“Words are spells,” Esther Violet McGrade put it plainly. I sat shotgun while she swerved off Rosewood onto Melrose. Her best friend, roommate and artistic accomplice, Bella Marguerite sat behind us. “We put manifestations in our songs,” Marguerite chimed in. I peeped Lana Del Rey’s “Put Me In A Movie” playing silently on loop from the dashboard.
The two 21-year-olds make up Babe Dylan, an electropop-inspired alternative duo formed last year. They met working at the same restaurant. One cosmic night, the music industry-enmeshed members of their friend group left the pair at home so they could head to another artist’s studio session. Socially abandoned for the evening, McGrade and Marguerite took it as a dare to make something on their own.
They wrote “Vape Luv” and “FingerMouth,” which would serve as their first two singles. The former is a love letter to nicotine, and the romances they similarly wish to kick. Its synths and pulsing bass line fade into a soft-strummed pre-chorus and head rush-inducing hook. PlaqueBoyMax, a streamer known for featuring underground artists on his live video series, Song Wars, put his fans onto the track after its release in September, 2025.
This debut was so dank, the internet assumed they were nepo-babies or industry plants. They’ve been waiting for the rumors to die down before finally putting them to rest.
“My parents work at a rehab,” McGrade said to me, exasperated.
“FingerMouth” is the acoustic account of McGrade’s first sexual encounter with a man, which she had during a family vacation to Mexico at 14. With a fellow tourist, a 31-year-old David Dobrik dupe. This cut was my introduction to them; my best friend shared it with me.
They put pedal to the metal after the success of their first two songs, releasing four fresh tracks in 2026, and signing a distribution deal with Warner Records.
“Ben & I” might be their best yet (it’s their own favorite.) A modern mythos of having “one that got away”, featuring a soft beat, simple strumming and lyrics like “I’m a runner, I’m a gunner shooting blanks at the sky/ Hoping to hit the man who never told me why.”
Their Alana Champion-inspired pouty faces, “Whimsimod” aesthetics (the term coined by Nymphet Alumni podcast to describe striped, polka-dotted, Clairo-esque dressing) and clever sonic sensibilities hooked me immediately. Two chicks my same age, in my same city, making something quite special. They’ve got serious BDE (Babe Dylan energy). Without any media coverage, yet, I decided it would be my duty to find out more.
Today, Babe Dylan dropped their latest single, “Heart Sleeve” The track adopts early 2010s electro, blending it with punchy, laser beam-esque beat (can I coin the term laserbeat?) The sharp, cosmic chorus lets it compete with their previous highlights as their best to-date.
In their digital media debut, Babe Dylan sat down with PAPER to discuss their quick come-up, their favorite electronic music, the movie Secretary and the state of young musicianship in 2026.
When did you guys start making music? How did you know you wanted to do it?
Bella: We had been best friends for a year at that point. A lot of our friends work in music, and one night, they ditched us saying “Oh, we have to go to the stu”. We had never made music before. I had been in piano lessons growing up. I play guitar for fun. I’d never written anything though. Esther doesn’t come from a musical background, but she’s a creative writer. We were kinda like, “Fuck that, we can make a good song”.
Esther: We were so bored. We had no one to hang out with, and we’re alone together all the time. We’re kind of conjoined twins.
Bella: They went to the stu, so we were like, “Let’s write a song”. So we wrote “Vape Luv” and “FingerMouth” in an hour.
That’s crazy. Those songs are so different.
Bella: But at the time they were acoustic iPhone demos. Sad guitar songs. We were like “this is so fun”. We just kept writing songs, then a few months later we met a guy named Erik, who became Esther’s boyfriend and our producer. He did the production for those first two songs we wrote. We wrote “Vape Luv” in the Spring, then released it in September. We kept recording with him, and it felt very serious. I was in school. Esther had a full-time job. Music quickly became a career after the PlaqueBoyMax thing.
Esther: Yeah. We were doing it for fun. I was never a musician, or thought I would be. I don’t play an instrument. I write on an Orchid now. It makes chords for you with just single piano notes.
Where’d the name come from? Are you guys big Dylanators? Is that what Bob Dylan fans are called?
Esther: We sent one of the iPhone demos to my older sister. She tried saying “You guys sound like Bob Dylan,” but it autocorrected to “Babe Dylan”. We kept it.
It’s such a good name.
Esther: I worry about our name sometimes. Cuz it’s like Bob Dylan but Babe Dylan.
That’s why it’s fab. Kinda tongue-in-cheek, which is part of your lyricism as well. Is “FingerMouth” a true story?
Esther: Yes.
Which one of you was it? What’s the story?
Esther: Me. It’s word for word what happened. I was in Mexico with my family. We were at a spoken-word poetry thing, and it got late so my parents wanted to leave. My older sister and I stayed, and I guess I was a party animal at the time. I was 14. She’s nine years older than me. We were drinking, and I saw this guy I genuinely thought was David Dobrik. I bummed a cigarette from him. We were talking all night, he was buying us shots. I had never hooked up with anyone before. I didn’t know what you were supposed to do with a guy. I lied and told him I was 21. I didn’t actually have any plans to do anything with him, but I had him drive my sister and me back to our hotel. I genuinely reached from the backseat into the driver’s seat, and put my fingers in his mouth. I thought it was sexy. He was super confused.
I mean it is sexy.
Esther: But that’s like a lesbian thing, like I dated a girl in high school and we would do that. That’s normal. But with men, it’s different, I don’t put my fingers in guys' mouths anymore.
Bella: I do.
Same. Do you have a boyfriend too Bella?
Bella: Yes. He likes film, so he does all our social media videos. Esther’s boyfriend produces our stuff. We put them to work.
When did you guys know Babe Dylan was something special?
