Mandy, Indiana

Manchester-based experimental noise quartet Mandy, Indiana present “Drag [Crashed],” the final pre-album release single/video from their much anticipated debut album, i’ve seen a way, out next Friday, May 19th on Fire Talk. Recorded in caves, crypts and shopping malls, i’ve seen a way transcends genre into an expertly executed vision that is at once chaotic and precision engineered. As producer/guitarist Scott Fair explains, “We wanted to alter textures, create clashes, and craft those moments when what you’re expecting to happen never comes.” The band’s soundworld is completed by frontperson Valentine Caulfield’s lyrics of fury and fairytales, as she sings in her native French to express her frustration at the state of the world. On the propulsive “Drag [Crashed],” Caulfield directs her ire toward everyday acts of misogyny as a siren-like guitar sounds the alarm.

Caulfield explains: “‘Drag [Crashed]’ is a collection of things that were said to me or about me because I’m a woman. From middle-aged men saying I would ‘pop some fly buttons’ to my dad and that he would need a gun to fend off the boys when I was a literal toddler, to educators telling me my shoulders would ‘distract the boys’ and I therefore needed to cover myself, and romantic partners trying to control my body, ‘Drag’ is a personal exploration of what it means growing up a girl.” Pitchfork’s new “Rising” feature gives further insight into the origin of the song.

The accompanying “Drag [Crashed]” video, directed by Ella Margolin (Porridge Radio, Jessica Winter) and featuring movement direction by Jacquelyn Tepper, is a disquieting translation of its source material’s subject matter. Margolin comments “I spent a long time thinking about misogyny as a feeling; the power dynamics that lie at its core and the ways they manifest in our lives. I was thinking about the rituals that we take part in collectively; how natural these power dynamics can feel and how blindly we play them out in our day-to-day. I really wanted to explore the violence implicit in these moments and the feeling of inevitability that underscores them. This inspired the idea of creating some form of ritualistic snog. I wanted to portray a degree of the complicity we all have in these rituals – the weight of their inevitability. I didn’t want it all to be about struggle. I wanted to represent a range of responses – apathy, fear, pride, shame, validation etc. – they all feel so present in our lives and in our engagement with these power dynamics.”

Mandy, Indiana draw on the broad sonic palette of experimental noise music, and their sound arrives fully formed. The group initially came to fruition after Caulfield and Fair met sharing a bill with their former projects in the fertile Manchester scene, and was later completed with the addition of Simon Catling (synth) and Alex Macdougall (drums). Their first recordings emerged in 2019, culminating in 2021’s “…” EP which saw the band draw early cosigns from Daniel Avery, Squid, and Gilla Band, whose own Daniel Fox mixed several of the tracks on i’ve seen a way, alongside Robin Stewart of Giant Swan. Produced by Fair, the album boasts mastering credits from indie stalwart Heba Kadry.

Unlikely off-site recording locations with novel acoustics were crucial to achieving i’ve seen a way’s unique sound, from recording screaming vocals in a Bristol mall to live drums in a West Country cave. Other sessions happened in Gothic crypts, where Mandy, Indiana’s physical bass frequencies and experiments with volume competed with underground roadworks in upsetting a yoga class above. Fair elaborates: “These locations offered something acoustically, but would traditionally be thought of as having the ‘wrong’ characteristics for producing a ‘good’ recording. These spaces imprint on the sound: It’s not about a lack of access to more traditional recording spaces — it’s about us capturing things happening in a specific place at that moment.” i’ve seen a way is a manifesto for these moments of openness and disruption.