Q&A: In the Pursuit of Pleasure, Cherry Bomb Finds Her Power

MusicQ&A

Nov 12

INTERVIEW

VIVA LA DIVA — For Mandy Lee, pleasure is an act of rebellion. Under her solo project Cherry Bomb, the MisterWives frontwoman is trading restraint for radical self-expression, transforming heartbreak and emotional struggle into a glitter-soaked celebration of unapologetic individuality. With The Pursuit of Pleasure, Cherry Bomb is embracing a new philosophy: “Viva la diva!”

Written during a period of dramatic life changes, The Pursuit of Pleasure became a refuge in the power of pop anthems, eccentric dance numbers and the glitz and glamor of the diva within. What began as a means of navigating difficult emotions evolved into a songwriting challenge Cherry Bomb set for herself: all bangers, no ballads. The result is a maximalist dance-pop universe that finds the pop songstress stepping fully into her own power, using music as a vehicle to reclaim the parts of herself she once felt compelled to leave behind.

“Joy is how we survive grief, and this project explores what it means to move through pain while still finding pleasure,” Cherry Bomb says. “This album unravels the guilt, shame and judgment we are often conditioned to carry when exploring, and it's about choosing ourselves as well as our own desires — stepping into intuition and away from all that inhibits who we truly are, not who we are expected to be.”

Inspired by her muses — The Birth of Venus, Eve and the rebellious firecracker who never shied away from her muchness — Cherry Bomb describes The Pursuit of Pleasure as an “un-forbidden liberation back to self.” It is a declaration of independence from the expectations, limitations and painful patterns that can keep us from embracing our fullest identities.

Femininity is a defining thread throughout The Pursuit of Pleasure, but for Cherry Bomb, it exists far beyond the boundaries of any one expectation. It is softness and strength, grit and glamour, pain and pleasure. Rather than subscribing to a singular interpretation of what it means to be a woman, she embraces the contradictions.

“It's the pain and the pleasure, the joy and the grief,” Cherry Bomb tells Luna. “All of the juxtapositions to me are femininity. You don't have to be the one thing that I think society holds us to the standard of what it is to be a woman. I'm really stoked that Cherry Bomb — and it's in the name too of that duality of self that is being a woman — that I'm not going to fit in this box of what is expected of me.”

“It's the pain and the pleasure, the joy and the grief,” Cherry Bomb says to Luna. “All of the juxtapositions to me are femininity. You don't have to be the one thing that I think society holds us to the standard of what it is to be a woman. I'm really stoked that Cherry Bomb — and it's in the name too of that duality of self that is being a woman — that I'm not going to fit in this box of what is expected of me.

With that is definitely the things I'm wearing, the way I'm writing, the way I'm performing. This [project] has been such a fuck you to the standard of what is expected women.”

For more than a decade, Lee has established herself as a commanding force in alternative pop as the powerhouse frontwoman of MisterWives. With her unmistakable vocals and magnetic stage presence, she has led the band through international tours, festival performances and an expansive catalog spanning four studio albums, a live album and a deluxe release. While her work with MisterWives has cemented her place in the alternative scene , Cherry Bomb offers Lee an entirely different creative freedom where she gets to build a universe that is unapologetically feminine and euphoric.

“Starting this project I knew I desperately needed to reconnect with parts of myself I lost along the way,” Cherry Bomb reflects. Channeling her powerhouse pop-rock vocals into hard-hitting, maximalist dance-pop became the catalyst for reclaiming her identity and making room for the person she had once set aside in pursuit of love and acceptance.

That reclamation comes with a reminder of who she was before the world told her who to be. Cherry Bomb recalls the little girl who routinely wore boas and blasted “You Don’t Own Me” through a bedazzled boombox.

Earlier this year, Cherry Bomb unveiled her solo project with the splashy, upbeat banger “Never Be Me (M★ther★cker).” Cherry Bomb calls the single, “a defiant declaration of independence dressed up in maximalist synth pop made for dancing out a loveless love.” The song has become a mantra for Cherry Bomb in learning to let go of old painful patterns and letting in the pleasure of self she once abandoned for the love and acceptance of others.

