Mannequin Pussy's New Album Was Inspired By Pigs & A 24-Hour Korean Spa

Mannequin Pussy recorded their new album, I Got Heaven, in 13 days — an all-time record for the Philly-based punk band. Another first? They did it in Los Angeles, with an outside producer, John Congleton, and a new band member, Maxine Steen. For some bands these variables would’ve introduced disaster, but Mannequin Pussy turned it into a formula for success. “As an artist, it's important to believe your best work is still ahead of you,” says lead singer Marisa Dabice. “[But] going into the process of this record, I definitely felt this is going to be a new high for us.”

That new high is some of the band’s most riveting, gorgeous, and visceral punk music yet, songs that are tumultuous but beat with a palpable human heart. On I Got Heaven, Dabice confronts big societal topics, like the demonization of women and queer people, and microscopic personal ones, like learning to be alone. But the throughline is how they make all of these themes feel urgent and pressing no matter who you are.

Below, Dabice walks NYLON through the record’s diverse slate of influences which includes pigs, naked women, and a 24-hour Korean spa.

Pigs

DABICE: [This] started as a studio joke that then became very serious. We started calling John [Congleton] hog-father, and we were his little piglets, and for some reason every day we were making pig jokes to the point where pigs got ingrained in my mind as [being] an integral part of the visual storytelling of this album.

When you think about the relationships between beast and man, it really shows the type of person you are, how you interact with animals, how you see them. Do you want to care for them and protect them? Or do you see them as fodder and something to be slaughtered? I kept coming back to this image of a woman and her pig together. Is she leading it to the slaughter? Is she leading it to safety? I ended up flying out to L.A. and we went on a search for a bunch of different pigs until we met Harry, who is the pig on the album cover.

Naked Women

DABICE: A lot of this record is about realizing that you should be alone, that there’s this solitude and separation that needs to exist. Even though nudity is something that’s so often shared with other people, to me, it's something that's such a signifier of being in solitude with yourself: At the end of the day, it's just you and your body.

Whenever we started coming up with visuals, it was very [centered around this idea.] A lot of fans pointed out the cross-similarities to Lady Godiva, which I wasn't thinking at the time, but I very much see this woman, naked, with very long hair on a horse, charging into battle.

Wi Spa Los Angeles

DABICE: This was our first time making a record [where we were] together 14 days straight, staying in a house [in Los Angeles], being each other's roommates and friends and artistic companions. We would work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day and, quite a few times when we would wrap, I would go to Wi Spa from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. in the morning and finish writing the songs for the next day. I'd meditate, get naked in the spas, go up to the third floor and get a nice bowl of soup, and put on my headphones and listen to the demos and keep writing. “I Got Heaven” got written fully at Wi Spa, and so did “Sometimes.” It was a space for me to remove myself from everyone and be in a place that’s meant for [nurturing myself].

[My go-to order was] this beef stew, which, regrettably, I don't know the name, and something called the clean green drink. When I went there with one of my Korean friends recently, she was like, "That’s what old men order," And I was like, "Oh, okay."

Being Single

DABICE: In fall of 2021 I ended a relationship, and I've been pretty much single since. I realized, when that relationship ended, I have been someone's girlfriend my entire life. These last two years have been the first time in my adult life where I have made space for myself, my band mates, my artistic dreams, and committing myself to the work.

A lot is expected of you when you are in a relationship. I do think there are certain expectations that are held to women in relationships, that we are trained to put ourselves second, third, fourth, even. I see that a lot with even my mother. She and my dad have a really strong, supportive relationship, but “Of Her” is a song that's all about, “I'm only able to do what I've done because my mom made sacrifices so that I could.” There’s a genealogy of women who have come before you, where all the traditional things that they did, really did lead you to a place of independence and freedom.

The mainstream church

DABICE: I'm not going to be purposefully aloof and pretend I don't know why some people were very upset at a lyric like, [“What if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?” from “I Got Heaven”]. I get it. I just don't care that they are. The thing about being an artist is that you have poetic license to express something, sometimes in a very direct, bordering on obscene way. I have felt immense judgment in my life from certain sects of religion who really believe I've been — and that's also something I say on “Loud Bark” — like, “You're a waste of a woman.” It's like, yeah, but I taste like someone who's carved out their own path.

I see the way the church makes people feel ashamed. I think that's a friction coming to a head in this current society and political system. People are starting to question, “Why do I need to be told what type of person I'm supposed to be?” This is supposed to be the freest era, but why do we still have these antiquated belief systems? The way [the mainstream church] uses queer identity as a weapon, trans identity as a weapon, it’s just like, leave them the f*ck alone. There's such violence that comes with telling someone how they ought to be living.

The New Mannequin Pussy

DABICE: Really, at the core of this record is us. It's us coming together, creating and communicating as a band. I think so much of the beauty of this record is the way we work together, listen, and inspire each other. There's something very “ephemeral,” about an album — it doesn't really exist in a place. But, for us, it's like we're always in the studio we were in together, working and sharing ideas and inspiring each other to write the best thing that we possibly could.

Mannequin Pussy’s ‘I Got Heaven’ is out now.