Destroy Boys have released a new single, “Beg For The Torture,” via Hopeless Records.  Produced by Carlos de la Garza (Bad Religion, Paramore, The Linda Lindas), It is one minute and 25 seconds of the band’s signature punk rock female empowerment and marks the trio’s first bit of new music since 2021. “‘Beg For The Torture’ is about being confused, like a lot of DB songs that came before it. However, this one is elevated heavily with new musical dynamics, and I think it conveys my feelings better than ever before,” says the band’s Vi Mayugba, “I wrote my part of the lyrics about going back and forth between resentment and adoration for a person. I often find myself in entanglements with people that I shouldn’t be in, and this song is a perfect representation of that. It encapsulates my feelings of obsession, rage, desperation, and catapulting between feeling like the sexiest woman alive and a neglected child’s plaything. Sometimes my crushes make me feel like the girl who is bound to die first in an 80s horror movie – this song represents that.”

Punk Rock might have been the force that brought Destroy Boys together but it’s far from the only touchstone for their music. From their first record through the present, they have continued to write and sing about what they know. School drama and elitist cliques encountered in their teens have given way to the pain of relationships and the inherent feelings of misunderstanding and isolation that is all too common for young people navigating a hybrid of real and digital worlds.

Started in 2015 by Sacramento teens Alexia Roditis and Violet Mayugba while they were still in high-school, initially the band released several home recordings as their lineup evolved. Destroy Boys’ first proper record, Sorry Mom remains a classic for the band’s fans, having spawned their underground hit “I Threw Glass At My Friend’s Eyes and Now I’m On Probation.” The follow up record, Make Room was tracked in just 4 days and yielded favorites such as “Crybaby” and “Duck Eat Duck World” (later featured on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack).

Adding drummer Narsai Malik to the fold in 2018, Destroy Boys began to tour in earnest, venturing as far as the UK, opening for numerous up-and-coming indie bands. As their own songs took off on Spotify and Tik Tok they signed with LA Punk/Emo label Hopeless Records in 2020. Working with Philly producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Braid) their first Hopeless release was the snarling, one minute ripper, “Muzzle.”  The eventual LP Open Mouth, Open Heart, released in late 2021 chronicled a band dealing with familiar pandemic-frustration and the rise of online gossip and bullying, and they dealt with these head on with songs ranging from “Escape” to “Locker Room Bully.”

Photo Courtesy: Ambar Navarro