Listeners then got a taste of Cherry Bomb’s rebellious side with “Digital Girl,” a dizzying Y2K-inspired synth pop single offering fiery resistance to the pressures of modernity. Her artistic vision then grew to biblical proportions on the glamorous, disco pop anthem of “Sorry You're Not Sorry,” a story of self-love, confidence, and alchemizing heartbreak into heartbeats. It mirrors the neon, bedazzled world of Cherry Bomb with feather boas, the highest high heels and the spirit of ballrooms.

Lee’s opening statement as a solo artist culminates with “Myriad Reflector” strikes like lightning in a glass jar. Inspired by the original name for the disco ball, Cherry Bomb sings, “Need the broken pieces for light to get in between / Now I barely hear you when I'm blowing out the speakers!” “The multitudes of tiny, glittering, fragmented mirrors sparked the idea of how much we need the broken pieces to let the light get through,” she says. “Much like our own experience, the good, the bad and the painful jagged parts soften with time and you learn to embrace all sides.”

The Pursuit of Pleasure is a celebration of feminine power in all its contradictions. It's a reminder that pleasure can be its own form of liberation and that femininity doesn't have to fit a prescribed mold. So turn up the volume, embrace the glitter and let the inner diva take center stage.

“I just hope Cherry Bomb can be a spark for whomever listens,” Cherry Bomb declares.

LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked on your debut single “Never Be Me (M★therf★cker).” I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.

CHERRY BOMB: It has been the craziest year of all the years. Starting this project independently and doing it solo has brought me through all the highs and lows you could possibly face through music, but I'm really grateful. We're at the end of the year, and I'm doing what I set out to do, which was put out a record and have created everything in my power possible to best support the music that I've made that I'm so proud of. I'm the most excited that I get to end the year playing shows because that's the thing that I've missed the absolute most through all of this. It's been two years since I've played a show that's easily the longest it's ever been since getting to play live. To me, that's such a cherry on top to having gone through this whole transformation. I get to come out the other side and do the thing that I love most. This record is called The Pursuit of Pleasure, so it's really just all about the journey of coming back to the parts of you that maybe were shamed out of you or dormant for a while. It's been such a really wild transformation in real time doing record, while also living the experience simultaneously of what the whole ethos of this record is about.

LUNA: Launching Cherry Bomb as a solo project is such a significant evolution from your experience as the frontwoman of a beloved band to now stepping into a space where you're entirely at the helm of your own creative vision. Looking back on this transition, how has this chapter of your life empowered you as an artist and equipped you with the confidence and creative freedom to bring The Pursuit of Pleasure to life on your own terms?

CHERRY BOMB: It has only been empowerment. Even in the moments of feeling disempowered or feeling like, oh no, people aren't liking this. I think that's a necessary part of the process to really trust the intuition that I'm doing something that is making someone else uncomfortable, but it's true to me. That to me tells me everything I need to know that I am doing something authentic and really following what it is that I love versus what it is I think others will love for me. It’s exposure therapy.

LUNA: I remember in our last conversation from February, when we spoke about stepping into a solo project, I asked what parts of yourself you discovered or were surprised by the most, and you mentioned feeling more embodied in your femininity. I’d love to revisit that, especially now that The Pursuit of Pleasure is out. How does that sense of femininity weave its way throughout the record, and in what ways did you explore or express that side of yourself through the songwriting and overall creative direction of this project?

CHERRY BOMB: The femininity in this project is really the balance of softness and strength. I think a lot of the time, we think feminine is all soft, and even in our fabrics and how we present and how we dress. But it's really both. It's that grit and glamor. It's the pain and the pleasure, the joy and the grief. All of the juxtapositions to me are femininity. You don't have to be the one thing that I think society holds us to the standard of what it is to be a woman. I'm really stoked that Cherry Bomb — and it's in the name too of that duality of self that is being a woman — that I'm not going to fit in this box of what is expected of me. With that is definitely the things I'm wearing, the way I'm writing, the way I'm performing. I have dancers and I'm doing choreo and things that are very much you have to be in your body for, so that's been one of the coolest parts of this is not shying away from that, because I think prior, it was always how do I Trojan horse my way into this really male dominant side of the industry. This time, I’m not hiding it. This has been such a fuck you to the standard of what is expected women, which gets me really jazzed.

