By now, there’s a glitter-dusted path from Disney prom queen to mainstream pop star: Britney, Christina, Miley, Selena, Olivia… and if you’re an Old Millennial, you’ll even remember Fergie on Kids Incorporated before she became Glam-o-rous.

If you want to be a rock musician? The road’s a lot less traveled, especially for women. Yes, Taylor Momsen made a Pretty Reckless move after Gossip Girl 1.0, but that’s… kind of… it.

Enter Aly (she / her) + AJ (she / her), the California sisters who became stars on Disney Radio (or on the Ice Princess soundtrack, depending on where you got your tunes), then branched out into (very good!) films like Easy A (Aly) and Super 8 (AJ) before getting back to their roots—and their guitars.

After re-releasing Potential Breakup Song with more adult content last year, the sisters began writing more material, releasing their first full-length album, A Touch of the Beat…, this spring. Millions (and millions, and millions) of streams later, they’re rehearsing for their first festival gig—at Lollapalooza next week!—and planning a new in-person tour.

We called them in between songwriting sessions to ask how it’s going, what they’re wearing, and why Abercrombie & Fitch kind of never dies.

Lollapalooza is the first major music festival after the pandemic. How are you preparing for your set?
ALY: So it’s funny you asked, because we’ve never done this before. I mean, literally, we’ve never played a festival before. This is our first one. So we’re practicing like crazy, working with our band and our vocal coach, lifting weights to help build our stamina, and making sure that our set feels right, and that the transitions between songs feel smooth. And that we really pound out as many songs in 45 minutes that we can!
AJ: We got really lucky because we’re performing on day one! We’ll be the first performance on the main stage, which is great. It means the energy is going to be killer. And it is exciting for us, you know, to have that placement, although it will also be in the blazing heat in the middle of summer, so we need to be ready. But also, at the end of the day, as long as the music sounds great, that’s the only thing that counts. It’s rock n’ roll. If we play it right, that’s all that will matter.

There are a lot of amazing women still working in rock n’ roll, like Nancy Wilson and Stevie Nicks, but it can also be a real boys’ club. How are you claiming your space and your sound without erasing your pop past, which is always seen as a more “female” music genre?
AJ: I mean, it’s a great question. It’s kind of the question. I think that it really comes down to the songs. If we keep our heads down and deliver amazing songs again and again, then you can’t deny our work! Aly and I are kind of used to being the artists that people underestimate. That people have a preconceived notion about… And it is really hard to rewrite narratives that have been built around you since you were a kid. But why scrub your past away? Why not roll with it, and keep putting out great songs, again and again, until people start kind of realizing there’s a new narrative to be written? And then maybe, you know, on the 20th listen of our album, it’ll be another part of our story.
ALY: I feel like we’ve already kind of cracked that with this album. I feel like that this was the first time we really started to chip away at that. And again, we love pop music. Being a great pop musician is hard. Writing great pop songs is hard. I have so much respect for that genre and that talent. I would never deny that part of our story, but I know that if we give you a good rock song—and then we give you seven more great rock songs—the train’s already moving, so to speak. And after Lolla, you know, it hasn’t been announced yet, but we’re also playing a couple more great festivals next year. So we’re able to rewrite that narrative, or continue it, on bigger stages with amazing artists of all genres, you know? I think festivals give you that opportunity to break out of the mold of yourself. So now it’s just a matter of us delivering. You show up, you do the work, and you make sure you love and believe in the work.

Potential Breakup Song became a TikTok sensation last year. Did you learn anything new about your music from that viral push?
ALY: I wish I had a better answer for you, but it’s really funny, because in a way, it’s taught us nothing. We’re like, “Wow, TikTok is so powerful.” But we still don’t use it that much! We totally respect it, and seeing the way a younger generation of musicians is setting trends with it is so amazing. But if it were up to us, would we even have an Instagram?
AJ: I don’t know! [Laughing.] I feel like in another world, me and Aly probably wouldn’t even have [social media]. We would literally just go and make records and do that and not even share BTS footage of that! And then just go on tour, make a new record, do it all over again. We would just do that into eternity… It’s what we’re doing now! We’re in Denver writing music with a collaborator who lives out here, and we haven’t taken photos! Because look, if we get 150 great photos out here but we don’t get a song, then it doesn’t mean sh*t.

True or false: you’re styling yourselves for the new album?
ALY: That’s true, but the pandemic had a big part to play in that! We were putting out new music during that time, so we needed new visuals. But we were trying to pare down our interactions with as many people as possible—no more hair, no more makeup, no more “glam team” because it wasn’t safe. It kind of made sense anyways, with the music that we were wanting to put out. We kept talking about how all of these artists of the past that we really look up to probably don’t even know what a stylist is.
AJ: We were watching footage of Janis Joplin onstage at the Monterey Pop Festival. We were riveted. She looked so cool and so specifically her. We’ve been so lucky to work with such amazing stylists, like Chris Horan and Amanda Lim, who we work with really closely right now. She’s super-talented and of course we’ll keep working with stylists and labels when it’s the right event or project. But out of necessity during the pandemic, we started shopping vintage and really digging into our own closets to put looks together.
ALY: It was also kind of symbolic for us, because we’re transitioning out of this pop world that we’ve been in for so many years. A lot of pop music is highly stylized, highly choreographed. It’s very slick. It’s not really kind of showing you those rough edges. We looked at Grace Slick or Janis, and she’s got her jewelry on and her bangles and her jeans and she’s like, “I don’t give a f*ck.” And I just think that’s so liberating. It’s empowering. Also, it makes music better.
AJ: Especially now that we’re playing on tour! And at Lollapalooza. I’m sure I would look “better” and taller if I wore stilettos onstage, but I just don’t want to. I want to be my most-centered self onstage, so I’m wearing my own worn-in boots.
ALY: We’re going to do suits for Lolla. They’re custom-made by a dear friend of ours in Italy, who runs a family label called Giuliva Heritage… I love the idea that when we get on stage, we’re also giving a platform to this small, female-led label. I don’t know if you’ve ever worn a suit to a big event, but I highly recommend it. It feels amazing to wear a gorgeous suit.

What’s the newest thing in your closet?
ALY: Oh! Easy! I went to Italy to this store, Bomba, that we are obsessed with. It’s family-owned, and they make the coolest bespoke fabrics. So I bought pieces there.
AJ: And I gave Aly my credit card, and said, “Can you please buy me a few things, too?”
ALY: So I ordered the pieces for AJ, and the woman who owns the store—this mom and her son and daughter run it—she was like, “Oh, you are getting clothes for your sister, that is so sweet of you!”
AJ: I mean, yeah, it was nice, but I paid with my own money! [Laughing.]

What’s the oldest thing in your closet that you still wear?
ALY: I have this really old flannel shirt that I stole from AJ. She used to wear it to auditions—it’s from L.L. Bean—and it’s still the cutest top and I wear it all the time.
AJ: Oh my gosh, I have an Abercrombie & Fitch hoodie from the early 2000s. I bought it with my own money in like 2002, and I thought it was so cool, and I loved it. The thing is, it’s so warm that I keep it in my car and throw it on constantly when I’m cold. It’s the longest-running item in my closet, and—wait—it still smells like the store in the mall. I swear.