Mannequin Death Squad on becoming fiercely independent

May 8, 2024

Naarm/Melbourne-based rock/punk duo Mannequin Death Squad have just announced their sophomore album, out Friday, November 22. Accompanying this announcement is their latest single off the record, ‘Safe And Warm’ feat. DZ Deathrays. Here, they tell us about being fully hands on:

DIY – “Because you can’t sit around waiting for shit to happen” – Lyndell Mansfield, AKA ‘Mutha’.

Flashback to our second UK Tour: I’m sitting on a leopard print bed in London with a carpet python, slowly trying to squeeze the life out of Dan. We are staying with the ‘DIY Queen’ Lyndell, who was a dear friend of ours before she tragically passed away (RIP).

She ran a DIY punk promotion called ‘DIY Thursdays’ in London, which we had the pleasure of playing at. She was a hairstylist for celebrities around the world, but she still managed to find time to put on the best show in town.

It was her DIY attitude and drive that really resonated with us and influenced how we see our place in the music industry. We always had the DIY in our blood, but she was a massive inspiration to us in becoming fiercely independent in our art and business.

We are self-managed and self-released; we write our music, direct and edit our music videos, coordinate national and international tours and manage the finances, socials and game plan. It gets quite exhausting at times, but it is very rewarding in the end.

As artists in the modern-day music industry, we have found you have a couple of options if you want to take it seriously. Either hand over the reigns to someone else who knows what they’re doing and lose (part or whole) control, or skill the f#$& up and surrender yourself to the chaos of being independent. It can be obviously a lot more nuanced than this, but you get the jist.

Being the hands-on people we are, we continue to opt for the latter.

Although the journey has been arduous, we have found ourselves in a place we thoroughly enjoy. We have been able to tour the world, play with our idols, meet amazing people and even find ourselves headlining a festival stage surrounded by rice fields in the foothills of the Himalayas in India.

We have also founded our own record label, Riot Love Records, for which we released our first album, Super Mental Psycho, in 2022, and it will be home to future releases.

One thing we have learnt is to be uncompromising in our artistic and business journey. We always keep busy and never sit by the phone waiting for it to ring. We have had to create our opportunities and grow them as much as possible into the next whilst never wasting a win.

It’s the snowball that never stops growing.

Being independent doesn’t mean we aren’t open to help, and we would gratefully welcome it. But the right fit hasn’t come our way yet, and we just aren’t going to sit around waiting for shit to happen.

We have nothing against good people in the industry doing good things; we have worked with many (high legends) and will meet many more. But in the end, it comes down to what you can, can’t and are willing to do for your art and business.

If we have any advice for those battling it out indie style (and you haven’t gotten sick of us talking yet), it is to educate yourself, be fierce and relentless, back yourself, be kind to those who deserve it, and be ruthless to those who don’t. It can (and will) be done.

We are so excited to see what the future years will bring, what new things we will learn, and what we will mess up and then get better at next. You never know what is around the corner.

Keep on punching!

Dan and Elly