Giving in to your desires doesn’t have to feel scary or shameful, as proven by Cherry Bomb’s newly released debut album, The Pursuit of Pleasure. The bedazzled red and pink hues of MisterWives frontwoman Mandy Lee’s solo endeavor lay the foundation for unabashed self-love and liberation in the wake of starting over. First detonating with her lead single “Never Be Me (M★therf★cker)” earlier this year, the project became an outlet for Lee to reconnect with the fearlessness of her younger self and embrace her inner diva in screaming color.
Cherry Bomb’s power lies in her defiant vibrancy. From shimmering DIY crafts to insatiable dancefloor-ready anthems, The Pursuit of Pleasure is a labor of love that celebrates the messiest, loudest and boldest pieces of womanhood. The album’s eleven songs are the soundtrack to unlearning years of cruel judgment and subsequent grief that dulled her sparkle, allowing Lee to shatter the people-pleasing tendencies of her past and focus on reclaiming her future.
Ahead of its release, Crave was invited to take a bite of the cherry-verse by the DIY diva herself for a heartfelt discussion about bringing The Pursuit of Pleasure to fruition and learning to trust her own desires and intuition along the way.
AMBER, CRAVE MUSIC MAG: Firstly, I love everything about Cherry Bomb, from the sounds to the aesthetics to the message behind it, just everything you’ve shown the world so far. How would you describe this beautifully fierce, glitter-soaked project to anyone who hasn’t yet heard of you?
MANDY LEED, CHERRY BOMB: She is just a bridge back to your younger self, and hopefully can be a spark for anyone who comes across the project to have permission to maybe reconnect with parts of ourselves that become dormant. The older we get, the more the world tells us to be less of who we are, and she’s the antithesis of that.
Your debut single “Never Be Me (M★ther f★cker)” first invited everyone into this cherry-flavored universe, but what inspired you to embark on a solo endeavor after the MisterWives hiatus?
I mean, classic never say never. I was always such a band person. I love being in a family; I love creating in a collaborative way and not doing it on my own, but the band got to a point where we deserved a break and were feeling the burnout of the industry. I think after doing this for almost fifteen years together of album, tour, album, tour- going through every iteration of getting dropped, and all of the trials and tribulations of being in the music industry, we were like, “It’s okay to hit pause. We’re not going anywhere, God willing.”
I read how things are going in the world, and in that time, I realized there’s never been a plan B. There’s never been anything else. So I still had a lot to say and was really inspired by the canvas being so blank. This is a unique opportunity to get to build something entirely new because [with] the band, even though you have a new album and it’s a new era, you’re still building off of a foundation that’s already there.
So I felt really excited while also very overwhelmed by how it can be daunting, being like, where do I begin? But what I let lead the project was, “Okay, what do I like?” and that was the little North Star for the whole project.
What has everything so far taught you about yourself at this stage in the project’s detonation?
I think it’s taught me how to trust my instincts and intuition. I think that has been a challenge but also such a reward. Unlearning that when you’re in a band, everything is about the collective and what everybody wants, and that’s beautiful and amazing and so fun to collaborate in that way, but I think with this project, I couldn’t rely on others, what they wanted and their opinion. That was really necessary for me as a recovering people pleaser. It was like, “Oh, I can’t put this project through the lens of what do people want from me?” It was, “What do I want for me?”
That definitely has been the biggest learning curve and incredible takeaway. Cherry has been such an incredible alter ego to have, where it’s helping me apply this to regular life, outside of just the art and creation of the project.
It’s been so cool to watch you do your own thing and find your own voice outside of the band as just yourself. As a DIY diva, what’s been the most rewarding part of being an independent artist and having more creative control over every step of this process?
The best part is I don’t have to answer to a suit telling me no. I can be as unhinged and maximalist and in your face, and I don’t have to answer to someone being like, “We don’t think this is the single,” or “This isn’t the right look for you.” I would get that a lot in MisterWives. Any label we were with would make comments about what I was wearing, how I looked, my body, what I sounded like, how I performed.
