Q&A: Trophy Wife Turns Inward on Their New Album ‘Pathetic’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Renee Newman
TROPHY WIFE FACES THE MIRROR IN PATHETIC — Brooklyn’s DIY scene has shaped Trophy Wife into one of its most captivating grunge and alternative rock acts. After years of cultivating a devoted following through emotionally charged songwriting and commanding live performances, the band returns with Pathetic, a sophomore album that examines identity, accountability and self-perception with striking honesty.
“I think that we are often exploring emotions that people feel uncomfortable talking about, and emotions that I feel uncomfortable talking about sometimes,” says vocalist and songwriter McKenzie Iazzetta to Luna. “I feel that I write songs to talk about the things that I just don't want to say out loud usually.”
Rather than searching for catharsis, Pathetic confronts the discomfort of looking inward. The album explores the distorted ways people see themselves, challenging the impulse to place blame elsewhere. As Iazzetta explains, “Pathetic feels like trying to figure out what you actually look like but you only have a funhouse mirror. It's more self-conscious than cathartic, taking time to put the blame back on me.”
The band — fronted by Iazzetta alongside Christian Pace (bass), Mena Lemos (guitars) and Michael Martelli (drums) — has expanded its sound without abandoning the grit that established its reputation in Brooklyn's underground music community.
The focus track, “Alone,” is the album standout according to the band. Built around an eerie, melancholic atmosphere, the song examines isolation and internal conflict without losing its edge. Iazzetta's vocal performance shifts between vulnerability, grit and sharp defiance.
“I think [‘Alone’] was a test of our true chemistry,” Pace says to Luna.
For Pathetic, Trophy Wife reunited with producer Charles Dahlke and is mastered by Alex DeTurk whose collaboration helps preserve the band's raw energy.
With Pathetic, Trophy Wife delivers its most focused and fully intentional work to date. The album builds on the foundation the band established in Brooklyn's DIY scene while pushing its songwriting into more vulnerable territory.
Photo Credit: Renee Newman
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
MCKENZIE: I would say that we all take inspiration from different artists that we listened to growing up. I think that's part of what makes us sound like us is that there's not one pinnacle of music that we're all looking to replicate. I really love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I really like Tori Amos and her songwriting and the way that she sings. I really love Arthur Russell too.
CHRISTIAN: I started with The Beatles, and then I got into Rage Against the Machine and Slipknot. I'm a classic music lover. I'm always listening to really old stuff.
MICHAEL: I grew up on rock music. Me and Mackenzie definitely share the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tori Amos and PJ Harvey as inspirations. I'm also a big electronic music and Björk fan. I don't know how much that specifically plays to the band, but I feel like we are constantly sharing the music that we like with each other.
MENA: I love emo music. I feel like when we're all driving on tour that none of us are putting on shit that no one else likes. I think we have a lot of overlap despite how different it is like foundationally.
LUNA: Trophy Wife has always been closely associated with Brooklyn’s DIY scene. New York’s independent music scene is constantly evolving. What excites you most about where it's heading?
MCKENZIE: I think it's just always really cool for us to see our peers doing really cool shit, and it's just really nice being here. There's always a show to go to, and there's always people that want to see shows. People are very passionate about music here, and they really want to care about it, and I think that that's very important for us.
CHRISTIAN: I feel like you never really know where it's going, even if you're looking at what's in front of you. It's just cool when something pops out. It’s just here and there, but it's really hard to find a direction. I don't know where New York is going right now.
LUNA: You just released your sophomore album Pathetic and huge congratulations are in order! What emotions or inspirations did you feel compelled to explore for your second album?
MCKENZIE: I think that we are often exploring emotions that people feel uncomfortable talking about, and emotions that I feel uncomfortable talking about sometimes. I think that it's difficult, even in art, even in heavier music or in rock music, people have a very hard time exploring shame and guilt and girl bossing your way to the sun. I feel that I write songs to talk about the things that I just don't want to say out loud usually.
LUNA: You described the record as “trying to figure out what you actually look like but you only have a funhouse mirror.” Can you unpack that metaphor? What does that mean for you?
MCKENZIE: I feel like something that I always think about is the idea of what being vulnerable is because at the end of the day, you're just telling stories. It's just from your perspective, and there's maybe something from 10 years ago that you described one way to your friends, and in a very vulnerable conversation, where you really wanted to share how you're feeling, and you look back and you're like, “That's not how it was at all.” It's hard to really tell what's actually happening and how you actually feel about it because you're just telling stories to yourself and telling stories to other people.
LUNA: You worked with producer Charles Dahlke and enlisted Alex DeTurk to master the record. What was it like bringing them into your creative process, and how did they influence the sound of the album?
MCKENZIE: Charlie, we worked a handful of times now. He recorded our first EP, Bruiser, and he also recorded our last album Get Ugly. This one he recorded and he also mixed it. Alex DeTurk mastered it, and we got that recommendation from Charlie, and he was really awesome to work with. That was our first time working with him, and it all went very smoothly.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on Pathetic — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Trophy Wife is right now?
CHRISTIAN: I think all of us so far have said that “Alone,” if it's not our all time favorite from it, it's the favorite right now. I think it's because we almost didn't do it. It was a song that McKenzie was feeling unsure about when she brought it to us. She brought the chords and the lyrics, and she was like, “Should we? Should I add another one? Is this one good?” We just pushed through it, and I think we developed something really strange out of it. It doesn't really match any of the other things that we've done before, but I think that that's cool because it existed just outside the comfort zone. I think it was a test of our true chemistry, that we can take something that McKenzie being the one that holds the song with her lyrics and chords and bring it to life. It's cool that she had that vulnerability, and then for us then to be able to take that and turn it into its final result.
MCKENZIE: “Alone” is very awesome to me. I really like playing “Whatever You Want.” It's very different for us.
LUNA: Looking back at the making of Pathetic, what surprised you most about yourself?
MCKENZIE: After making the first album, we felt like we knew the quote-unquote rules of how to make the songs, how to put together an album and how to sound like Trophy Wife. I feel like because we figured that all out with Get Ugly, we got to make something that we were really confident in the sound of, and we got to break some of those rules that we created for ourselves. It was just very comfortable to make.
LUNA: How did you celebrate the album release?
MCKENZIE: We got so drunk, and we ate a carrot cake from Veniero’s, which has the best carrot cake that anyone has ever made. It's a bakery in Manhattan. It is so good. They wrote “Pathetic” on the cake. They just hated my vibe, and so they wrote “Pathetic” on the cake. We had a bunch of friends over to Michael's house in Bushwick, and drank and stood around and took a bunch of pictures and passed around Michael's hat that says “Time for Sex” with a clock on it.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners 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?
MCKENZIE: I think that the reason I write songs is because people live a lot of their lives feeling like they're the only one that feels gross and stupid, and they just feel alone in that. They don't want to tell anybody and they don't want to talk about it. I hope that listening to Trophy Wife makes people feel not necessarily less gross, but maybe like they're not the only one.
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?
CHRISTIAN: I definitely feel very relieved. I think I had a hard time listening to the album before it came out, so I feel very relieved right now. We do have plans for later on this year for potential shows touring. We have the release show on July 24 at Baby’s All Right.
MCKENZIE: We were going to plan on doing a big tour in the U.S. in the fall, and hopefully some scattered shows this summer around the East Coast in New York. Our album release show is July 24 at Baby's All Right, so everyone should come to that.
Photo Credit: Renee Newman