Esther: PlaqueBoyMax watched the “Vape Luv” video on his livestream. We had a Twitter moment. People accused us of being industry plants, but that’s classic internet shit. My parents literally work at a rehab. For that music video, we rented a Ferrari. We spent our last $50 on it. People said it belonged to my dad, which just isn’t true. It was a fucking nightmare for a few weeks.
I mean, I found you guys through a friend who sent me “FingerMouth”. Things didn’t seem suspicious to me. The internet is mad weird sometimes. You guys did wind up signing with Warner Records though, yes?
Esther: Yes, we have a distribution deal with them. We don’t have a full record deal. We’re 21, and this came to us quickly. We want people to know that music is something you can make money off of. It can be lucrative. And signing doesn’t mean you’re nepo or an industry plant or whatever.
How did you find yourselves in the position to sign?
Esther: My sister’s boyfriend played fantasy football with a guy named Will, who reached out asking to become our manager.
Bella: This was right after the PlaqueBoyMax thing happened. We were getting a lot of emails from labels. People were sending us beats and stuff. Swae Lee asked for our number, we were texting him.
Why didn’t you guys get Swae Lee on a track?
Bella: He texted me something about being in LA for like, literally one day. He wanted to link with us, but it was too quick a turnaround. Will wound up reaching out, and was really passionate about managing us, to help clear up all of the messages we were getting from all kinds of people.
Esther: We took meetings from a few different labels. We didn’t want to sign a full label deal. You hear horrible things about people signing too quickly into development, who sign for no money because they don’t have anything to show for it. And what if the label sucks? You have no idea, and you’re stuck in a long contract. So we wanted to do a distribution deal instead, it can be a really good tool if you’re still part of the underground. You keep more control over the creative output too.
How do you think growing up in LA has informed the music you’re making?
Esther: I can tell when a band is from New York. I think there’s something in the sound. We don’t have any sad music. We’ve gotten feedback about how the lyrics are dark but the sound is always high energy. That ties into the city. Everything in LA is easy and sunny.
I moved here four years ago. It feels like life in fantasy mode.
Esther: It doesn’t always feel acceptable to be sad. I’m anti-writing sad songs.
Bella: We would go out to shows when we were younger. We would be the only ones dancing.
That’s kind of how I felt at your show a few weeks ago. It was packed. People were standing but not dancing. I was.
Bella: Everyone wants to be nonchalant. So we want to make something people can dance to.
Esther: I went to a ton of shows growing up here. I went to high school for acting, then realized I didn’t want to act, so I switched to theatre tech. Like props stuff. But all my friends were in the music program. At shows, everyone would just stand there. I want to make music that people want to dance to. I think dancing is medicine. A lot of the dance music I grew up listening to, like Crystal Castles, is kind of low vibrational. There’s something dark to it.
There’s a spookiness to some of your songs. “FingerMouth” is creepy.
Esther: That’s true. But I was the one preying on him honestly. I texted him afterwards asking for Coachella tickets. He said he worked for Coachella. He didn’t respond, so I told him I was 14. Just to scare him. I want to make higher vibrational music than the electronic I grew up on.
Bella: We put manifestations in songs.
Esther: That’s true. I don’t say anything in a song that I don’t want to create. Words are spells.
You’re speaking in LA right now. Dancing is medicine, words are spells. Got it. Aside from Crystal Castles, who are your other big musical inspirations?
Bella: Alex G and Phoebe Bridgers when I was younger. Nirvana and 90s stuff. Scary math rock, too. Now that we’ve started making music, I only want to listen to pop. I listen to Audrey Hobert every day.
I love her. I went to her LA show this Summer.
Bella: We met her at a party at the chateau. I said hi to her, she was really nice. I’m definitely doing more active music listening since starting to make my own.
Esther: Growing up, Gorillaz and MGMT were big. Now, I love Grace Ives. She has a beautiful voice.
You two sing everything in unison. Are you going to keep that up?
Bella: Everyone thinks it’s just one of us. We sing everything together. We’re working on a song right now where we might change it up. Our voices literally sound the same, though. I don’t know if anyone would notice if we did take turns.
What’s on the radar for your own new music?
A five-song EP soon. “Hideout” will be on it, but the rest will be new.
What are the nonmusical influences you two have?
Bella: I’m huge on film. I watch a movie a day. I love Secretary. I like Robert Altman movies.
Esther: We go crazy with the music videos. That’s one of my favorite parts of the creative process. We’re imaginative and weird. Mystical, narrative sequences that don’t make any sense. I’m very inspired by children’s movies and books, and having weird animal characters and things. A common theme throughout the sounds and visuals is a coming-of-age sensibility.
What’s your writing process like as a duo?
Esther: I write all our lyrics.
Bella: We workshop melodies together, and I’ll start some songs on the guitar.
What are the pros and cons of becoming musicians in 2026?
Esther: The market is so oversaturated. Every new song feels like an ad. We struggle with TikTok a bit. We try to stay true to ourselves, with digicam videos of our hair braided together and bikinis over our clothes.
Bella: I think the rise of the internet makes in-person connections so much better. Everyone coming to our shows wants to be there, truly, and we go to other people’s shows because we care.
How do you guys feel about your duoship? What’s it like making music with someone else?
Esther: I don’t think either of us would have done this as individuals. It’s so nice, having someone to bounce ideas off of.
Bella: It’s never lonely.
Esther: The idea of putting just yourself out there is so much scarier than doing it with someone else. I’m never afraid when I’m with her.
Bella: If we go down, we go down together. If we fail, we would go find jobs together.
Esther: It’s a shared responsibility. I would never want to do this without Bella.
Bella. Same.
Esther: When we wrote our first song, nothing in my life had felt so natural.
Bella: Since then, it’s all we’ve thought about.
Photography by Andie Kirby
