It may seem like The Warning’s rise—beginning as children with the Monterrey, Mexico-born, Rock Band–raised sisters’ viral 2014 cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”—has always been their destiny. But Daniela (now age 26), Paulina (24), and Alejandra Villarreal Vélez (21) have struggled with imposter syndrome, industry sexism, and growing up in public, all of which inspired their swaggering fifth album, Everything’s Falling.
On that album’s release day, the same day they became the first all-female band and first Mexican band to hit #1 on Billboard’s Rock Airplay chart, we caught up with Dany, Pau, and Ale during an in-store record signing at Los Angeles’ Licorice Pizza Records to discuss why they finally feel like everything’s falling into place.
You’ve said making Everything’s Falling brought you closer. How so?
Dany: It was very unexpected to get to know [each other] on a deeper level—because we’re sisters, and we’ve been doing this for 13 years. We just figured out that even though we’ve lived the same things, same stages, same experiences, we process them in such a different way as individuals. We were like, “Huh, I didn’t really live it that way, that’s interesting that you did.” We found out how our inner monologue goes between each other.
Ale: When it all started, when we released our cover of “Enter Sandman” and it went viral, that was the moment where we decided that we were going to do this for as long as we could. And even though we’re close in age, it was a very different moment in each of our lives. I was a child. Pau was also very young. Dani was a teenager. Being a teenager—even though when you look back it’s like, “It really wasn’t that deep”—when you’re in that moment, you feel everything. So Pau and I didn’t really process it the same way Dani did. That’s what we found out in the writing.
Pau: It’s very special that we got to know each other on such a deeper level. For literally three months, it was family therapy.
The track “Perfect Daughter” opens with: “I think you liked me better when I was 16 / Did you like me better when I would smile back?” What’s that about?
Dany: “Perfect Daughter” touches upon two very important topics. One is there are a lot of people who haven’t gotten used to the fact that we’re adult women, because our whole lives are on the internet. We felt the need to express that, because it’s so weird for people to not expect us to change! Another is the concept of being a woman and, socially, how it’s looked upon. Everyone is a daughter, or mother, or sister—it’s in correlation to something else. So we say “perfect daughter” as daughters of the world, not specifically [about] our family.
There are horror stories about child stars, but you seem grounded. I imagine that’s partially because even in a male-dominated genre, particularly a white-male-dominated genre, you always had each other?
Dany: We’re super-blessed. I couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone other than my sisters. We don’t know any other way of doing this, except between ourselves as a family. Also, our parents have really protected us every step of the way. One of the things that’s super-great about our story is that it had to be this way. It was very gradual. I feel a lot of [child star] stories are a very fast growth, and we’re already a 13-year-old band—which is crazy! I really appreciate all that time to get the experience, so now that we’re here at this moment, we have all that knowledge to back it up.
Ale: Since we started so young, we established good communication from the get-go. We’ve always tried to keep our personal life and work life as separate as we can, because it’s not separate. Usually when we disagree, it’s never a personal attack. We know even if our opinions are different, it’s because we think that’s what’s best for the band. We either compromise or try to blend our ideas into two-out-of-three votes, which always works. Of course, we’re sisters—we squabble, we have disagreements. We’re human! But honestly, I don’t really think we’ll ever get to a point where it breaks us up.
This album’s title and Icarus-inspired cover art could imply that things are troubled within the group. What’s the symbolism there?
Dany: That’s the beauty of this cycle—because either things could be falling apart, or into place. We like that dual meaning. But yes, we got inspiration from the story of Icarus, of maybe flying too close to the sun in our ambitions, of getting tunnel vision and falling and being a little lost in the process.
Pau: You’re blind about your ambitions. You fall, your wings burn off—and it’s about, how do you pick yourself back up? The album talks about that journey, that by grieving who you were, you grow into this new version of yourself who maybe you always wanted to be. That’s such an important thing to talk about. Maybe we give the impression that we have it together and that all our steps have been firmly taken forward and in good spirits, when in reality, there are so many things that fall apart behind the scenes that people will never see. And it’s not for them to see. So, even if we seem perfect to other people, maybe if they see us talking about how it’s only human to be imperfect, they can feel more comfortable and safe within those moments in their own lives.
You always include at least one Spanish-language track on each album, and on Everything’s Falling it’s “Ego,” possibly your hardest-rocking song yet. It seems to address your detractors, even though by now, people shouldn’t be doubting your abilities…
Dany: You’d be surprised! This is a very empowering song for us, because it’s literally saying, “It doesn’t matter how much you judge me or anything you say, we know that all of our success is a direct attack to your ego.” We had a lot of fun with that. It’s about anything that would discredit the love we have for our music.
Ale: Not everyone’s going to like everything we do. But we worked on [Everything’s Falling] for almost a year. We poured our hearts and souls into such an authentic and emotional album.
Dany: It felt so cathartic, just letting it out. It was a great experience to write these feelings out in Spanish, and it was such a great moment for us that our heaviest song was in Spanish. We leaned into the opportunity of being as angry as we could.
photo by Alex Choi
