you wish you could change?
SL: Yeah I mean it's just men everywhere they're just like, they're just at the top everywhere it's really crazy. Like the amount of times you even get like a female sound guy-- sound lady-- sound check person-- person- doing- sound for your show, is like maybe like three two or three times on like the whole tour out of like, whatever 15 venues is like the rest are just disgruntled males and you kind of just-- I don't know it's weird. It's just all men like running all the venues and, like I said before it's basically every band we were trying to get leverage opening for is like male and I kind of thought like well, music is such a hormonal thing. It's your sexual preference you know. But like if you're a girl attracted to men, like it's just hot watching a guy play music. It just is. And like I think that we kind of miss out on that hormonal experience unless there's like girls that like watching girls too. And like unfortunately, we get a lot of creepy old men because they feel like they're-- like their attitude at the merch table is just like, “Yeah I came to your show. What what do I get?” or like “I'm still hot because I'm like, relevant coming to this younger girl band show.” Like it's a pretty gross seeing that dynamic and obviously that's when foul play comes in too. Guys who were like probably losers in high school get a band in their twenties and then high school girls they couldn't get see them playing think they're hot and then they take advantage of those girls you know which sucks a lot and then I mean with a yeah I don't know it's crazy even our music Booker [is] a guy and like we don't have management, but you know our like, label guy is a guy is just like it's a lot of men everywhere and I think there's just always kind of hovering, lingering, thing of like, “Oh! That’s cool. Women are doing their thing, but like, we’re still gonna be running the show.” It’s crazy! And then, with modeling for example, it's like I just did this job last week for like a big hair campaign. Like a major beauty company, and they're like doing my hair and they’re like, “Hey what's up man!”-- The guy who [is] doing my hair is like, “What's up man!” This guy walks by and he’s like, “I'm good like blah blah blah” and then like he’s like, “oh my god that’s the president of the company!” And I was like, “It’s a guy?” he's like yeah, but it's like, it’s a woman hair brand! You know what I mean? And similarly, I had a beauty contract for YSL, it was just like all men and they-- like yes gay men which is amazing, but it's like, you know they would take a photo of me and I'm like a bunch of older men would stand around looking at the photo and be like, “This isn't a rock and roll enough” or whatever. And you're just like, “You're not wearing the makeup.” It just like really surprised me, and even four or five years later during the company the other day you're just like, “Why is it a dude in a flannel running this like woman-- the main customer is a woman [brand]?”-- I don't know how to say that like mostly-female driven. It's just like I don't know it's weird, it's really weird and then it's probably safe to assume that if the guy is straight there's probably a woman running the show behind him too.
LF: He’s the one profiting off of it.
SL: Totally. Like somehow I know a chick is like giving him all the best advice, and telling him what to do, and he wouldn't be where he would be without her...I mean I think that I don't know. I'm curious to see what the future will do, because I think there's this stigma that is so ingrained into our being of just like, “You know that you're going to have to take life seriously and settle down at some point.” I think that like really messes up our creative freedom sometimes. It's just like, “Yeah the music is cool, but like I know I'm going to need to like, be an adult soon and like I need to come up with a plan B that actually pays.” Whereas men are just like “Woooo! I have all this time. I'm going to be young forever! I’m gonna stay on couches and steal from my girlfriend until I make it!” you know it's like I just feel like we have like, such a more mature-- I don't know.
LF: How do you connect like both of your modeling and your music? Do you put them together, or are they just separate?
SL: I think that the only place they meet is if I get creative expression out of modeling which is pretty rare it's like mostly if that happens then it's probably like either a super low paying job or just like one that doesn't pay it all they say editorial or like doing just like a test for fun otherwise it's like extremely commercial. Obviously I try to bring my soul into it somehow so I don't look soulless in a photo, but like most of the time it's like I'm definitely just like, modeling whatever I'm not really using too much of my creative parts and like there's definitely times where like, if I consistently model for a while it's fine whatever but I don't realize how much it's not my purpose until I play a show or even just like this with the band where I'm like, “Okay this is like what I meant to do. This is what I'm good at no one can do this like I'm doing it.” I’m sure I'm not that great at it, but like this is so specifically me to a core you know what I mean? It's like my full expression. Like even if that's not like technically or like whatever actually that good cuz I kind of plateaued a long time ago on music playing abilities, but yeah. That's if I can be creative with modeling but unfortunately that's like not that common and also I kind of like there's definitely stuff I do with modeling where I'm just like, “Ooh, I hope like my fans-- our music fans like don't see me do this you know what I mean when I say this is like really like-- But it’s kind of like my Hannah Montana thing! It’s like my split world. Like, you can dress me in all this crazy designer stuff and I get treated like a princess and like flown out somewhere and then I'm like sleeping on the floor next week like on tour you know it's like a totally different life and I don't I don't like, talk about it I'll never like, “Oh like we can't stand this hotel!” I just like fucking switch over like that's all it is. Take the wig off.
LF: Well which one did you get into first?