So while I don’t have the resources those labels provided, I’d much rather do it on my own terms, where I get to fully authentically do what I am feeling inspired to do. I think that’s really transcended into the whole DIY diva of it all. It has been really fun to bring my friends into the fold. All the music videos are just my friends and my family, and we’ll have parties at my house where everybody comes and gets dressed up in my closet, bake and have drinks, and we make it just such a party that the creating transcends into what community it’s building.
My friends will be like, “I would never wear this, and this makes me feel so excited to go out in this outfit.” And it’s been really fun to have those little pockets of everybody getting to be Cherry Bomb.
I love that so much. Now, your debut album, The Pursuit of Pleasure, will be released this fall. Congratulations! What does the title mean to you, and how does that meaning connect to each of the tracks on the album?
The Pursuit of Pleasure was the manifesto for this whole project, and perfectly encompassed my learning to know what my desires are while unlearning the shame and guilt that is programmed and conditioned into us whenever we do feel pleasure, especially as women. Society, religion, the patriarchy- all of it is like: if you’re a woman with pleasure, it’s sinful and forbidden, like Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It’s very much pulling from rebelling against that and learning what my pleasures are. The record is less about you getting to an end goal, and now you’re happy and everything’s okay. It’s really not through that lens. It’s just more about the pursuit of it. What do I like? What do I wanna write and create without worrying about how I’m judged or perceived? Which is the ultimate liberation.
Also, fun fact: it’s an acronym for pop, so I love that it’s got that little snappy, like, “yeah, this is a pop record.” That also gets so much negative connotation where people think it’s lowbrow and doesn’t hold up to the rest of the genres. Especially coming from a super male-dominated part of the music industry where pop was looked down on, it’s been really cool to embody that I’ve always made this music, and I’m not ashamed of it. You’re not cool for thinking pop is lame.
Say it louder!
Yes! The pop and pleasure feel so intended with each other of what it is to be a woman and how pop stars get put through a lens that other male artists don’t. It’s all speaking to each other in this record.
I’m so glad you said that, because that leads me to my next question. “P.O.P.” feels like the perfect invitation into the heart and soul of not only this album, but also Cherry Bomb as a whole. Where did you find the inspiration for this track, and how does it speak to the message of this project for you?
It just encompasses the whole record, and it’s funny because it’s the last song I did. I knew I always wanted to make it, but I had to get through the trenches of the record to get to that part where now I’m embracing that I’ve arrived here. I think it’s taking ownership of abandoning the guilt and the shame that we’re programmed to feel, and calling you to take control of your life, your desires and not being ashamed or fearful of it.
We just get this one little fucking silly, precious life, and I don’t wanna keep living it fearful of what if people don’t like this or don’t like me or don’t like what I’m making. I have to like it, and that’s what the song mirrors back, and I hope it helps anyone who listens. Whether you like the song or not, I think the message is just go live your life.
Oh, and I love the double entendre. It’s fun to sing, “a little bit of pop never hurt nobody.” It’s just about the music, the pursuit of pleasure and everything that this project is. I always made pop music with the band, but because it was a band, we got put in this alternative world where there would always be negative connotations. I love this music, and I’m proud of it, and I don’t have to feel ashamed because I’m not in a boys’ club anymore.
It’s the most freeing thing. I can do what I want, and that’s it. It’s all just catharsis and liberation and joy as an act of rebellion. That’s what that song is all about.
Amazing. The best way that I can describe The Pursuit of Pleasure is an absolutely phenomenal and fun celebration of just independence, femininity and self-expression from start to finish. What are you most proud of when it comes to the pursuit of pleasure and all the hard work that it kinda took to bring this sparkling vision to life?
