Mannequin Pussy’s fourth full-length album, last year’s I Got Heaven, again rides the dynamic emotional wave of frontwoman Marisa Dabice, whose evolution from guttural yeller to a more nuanced conveyor of her singing voice is now complete. I Got Heaven’s 10 songs clock in at a brisk 30 minutes, opening with the tone-setting title track, which finds Dabice moving from righteous roars to a tempered sing-speak approach that borders on sweet. Even better is “Deep Bite,” a moody rumination that rides a fascinating sonic seesaw after opening with this table-setter: “Not a single motherfucker who has tried to lock me up/Could get the collar around my neck or find one that’s big enough.”
The band — which also includes drummer Kaleen Reading, bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford and guitarist Maxine Steen — is as versatile as ever, moving from their hardcore roots to something like the slow-burning, synth-aided “I Don’t Know You,” which is as atmospheric and mysterious as anything the band has yet conjured.
CityBeat recently connected with Dabice through Zoom to discuss Mannequin Pussy’s creative evolution, the pleasures of working with producer John Congleton and their relationship with Epitaph Records.
CityBeat: You guys just got back from a series of shows in Europe. Given the current state of affairs in America, what’s it been like playing shows abroad?
Marisa Dabice: To an extent, you are cultural ambassadors from the place in which you come from, especially when you are traveling abroad and you are a guest in someone’s country. I think it’s really important as Americans, who very often feel as though everywhere we are the world is owed to us. That’s not the experience we have as travelers. We really see ourselves as guests in someone’s country and we try to familiarize ourselves with some of their customs and to be more aware of the fact that we’re travelers and we’ve been invited somewhere to play.
I think our music will always be a conduit for the type of catharsis and rage that we are feeling. I think that increasingly and throughout my entire life I’ve seen how politics tends to make people feel smaller and more oppressed and unheard, and so when you can make these big gestures and statements in your art and music and connect to other people who are seeing the world in a similar fashion as the way you do, obviously it’s a really unifying force that kind of takes place.
CB: You’ve been doing this for more than a decade now. How has your approach changed and evolved over the years?
MD: The biggest change was Maxine joining the band, who’s been a longtime friend and collaborator of mine and my favorite person to write music with. She and I really crafted a lot of the initial ideas of the songs and then you present it to everyone. This is the first time we’ve been able to afford, on Epitaph’s dime, to go away together and spend an entire week just focused on writing.
CB: Do you have an overarching theme or certain topics in mind when you start writing songs for a record, or is it more of an organic thing?
MD: This was definitely one where you kind of figure out the overarching themes after all the songs have been completed. You allow yourself the space to just say whatever it is that you feel needs to be said within the context of the song. After all, the songs are written and you’re in that process of finalizing the lyrics, then you start to pick up on, like, “Oh, this is really what myself and my bandmates have been going through.” It becomes very obvious what those stories are. I would definitely like to try in the future kind of going into a record with a theme or an idea in advance in a conceptual sense and seeing how ideas percolate out of us that way. But, historically, I have not gone into it with a plan. I just allow whatever words to come out to be what comes out.
CB: Your approach as a singer has obviously changed over the years. Was that a conscious choice on your part?
MD: As I’ve grown older, I’m less interested in doing the same things that we always used to do. I’m less interested in destroying my voice. I started taking vocal lessons at the beginning of this year and doing vocal training really seriously every week since January. I want to learn more about the instrument of the voice. I want to learn more about how to care for it and how to maintain it for hopefully the long haul. If I kept repeating the past in how I wrote and sang, I would be doing severe fucking damage to myself.
CB: What was it like working with John Congleton on this record?
MD: His taste level is a big aspect of what makes him so great — how quickly he works, how decisive he can be. As a group, we tend to be a little less decisive sometimes. He is so direct. His ear is just phenomenal. He was present for the writing sessions but in a way where he was just sitting there listening as we write. We might be playing a riff and he would say, “That’s exciting, keep going with that.” To have that external talent inhabit our space really allowed us to focus more on just writing the song than worrying about whether or not it was good too soon.
CB: You mentioned Epitaph earlier. What do you think is the role of a record label at this point?
MD: Ideally, it’s artist development and resources. It’s a business relationship. A label at its best is recognizing young talent that they believe will grow into a more mature version of themselves with every album that they make. They see someone and think, “This artist has something to say for years to come,” and they want to pour resources into the development of letting that artist continue to create greater and greater work with every passing year. That’s what I think ideally a record label should be doing, and that’s what I feel Epitaph has been for us.
They approached us after our 2016 album Romantic came out. They saw potential in us far before anyone else did. It was paying attention to what an artist is currently doing and might go on to do and be able to give them the resources to focus on creating the work. I think that’s what’s so exciting for me. I’m in a very small minority of people who actually respect and like the label that I work with. I really do cherish the relationship that I have with Epitaph and the belief that they’ve had in us for almost 10 years now. They’ve really been a huge part of our development and maturation as artists.
Mannequin Pussy plays Bogart’s on June 27 at 7 p.m. More info: bogarts.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s June 25 print edition.
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 8, 2025.