Adam Kennedy talks with Marisa “Missy” Dabice from Mannequin Pussy about the band’s new album, ‘I Got Heaven’.
You are currently on tour in the US. How have the shows been going so far?
Every single one has been sold out and the energy has been phenomenal. So yeah, we could not possibly ask for a better first tour for ‘I Got Heaven’. I think already, it’s beyond what we expected.
Tell us a little bit about the genesis of ‘I Got Heaven’…
We started working on the record in seriousness in about August 2022. And then by December 2022, we had a collection of songs that we then shaped up and edited down to be the songs around the record. Then we were in the studio recording it in March 2023. And then, exactly a year from when we started the record, the record came out.
In terms of the album, have you been happy with the response so far towards it?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s been really phenomenal to watch it take life in a new atmosphere. I think records are something that lasts forever, but a show is a very ephemeral and fleeting experience. But it’s still something that can really stay with you if you’re able to make a lasting impact on someone in that sort of setting.
I’ve seen the album described as songs that go from searing punk to inviting pop. In terms of the sound of the album, did you have a strong idea of what you wanted this record to sound like from the off?
Yeah, I think that’s the way it always is. I had more of a sense of the way that I wanted the record to feel like, not so much sound like. Because I think the way that myself, Maxine, Kaleen and Bear operate with each other on a creative level is that we’re all coming from places of different, just like sonic touchstones and things that we gravitate to. But at the end of the day, we’re also four very unique and individual people with very clear points of view. And so I think whenever you’re getting people who are creatively different and yet creatively attuned to each other, it’s going to fold out in a really diverse amount of ways. Also, just the way that I feel that I am, not in some sort of multiple personalities way, but in the way that we are complicated and complex people who feel things very intensely and feel things in different ways – especially once time has passed for something. And also, I love a good pop song. So, I’d like to be able to indulge in that when I can.
Maxine [Steen] is the most recent member of the band, joining around about the time of the last EP. How has Maxine been settling in with the group?
Phenomenally. I mean, she and I have known each other for, I think, over eight years now. And we’ve been friends since really the day that we met. And from the first day that we met, we started making music together. So, it was a perfectly natural transition to have her come into the fold and start creating with the three of us. And it’s really been the most energising creative force and something that I think we also really needed.
Mannequin Pussy will perform at The Grove in Newcastle on Thursday 27th June. For ticket information and further details, please visit thegrovenewcastle.co.uk.