Oh my God. I’m gonna cry. I’m proud that I did the thing that felt impossible. I felt the fear of doing a solo project and starting over. I’ve had to start over a lot in my life, and I think fully embracing who I am, where I’m at and giving myself permission to expand when the world tells you to shrink is really what I’m most proud of.
No, no number, no accolade, no anything. Just truly honoring little Mandy and who she was and knowing this project is for us, and anyone else who connects, I’m so grateful. It opens up this whole community where it hopefully can be a spark for anyone else to feel the same.
I love that so much.
I didn’t prepare for the energy cycles, and now I’m like, “Ah!” A lot of emotions.
I mean, it’s your first album as a solo artist. It’s essentially your baby when you think about it!
It really is, and I feel like, especially right now too, I feel so proud of doing the thing that goes against everything in the industry of how it’s ageist and sexist. You know, I’m doing this at 34, starting over, and that is young, but in music terms, I’m a dinosaur. But I think zigging when the world tells you to zag and not letting the external voices of what the industry defines as where I should be has been really liberating. To be like, “Yeah, actually I’m gonna do this on my own terms,” because to me, it’s that quote like, “Insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results.” I always was on a major label; I was always under the powers that be and the gatekeepers, and it’s just been really cool to be like, “I actually don’t wanna sit at that table. I’m just gonna make my own.”
100%. What song are you most excited for people to hear, and why?
Oh, that’s such a hard question. It’s such a cop-out to be like the whole record because it’s such an album-girly record. I’m like, no, listen to it start to end, go on a journey. I’m really not about singles. The album is always gonna be God to me, but I guess I’m really excited for, I mean, this will probably change depending on the mood, but “Myriad Reflector.”
I just think that song really embodies Cherry Bomb and captures the dichotomy of the project. The vocals are very ethereal, paired with super distorted synths and just so in-your-face maximalist production. I know the lyrics, too, really help. I thought “Myriad Reflector” is the original term for a disco ball, and I had that saved in my song ideas when I get little sparks and write it down.
A disco ball, while it’s at the heart of the dance floor and very much about the fun of it all and dancing through our pain and that catharsis, the visual of seeing a bunch of little tiny broken fragments and how that makes up the whole experience, and then how that also helps amplify the light, just felt like such a beautiful way to embody Cherry.
What are some things that you hope that listeners will take away from the album after they press play the first time?
I don’t wanna beat a dead horse or just keep repeating myself, but I really hope she is a mirror to anyone listening that you have permission to be the fullest, loudest, most colorful, sparkly version of yourself. And if that doesn’t apply, whatever it is that’s your muchness or your not enoughness, all of that is enough here and should be celebrated.
Beautiful. I love it. What about returning to the stage as Cherry Bomb excites you the most?
Oh my God, I just have full-body chills thinking about it. The stage, to me, is home. That’s the ultimate best part of music. It’s one thing for it to be cathartic in creating and your own experience, but when you take that really sacred process and get to connect with people in real life–not the fucking phones, not screens, not algorithms–and you have full-on tangible connection, that is my favorite form of release in music. And I have really missed that.
It’s been two years since I played a show with MisterWives. The live show has always been my greatest love language in music, so not having that has made me feel this gaping hole in my soul of who am I, and what is my purpose? To get to experience that again, whether there’s truly five people or 5,000, I do not care. It is going to be the biggest celebration and the biggest catharsis, and I’m just excited to get to go home.
I feel, sometimes, homesick when I’m home, where the show just made me have this sense of belonging, which anyone who loves music like that [knows] the community is such a huge crux of why you love it. I’m starting to work on the show now, and I truly am like, I don’t care about numbers; there can literally be one person there, and I’m gonna give it my absolute all.
Whether you’re religious or not, to me, it’s the most magical, majestical, euphoric human experience you can possibly have. I’m very excited and nervous, but nerves are just excitement. I have to always tell my brain that this is just your body [being] excited, and that’s what butterflies are.
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