SL: Well, I guess they've always kind of like been around.I started learning bass and guitar when I was like 11. And then I didn't really start modeling until I was like 16, but I didn't actually start playing shows and have a band until I was like 23. So it's just been like a long kind of split personality that wasn't really like, fully developed on either side for like a long time. I guess it makes sense because my mom modeled, and then my dad is a musician, so it's kind of like-- they both were like, “You can do modeling and you use you should do music.” So I just kind of had like, an interest in both.
LF: You and your brother are both in bands. How do you think growing up around music really influenced you?
SL: My dad just pushed it so hard on us-- not in a scary way. Just like, “You’re really going to regret not learning this and do you really need to learn this!” It's funny cuz I don't think he ever was like, “This can be your like main thing,” but he obviously had success with it. I think that's extremely rare now to like, actually be able to survive off of being a musician, but I think he more so just like it's like learning a language. He was just like, “You really need to do it.” I started cello. My brother was on cello too in the beginning, and then we switched over to electric we both kind of playing bass and guitar. Obviously I wanted to be kind of like, independent-- like I wasn't getting my dad to get me guitar lessons, or like sometimes I would ask him how to play a chord or whatever like, “how to play this is Nirvana song” but he was really supportive, but not like in an aggressive scary way. It was just like, “Your future is bright” kind of vibe. “You have this ability and you're born with it you should nurture it and see what happens but also like maybe have a plan B I guess,” yeah.
LF: What has helped you to continue being motivated and creative past year?
SL: It's been really hard like we weren't practicing like for ages. Well okay we started practicing again like sometime in the spring maybe. It must’ve been mid- April. In like May I think we went to San Francisco and recorded at Tiny Telephone which has since closed their San Francisco locations, so we were kinda one of the last last bands in there. We recorded like, 7 songs in like 5 days, and we slept at the studio, which was like a dream. I mean that's like, full old-school Rolling Stones style. We are so used to developing via shows. Like we bring a new song out with “Here's a new one!” and we like, see how people react or like “Oh I really didn’t like hearing that live”, or “Ooh I really didn’t like this bass part live.” Or like, “ I heard the chorus a different way, so let’s adjust it.” But these songs we brought to Tiny Telephone were just like brand new. We’re like, “oh, we’ll just develop it while we’re recording it.” That’s like, classic. That’s how people do it. You know, let's try it that way, and I mean it was definitely like a interesting way to do it, and the way we felt afterwards they sounded amazing, but obviously we’re so critical right now I think that's probably the worst part about it is that once you record something it's not like you can get like outside perspective on it you're just like sitting in your car listening to it and you just start to hate it. Kind of you know you get really critical and you get really in your head, and your like, “oh man! Does it sound too much like ‘this’? This doesn’t sound like--” I think our biggest thing was that this doesn’t sound like us anymore. Which is fine you know-- bands to change it up, and stuff like that but it was really like swapping genres, which is fine, but you know-- a bit shocking and something to adapt to. And then so far we've only released one of those songs and it was the “Hotel Celebrity” song. We did the music video for and then we kind of just like all kind of didn't feel like it's the right time to release new music like it's really hard to spend all this money and all this time, and then just put it straight online it's like seems getting it stuck on an algorithm that doesn't push it to anybody except the same like 50 people or whatever. And maybe we’re totally wrong for that, but as an artist it’s really scary to think that the only way I can do anything with this is to upload it on the internet. And then we were in kind of a groove of like, jamming all the time, and just doing it old school. It had been a while since we were able to just jam in practice because we had so many things going on of like “oh, we can’t just jam. We need to practice for the show that's Tuesday or whatever or like, tour or like it was like, “okay we have nothing going on. Let's just play like we used to play before we had shows ever.” And the numbers surged again and like nobody was comfortable meeting anymore. Now months have gone by. But I think we're going to start getting back into it now it's just hard to because this whole thing is like so enabling. I feel like our generation is like “oh you need us to just stay home and watch TV okay!” You know what I mean? We’re not like, “Screw this! Let’s figure it out!” It's just like, “Alright. I guess I'll just stay home” You know? So it’s just been really hard to get that motivation going. Last year I did this really good thing for like-- But like for like a month I was like, “just write”-- (not even a month. It was like five days) “just write something everyday! Even if it’s a chord progression you’ve heard a million times. Like such an eyeroll chord progression whatever just do it just use that same chord progression you just write like a folk song every single day.” And I did it for 5 days and it was really cool, and then I stopped that. And then I didn't write for a really long time and it's also really hard to not write about pandemic it's like...And then I wrote a song in December that literally just like mentions quarantine and like I just recorded that with my friend. Didn't do anything with it. And now I kind of been like working on stuff with that girl Lauren Early I mentioned I like. It’s just so lazy here! It's weird to be this age during this cuz you're kind of like reassessing and wondering if it is your life purpose to do what you're doing. And like, maybe you don't like it or-- I don't know! We've only done like a couple live streams with The Paranoyds, and I don't know... It's a shitty time! I think the biggest thing honestly is just like, I've been going to shows like I said, since I was like, a kid. So I just really miss going to shows. It's like not even so much like obviously we missed playing. We were meant to tour this whole time, but I just need that so bad I need to see music. I need to be there. I need to see the fans. I need to see how people react to it. I just need it so badly in like not having that it's just left this like super bummer thing in my life.