“Joyful Catharsis”: Mannequin Pussy Wants You to Scream

When Mannequin Pussy first reached out to me for an interview, I nearly missed the email—the word “pussy” automatically flagged the message as junk mail in my inbox. It’s fitting, though, seeing that the band embraces profanity, anger and femininity in all of their music. The noisy, indie punk group embarked on a North American tour last month in support of their recent album I Got Heaven, whose hook-driven pop influences marked a departure for the band. Lead vocalist and guitarist Marisa “Missy” Dabice chatted with SLUG in anticipation of their Salt Lake City show on Thursday, May 2 at Soundwell. 

SLUG: Today is the fifth show of your I Got Heaven tour! What are you most excited about for this tour?

Dabice: Our fans were always really diverse—like, I wouldn’t say that there was a “typical MP fan” for a while; [they were] kind of all over the place. But within these first couple of shows, I’ve definitely noticed that our fan base has gotten really young and very femme, which is exciting. I’m feeling like all these kids are going to go home and say, “I want to start a band.”

SLUG: You’ve performed in Salt Lake City before at Kilby Block Party in 2023 and at Kilby Court in 2021. What has been your experience with SLC crowds? When you think of the Utah music scene, what comes to mind?

Dabice: Honestly, selling out a venue in Salt Lake City feels like a bigger milestone than selling out a venue in, like, Chicago, LA or New York. Salt Lake City, for so many bands, seems to be a harder city to tap into for some reason. I don’t know why that is … So yeah, it feels really exciting to be able to go there again. 

SLUG: Salt Lake City is defined in many ways by a dominant culture and a counterculture, and I know you got your start in the Philadelphia punk scene. What has been your experience being part of a counterculture or underground community?

Dabice: I think the counterculture saved my life in so many ways. What’s so remarkable about these music and art communities is that … you meet people who make you feel as though you are not insane to question the state of the world around you. When I was in my teens and twenties, older people—all the time—would tell me that my anger would subside as I got older, and I have found the opposite to be true. I think I’m angrier now, as a person in my mid-30s, than I ever thought was possible to be. I’ve learned to live with it in a different way. I’ve learned to harness it and translate it and transmute it in a different way, and it maybe doesn’t affect me as much emotionally or mentally. 

SLUG: If you could say anything to your younger self back in 2010 when you first formed Mannequin Pussy, what would you say?

Dabice: I think I would tell her, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.” You’re doing this because you love it, without any expectations for what it could be. Actually, what it will become is far greater than what what you even imagined it could. And I would remind her that, ‘Your instincts are correct,’ and that it’s your creative collaborations that are going to be one of the most fulfilling relationships in your life. It’s not DIY; it’s DIT. It’s something you do together. 

SLUG: Outside of your own genre, what band or artist would be your dream musical collaboration, if you could record a song with anyone?

Dabice: There’s a lot of pop girlies I would really love to write a song with, because I just want to hear them scream in that guttural, unhinged way. Charli XCX or A.G. Cook would be a very exciting collaborative moment that I would hope to make happen in my life. There are a few artists, actually, who I’ve been fans of who I now am starting to write with, but I can’t say who they are yet. I’ve had some ideas of doing more countrified versions of some of our songs. “Drunk II,” taken at a lyrical standpoint, is basically a country song, and I’ve had the idea to reimagine it as a full-blown alternative, country rock song. I think I’d really like to do that with the band Wednesday and Tyler Childers. 

SLUG: In the recent Pitchfork review of I Got Heaven, the author called it more of a pop album than a punk album. Do you agree with that assessment?

Dabice: I definitely I see [it]. Like, what is pop music? Pop is something that’s very hook-driven. It’s both wanting to really express something that has the core of emotionality behind it that the everyman can relate to, but is also coming from a place where you’re searching for something that’s going to get caught in someone’s brain. That’s one of my favorite things about writing melodies—trying to come up with that refrain or that line that’s like just really going to stick in someone’s head.

SLUG: One of the things that I really love about this album is the way that it is very angry and profane, but at the same time really vulnerable. Can you talk a little bit more about that dynamic? How do those two elements intersect for you?  

Dabice: Yeah. I mean, profanity is really fascinating to me in terms of what we consider to be profane and what’s the line between obscenity and art, which is something that this band has sought to really toy with throughout our entire existence. You don’t have a name like “Mannequin Pussy” and not be inherently poking at a line that either should or should not exist. It’s a majority femme band, [so something] that we come up against a lot is this feeling that to be feminine is to be profane. Like, if you look at a set of words that are censored, nearly all of them are things that are related to a perceived feminine body. 

SLUG: I’ve heard that at live shows, you like to take a moment to scream with the audience. Can you tell me a little more about what that moment feels like and why you do it?

Dabice: For the past couple of years, that’s something that we’ve done at our shows to introduce this aspect of primal, group, scream therapy … Pain, and specifically anger, is like—if you let it sit in your body too long, it really does spread throughout you like a poison. But it’s a very difficult thing to find an appropriate time and place where it is socially acceptable to just scream, so we created one for our audience. Our intention is to give the experience of joyful catharsis.

SLUG: If you had to describe your music in terms of a scent, what would it smell like? 

Dabice: I want to say the best pussy you’ve ever smelled. All-natural, hormonal, vanilla with a little bit of a stank. Something powerful. The true scent of pheromones, that thing your brain is recognizing more so than even your nose … An intoxicating cocktail that cannot be placed, but deeply, you are like, “Ugh, there’s something about this I just want.”

It’s clear that Mannequin Pussy isn’t afraid to cause a stink. Don’t miss the chance to see Dabice perform live along with drummer Kaleen Reading, bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford and guitarist Maxine Steen on Thursday, May 2 at at Soundwell.

Read more recent interviews with touring bands:
Alison Mosshart talks God Games, The Kills’ Upcoming SLC Show
“Shorter Skirts, More Blasphemy”: An Interview with Twin Temple