Despite having grown up listening to rock, Maggie Lindemann rose to fame through her 2016 pop release, “Pretty Girl.” The song is all about making one’s own decisions, a reminder to society that Lindemann (and women as a whole) are more than just their appearances. However, her song about agency turned into anything but that. After the release of “Pretty Girl,” Lindemannn's label had her release a slew of pop songs to keep up with the hype. Only in the last year did she embrace her rock roots through her pop-punk Paranoia EP. On September 16, 2022, she released her debut album, SUCKERPUNCH, a pop-punk sensation true to the artist. The album is experimental, diverse both in sound and subject matter, with “break me!” screaming about heartbreak and “she knows it” conveying a similar feeling through a softer sound.
Maggie Lindemann's story of finding her sound and reclaiming her identity isn’t the first of its kind in the music industry, and with the way young artists are often treated by labels, it probably won’t be the last.
An Authentic Maggie: Bubblegum Pop Teen to Pop-Punk Sensation
Lindemann has revealed that she was pushed into recording pop singles after “Pretty Girl” to keep up the momentum, and at just 19, she did. Paranoia and SUCKERPUNCH reflect Lindemann breaking out of the pop track and the expectations of the music industry. She advises people trying to get started in the music industry to “put out music [before trying to get signed.]
“When I first got signed,” she says. “I didn’t have any leverage… I got pushed into doing stuff I didn’t really want to do.” Many artists have spoken out about pressure from labels. Halsey, Self Esteem, and other artists have recently reported labels holding songs unreleased until they go viral on TikTok. Women and nonbinary artists are too-often pressured into things that aren’t true to them, and Lindemann brings light to it and shares her story of breaking free from these pressures.
When asked how she broke out of that pop bubble, she cited being detained in Malaysia as a turning point that sparked an important realization: “If I’m not doing exactly what I want to do, none of the things I’m doing are worth it.” She doesn’t want to be in a situation like that again and have to wonder why she even made the music she did or lived a life inauthentic to her. She wishes she knew sooner that it was okay to say no to people and do what she wanted to do. “[Pretty Girl-era Maggie] would be amazed,” Lindemann tells us. “That I am able to make that kind of music now.”
Over the last year, Lindemann has grown tremendously as a pop-punk artist. She refers to SUCKERPUNCH as “an elevated version” of Paranoia. As time goes on, we see Lindemann’s work get a little darker and a little heavier, from her “Pretty Girl” feminist debut to SUCKERPUNCH, which allows the audience a deep insight into Lindemann’s head. Lindemann tells us that Paranoia was finding out who she was as a pop-punk artist, something she didn’t have the freedom to do at the beginning of her career, and that SUCKERPUNCH is what came out of that development. Lindemann also says that SUCKERPUNCH came out of her being “free to say the things [she] wanted to.”
Acting as both a catalyst and result for her newfound freedom is the control she has over her music. “I have full creative control now. I’m signed to a distribution–not a label, which means that I’m basically my own boss.” For her music videos, she’s able to pick the directors she thinks suit the songs. “Everything I do is very me. It’s not going through anyone. I don’t have to get my outfits approved, my songs approved.”
Lindemann has also found her footing as a person in the music industry. When asked how she measured success, Lindemann twisted the script, saying “I don’t pay too much attention to views and streams because I don’t want to compare my career to anyone else’s. To me, success just feels like when I feel proud of myself… A song could flop, but if I feel proud of it, I feel like I did the job, then I’m able to move forward and keep making music.”
Maggie Lindemann goes through the entire interview with this lighter air, reiterating that there aren’t as many expectations and aren’t as many complications behind the scenes. “It’s all me,” she ends. Listening to her music and having had the opportunity to witness her connections to it, I fully believe that.
SUCKERPUNCH
The album is full of strong vocals, experimental in a way that is a breath of fresh air. It lives up to the name, hitting hard song after song. Each song shows her struggles, conflicts, and success, from wading through jealousy in “she knows it” to uncovering mental health struggles in “novocaine.”
Lindemann advises fans to listen to SUCKERPUNCH in the car. “Listening to it in the car is my favorite,” she says. She also hopes that “people are able to relate [to SUCKERPUNCH] and have someone that understands them.” SUCKERPUNCH is a very raw album and cuts to the core of who Maggie Lindemann is right now and her experiences in her late teens and early twenties. It reflects rage and heartbreak, emotions that connect especially with young people facing adult struggles for the first time.
She also emphasizes listening to the songs in order. “The intro and 'take me nowhere,' you have to listen to back to back because the intro just flows into 'take me nowhere.'”
“I wanted it to feel like a progression from being upset and angry and then being sad.” The first part of the album is fueled with rage, but then flows to a progression at the end of taking back the power through the song “how could you do this to me.” She explains that she wanted to end on a positive note, however. “The last song 'cages,'” she says. “Is supposed to leave you with hope.”
SUCKERPUNCH is Maggie’s story; peeling away the layers of boy drama leaves you with a raw visual of her progression–from being pressured into making pop to a sense of dissatisfaction and rage from spending her first years making music that didn’t feel like her own to an optimistic vision for her future in pop-punk.
Speaking about the heavy content in her songs, Lindemann says that, “something felt way heavier than it was in real life, and I have to write it how I felt [rather than how it may have happened in hindsight].”
She also hints that we can expect her sound to include more glitches and an overall similar sound to “self-sabotage.” "I’m, like, obsessed with glitches,” she says.
Maggie Lindemann’s sound is an important reflection of her story. Her journey to SUCKERPUNCH is one of many artist stories we need to make sure don’t go unheard. We thank her for taking the time to talk to us and be as honest and forthcoming as she was. Make sure to listen to SUCKERPUNCH and maybe even check out Lindmann's bold, wild, and brilliant clothing line, SWIXXZ.
Stuti Desai is a teen writer from New Jersey. When they're not daydreaming, you can find them getting lost on long runs or reading obscure feminist essays. They are a hot chocolate aficionado, a Libra through and through & they love this zine more than words can describe.
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