The singer embraces female empowerment and authenticity on a mature, uncompromising record.
Wearing a long-sleeved band t-shirt and olive green baggy pants with her long brown locks down and signature eyeliner kept sharp, pop-punk singer Maggie Lindemann, 24, looks relaxed as she continues to promote her debut album “Suckerpunch.” Eating McDonald’s chicken nuggets during the chat, Lindemann is chill, friendly, and open when discussing what led her to shift her sound to align with her own musical inspirations in 2020. With her hand tattoos on display, black nail polish, and overall rocker vibe, this look may seem “dark” to those who knew her in her pop era but this is who she’s always been.
Hailing from Dallas, TX, Lindemann initially burst onto the scene as a pop artist with her 2016 breakout hit “Pretty Girl.” A step up from her debut EP Paranoia— which contains vulnerable hits “Crash and Burn” and “Knife Under My Pillow”— “Sucker Punch” sees Lindemann chronicle her journey to self-actualization and finding her voice with a lens of honesty and vulnerability about her anxieties, insecurities, and obsessions. Over the course of 15 tracks, Lindemann strikingly discusses subjects such as breaking stereotypes, unrequited love, and toxicity, flexing her mature vocals, elevated songwriting, and ability to tap into universal emotions throughout the record. Lindemann first stepped into her shift towards rock in 2018 with the No-Doubt-influenced track “Friends Go”, remixed with pop-punk legend Travis Barker. As she states in the closing track “Cages” she can now “live her life” and fully embrace who she is.
Lindemann sat down with New Noise to discuss her new album, writing about toxic relationships, and taking control of her career and music.
Tell me about your path to making pop-punk music. This is a pivot from “Pretty Girl” and breaks away from the Instagram influencer label that was put on you before as well as the pop music listeners are used to hearing from you.
I don’t care about that shit anymore. Honestly, I’m an artist, my whole life is music. Like, every single day I’m getting texts from my manager about music. I go on tours. I make music every single day. I’m at the point now where it’s kind of like I’m just doing what I want to do and if you don’t fuck with it, you don’t have to, cool. But I’m over the whole — because I get it every now and then— ‘ oh, she makes music, whoa, ‘I only follow her because she’s pretty.’ Honestly, it’s fine. You don’t have to like my music if you’re not open to it, it’s fine. But I love making music and this album is everything to me.
What brought you to the decision to transition to rock in the first place?
So I always wanted to make alternative music. But then I got signed when I was 17 and got kind of pushed into to this bubblegum pop vibe. Once I got out of that label deal and had this crazy experience in Asia that kind of opened my eyes and made me realize ‘if I’m not doing what I want to do, then why am I doing this?’ This is supposed to be a dream job and it’s not a dream. I feel like I’m actually working all the time. And it’s not supposed to feel like that. Like, this is what I love, you know? So I was like fuck it, I’m just gonna do exactly what I want. And that [is to] make this type of music and it’s the music I grew up listening to.
My whole family is super [into] rock. We don’t listen to pop that much. There was Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, but those were the only pop singers we really listened to. It’s just who I am.
What’s the inspiration behind your latest single “Self Sabotage”?
I just self-sabotage a lot. A lot of times, when I have good situations going on, [I] tend to ruin them, I think, to protect myself from the potential hurt in the future. And at the time I wrote it, I was doing that really badly. I was just in this relationship, and I just kept begging for fights. Like, such as wanting to fight and wanting to make things complicated when things were really good. So I know I do it a lot. I decided to write a song about it.
“Girl Next Door” is a song that taps into your storytelling abilities, something that fans may not be used to seeing from you. What prompted you to write it?
Basically, it was me looking at myself from an outsider’s perspective. It was just watching myself kind of fall down this hole and seeing it and hearing people talking. But it is what it is. Everyone goes through these moments where you kind of don’t recognize yourself and you’re a different person. You’re all grown up and you just don’t recognize who you are anymore. And I’m slowly realizing that I’m coming to the realization of it all. It’s just seeing it from a distance and then finally realizing like, wait, I’m losing myself a little bit.
“How Could You Do This To Me?’ featuring Sleeping With Sirens frontman Kellin Quinn was your first standalone single of 2022. How did you end up collaborating with him?
So I’m a huge fan of Kellin [Quinn] and I talked a lot about him in interviews and said he’s a big influence to me. Sleeping With Sirens is my favorite band ever. So I said that a couple of times, which got his attention. And we talked a little bit and he had reached out a super long time ago telling me he liked “ Pretty Girl” randomly. And then I started making more of this music. I just reached out and said ‘I really want to do a song. Like, you’re my favorite artist ever.’ And he was like ‘Fuck, yeah!’ And that was that.
He’s been super supportive and he’s working with so many cool new artists. And it’s always cool to see that because, you know, some people aren’t as welcoming, I guess. And he’s been really welcoming.
“She Knows It” is a tune that makes so many LGBTQIA+ girls and women feel seen. What inspired the single?
Liking a girl that had a boyfriend, lol
In my opinion, the album sees you go on this emotional journey of self-discovery, figuring out your own voice and accepting yourself. What would you say the whole album’s message is?
I mean, I named it sucker punch because it felt like a bunch of unexpected blows, like the whole time like punches, mentally and emotionally. But everything’s kind of about something different. It was just the emotional journey I was on at the time and all the things I was going through in life.
You’re one of the new voices in the pop-punk scene, where young women can sometimes not be welcomed. What’s your experience in the pop-punk scene been like?
It’s crazy because I’ve been really welcomed by a lot of artists, especially make artists in the scene. Not to say any women in the scene have not been welcoming, but there is, I think in any genre of music, this [idea of] women aren’t as welcoming to other women because they’re seen as competition. I guess I want that whole thing to change because we can all win, we don’t need to compete with each other. Everyone’s making amazing music and everyone’s different, none of us are the same.
I want to see more girls in the scene coming together and I want more recognition for all the girls in the scene because they’re the new pop punk alternative. I feel like all these male artists get so much recognition and then the girls are– they see them but they’re kind of swept to the side. It’d be cool to get that same recognition, I guess.
The album ends with the song “Cages” which seems to be about breaking away from the expectations of others.
That song was about the industry. For me, the bridge I did, where I was like ‘Oh, they say I’ve gone crazy, gone downhill.’, it’s about so many people when I started making this type of music. [They] were like ‘What happened to her?’ with dressing the way I do and being the way I am. Or everyone’s like ‘What happened? Is she going through a phase? Or whatever. It’s like no, this is me. ‘Pretty Girl’, that was my phase. Whatever that moment was, that was a phase. Because even if you look at me in 2012-2014, who I was is this, but then I went through this weird little phase.
And I think I’ve just gotten that so much and people being like ‘ What happened? We miss the old you. Like, you’re so dark now and you’re so emo’ and all of these things. Y’all just let me fucking enjoy my life. Like, I’m happy. Let me wear the things I want to wear that make me who I want to be.
“You’re Not Special” seems to take inspiration from the 2007 Tarantino film ‘Death Proof.” What made you want to include so much horror influence on this album?
Horror runs my life. It’s all I ever wanna watch. Movies inspire me a lot so I like to incorporate horror into my music. Horror movies give you a certain feeling when you watch them, I want people to feel something like that in my music.
You seem to have found your voice on a musical basis. What’s your advice to young women in the industry who are searching for their own voices?
I think just do your thing and don’t let anyone tell you shit. Stay true to yourself and don’t let people try to sway you out of your ideas, especially label people in their 50s.