LUNA: The motto for The Pursuit of Pleasure is “Viva la Diva.” I was wondering what does that mean for you?

CHERRY BOMB: Long live the divas. Long live the maximalists. Authentic, big, bold, loud women that take up space.

LUNA: With The Pursuit of Pleasure marking your debut full-length record under Cherry Bomb, I’d love to hear more about the inspiration behind the album. What initially sparked the concept or themes that came to shape this body of work, and what were you hoping to capture through these songs? Ultimately, what do you hope listeners connect with or take away from the record when they hear it for the first time?

CHERRY BOMB: I hope it's a bridge back to what parts of themselves they're missing, and a reminder: it's never too late to get back to the little firecracker who wore boas to school and singing “You Don't Own Me.” I just want everybody, whether you fuck with the music or not, to have a spark of I don't need to hide. The Pursuit of Pleasure, I had that album title saved for years. I had an ongoing notes app of little hits of inspiration, and that album title really stuck because it just felt so true to what I was doing for this project, regardless of how it's perceived, regardless of what comes from it, was just a love letter to self and a love letter to finding joy and passion and fun in music again. I think this industry does a really great job at sucking all the life out of something that is the antithesis of what it becomes when it's manufactured through the industry. That album just felt like such a really great way to encompass what I was trying to do, and it wasn't a definite now I'm happy. It's the pursuit of pleasure. I'm on the journey, and it's messy, and it's not rainbows and butterflies, and a lot of the underbelly of it is messy and hard. That duality is how you find healing.

LUNA: You spoke about how, in starting Cherry Bomb, you felt this deep need to reconnect with parts of yourself that you had lost along the way. Now that you've brought The Pursuit of Pleasure to life, I'm curious whether making this record allowed you to rediscover some of those parts of yourself. What did that reconnection look like throughout the creative process, and are there aspects of yourself that you feel you've reclaimed or come to understand in a new way through this project?

CHERRY BOMB: There's a photo I have of myself when I'm in first grade, and I'm blowing a kiss with sunglasses and a sparkly outfit and a boa and that to me was the north star of this whole project of she was fearless. That's where the nickname came from. It was always like firecracker and Ginger Spice and I was a very feisty little diva. I even had my hair too as such a tribute to her. I have this streak in the back of my head that's a birthmark in my hair that's really vibrant red. That's where my mom was like, “This is your fire streak. This is where your pizzazz comes from.” Everything I've been doing is really doing what would make her proud. I think parts of her have always been there. It's not like MisterWives was something where I wasn't who I am. It's just that this is another side of me that maybe didn't fit in the band, so this was an incredible exercise to really let her run free.

LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on The Pursuit of Pleasure — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Cherry Bomb is right now?

CHERRY BOMB: “Myriad Reflector” is one that sums up how ethereal the vocals are with really big brass, distorted synths. I think that sonically really sums up the in between of the album, but also the overall meaning of you need the broken pieces for light to get in between. You need the mess to fully become who you are and not shy away from the ugly parts. I think you need all of it to make something beautiful, like a myriad reflector, like a disco ball that refracts all this light and can light up a room in a way that is so euphoric, but it needs the broken bits for that to happen.

LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?

CHERRY BOMB: I just hope Cherry Bomb can be a spark for whomever listens. That it's not too late to be who you truly are.

LUNA: How are you celebrating the album release?

CHERRY BOMB: I am hoping to throw a party. I've got a lot going on, but if we can cherry-fy my house and throw an album release party, I think that would be really fun. The shows to me are really a celebration in person. I've just been on the phone interfacing that way for so long that I'm just looking forward to getting a connection with humans in real life and dancing it out together is the best medicine. That will be the celebration.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?

CHERRY BOMB: I feel crazy in the best way. I'm so spread thin doing this independently. You're just wearing a million hats. You have to make the hats that you're wearing is what this whole project feels like. I'm really proud of what I've accomplished. There's been so much growth and pushing myself while also being gentle with myself about how hard this process has been and finding the joy, creativity and freedom that I've been missing. I’m excited that I get to play a show finally because I think being home this long is probably not good for my mental health.