In hindsight, founding frontwoman Marisa “Missy” Dabice is glad that she didn’t read the forecast as a bad omen considering she hadn’t been feeling totally prepared to make this album. She thinks the gray cloud cover translated perfectly into the overall tone of the record, which she describes as a warm bath intermittently stirred by bursting high-pressure jets.
Although the album wouldn’t be released for exactly one year after that first session, production itself seemed to happen fast. It started in late 2022 with an introduction facilitated by Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz (owner of Epitaph Records, which added Mannequin Pussy to its roster in 2019) between Missy Dabice and the Dallas-bred modern alt-rock maestro, John Congleton.
In choosing which projects to work on Congleton always asks himself, “Does the artist or the band have a strong point of view? Is there something that I feel is happening here that nobody else can do quite the way this person or group of people are doing it? Because that's what excites me.”
After one cup of coffee with Dabice and a successful vibe-check meeting with the rest of the band, Mannequin Pussy quite clearly measured up to his standards for collaboration (and vice versa). It was decided quickly thereafter he would executive produce the project.
Dallasites will long remember John Congleton for beginning his career in the influential 2000s indie-rock outfit The Paper Chase, a local breakout band turned cult classic that was signed to pioneering punk label Kill Rock Stars until its dissolution in 2011. But since then, he’s built an accomplished industry career as a highly coveted record producer.
Congleton’s resume overflows with critically acclaimed and Grammy-winning bodies of work for the likes of St. Vincent, Best Coast, Nelly Furtado, Murder By Death, Sharon Van Etten and many more. When the opportunity presented itself, bringing him in for I Got Heaven was a no-brainer and a swift process for Mannequin Pussy.
“We wanted to work with John. We just saw everything he's done with other artists and with his own music… and he's such an art-first producer,” says guitarist Maxine Steen, “It felt like there was this very common thread and common view [in the studio], and I think it was just a really nice pairing.”
Pre-production began when Congleton joined the band for one initial songwriting session in December 2022, just before he caught COVID-19 and was immediately put out of commission. This was another part of the process Dabice is glad she didn’t read as a bad omen.
“Does the artist or the band have a strong point of view? Is there something that I feel is happening here that nobody else can do quite the way this person or group of people are doing it?" – John Congleton, producer
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While Mannequin Pussy continued to work on new material together, Congleton’s post-recovery work schedule presented them with a nerve-wracking decision: They could dive headfirst into the studio in two months' time or be forced to push back recording until August 2023.
“We erred on the side of, let's put ourselves to the fire.” says Dabice, “I think we went in not completely ready. We knew that certain things were going to be worked out in the studio while we were working on it in real time, and I think, you know, I was feeling a lot of pressure and overwhelming feelings.”
So before spring had even sprung, the band was in-studio on the other side of the country. They brought 17 demos but zero ideas of what to expect.
“Some people like to make records in a very methodical, disciplined, piecemeal sort of way,” says Congleton, breaking down his process in the recording studio “but that seems completely counterintuitive to me. That's how you ruin a record with a band like Mannequin Pussy… trying to manicure it instead of like set it all up, create a good environment and press record… Just sit back and let it happen.”
The songs on the album were essentially built out one at a time, which is a good approach for a band like Mannequin Pussy. Through the course of their album you’ll hear at least four different genres of music. There's stomping hardcore jams, dreamy shoegaze grooves, crunchy grunge tracks and shiny synth-pop tunes all side by side.
A lot of bands will dabble in genre-play by drawing on a different style for every era of their career (Ceremony, Title Fight and My Chemical Romance being good examples). Some create a consistent sound by fusing elements from multiple categories of music into one (see: folk-punk, emo-rap). But Mannequin Pussy doesn’t fit the criteria for either of those genre-bending formulas.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Mannequin Pussy is that they’re a truly multi-genre band. They actually are a faithful post-hardcore band, a wall-of-sound shoegaze band, grunge revivalists and a synth-pop group – all at once. Even more fascinating, they perform each standalone style at an impressive level without ever losing their singular perspective in translation.
“I would reference like Robert Fripp, or Brian Eno a lot [on guitar]” explains Steen, “But, like, I don't really feel that [the album] sounds like anyone else.”
Dabice elaborates, “I know a lot of other artists who come with like a playlist of records that they're seeking to maybe capture the same feeling and tone quality of. But that's not something we've ever really done. We really take it song by song.”
Besides recording away from home for the first time and gambling on a short window of pre-production, Mannequin Pussy also stepped out of their comfort zone to take technical risks on I Got Heaven.
In drum tracking for instance, Congleton urged drummer Kaleen Reading to get creative with the snares on a Ludwig Vistalite kit. They're made of acrylic for a louder, punched-up sound than typical wooden drum shells that produce a more absorbed and resonant tone.
“A lot of people don't like to record with the Vistalite kit,” explains Reading. “But you get someone like John Congleton, who knows how to record drums, and that's not an issue… I had four different snare drums and would kind of change them to match the mood of each song.”
One of them was dubbed the “Spin Doctors” snare by the band, in reference to the once-popular Gen-X radio-rock band. Steen describes it as “super nineties!” maintaining that, “a lot of people would be really scared to use that snare at this time and we saw it as, like, a strength. It was just like, ‘Wow! This really makes [the sound] scream out and makes such a difference.”
The encouraging force Congleton assumed in the sessions for the album wasn’t limited to technical prowess behind the mixing board, according to Dabice. She recalls her toughest day in the studio, “[The pressure] really caught up with me one day, and I kind of just had my own, like, emotional sobbing breakdown,” she says. “Something that John reminded me [of] was that there's always going to be tears in life, and you are constantly riding this this wave of just our own humanity and emotions… And [him] really listening to me and looking at me just made everything easier and better after that.”
Reflecting on the moment, Congleton confesses, “This is the crazy, awesome thing about my job. That I get to see this beautiful spectrum of human emotion, of like people at their best when they're doing the thing that makes them the happiest, and that also when they're at their lowest because this is fucking hard shit to do.”
In 13 studio sessions for I Got Heaven, those 17 demos Mannequin Pussy brought in were whittled down to 10 fully realized songs. When it came time to sequence them into a final cut of the LP, whether to start off with the title track and first single was a point of debate.
Bassist Colins "Bear" Regisford was particularly concerned that overemphasis on one lone offering from the album would strain listeners’ interest with redundancy or distract from the full body of work. But Dabice was positive that I Got Heaven was meant to begin with its namesake anthem and specifically the lyrics, “I went and walked myself, like a dog without a leash / Now I’m growling at a stranger, I am biting at their knees,'' as an unapologetic and unshackled opening mission statement.
Ultimately Mannequin Pussy did exactly what they set out to do, proving to themselves that they could make a truly excellent album on the strength of their own instincts, without allowing themselves the time or space to overthink anything. And on March 1, 2024, they proved it to the world too.
Pitchfork effusively rated the I Got Heaven LP an 8.8/10 and gave it their “Best New Music” stamp of acclaim. The record has been so well received by fans that 27 of the band’s 33 tour dates supporting it sold out before the band even hit the road last week with opener Soul Glo (one of the most exciting acts out of Philly’s hardcore punk scene right now).
In the end, Congleton was right to approach producing this project in the spirit of nature versus nurture. By honing and amplifying the I Got Heaven sessions instead of trying to mold them into the confines of any rigid album structures, he empowered Mannequin Pussy to create their best work yet, one song at a time.
Mannequin Pussy will play a sold-out show with Soul Glo at Tulips in Fort Worth on Thursday, April 18. Tickets are available only on the resale market above face-value.
