Trophy Wife’s sophomore album, Pathetic, is an exercise in authenticity. During our conversation, bassist Mena Lemos shared, “I think all of us like music that’s honest.” Listening to Pathetic, it’s clear that Trophy Wife doesn’t just value honesty—they make music that embodies it. Throughout the record, McKenzie Iazzetta’s lyrics read like diary entries, while the band’s DIY roots coat the album in a layer of grit only procured by playing in basements and backyards.
Fronted by vocalist and songwriter McKenzie Iazzetta, alongside Christian Pace on guitar, Mena Lemos on bass, and Michael Martelli on drums, Trophy Wife is celebrating Pathetic with an album release show at Baby’s All Right this Friday. McKenzie says to expect “screaming, drinking, and temporary tattoos”—the holy trinity of a perfect night. I’ll be there, and hope you will be too.
How does it feel to have Pathetic out in the world?
McKenzie: It feels great. We’ve been working on it since Get Ugly came out, which is our last record. It feels weird that these are new songs for us, because we’ve been working on them for so long. The other day, I was thinking “I have to get new music out” and then, I was like “oh, wait, there’s new music coming out right now.”
Get Ugly was representative of your band’s transition from the Boston Underground to the Brooklyn scene. Has moving to Brooklyn changed or developed your sound in any way?
McKenzie: Definitely. I think it has allowed us to play more. We’re a band that likes to play shows, we like to be hands on, and we like to be out doing stuff. That’s how we got better. When we moved here, we played thirty three shows in New York alone and around thirty shows outside of the city. We played every week, sometimes even twice a week. That was more of our rehearsal than actually being in a practice space. We just kept playing shows, playing shows, playing shows, and getting more comfortable with ourselves. And we got to do that so much in New York, because there’s so many venues.
For those shows, were you putting together the bills yourself? Or being asked to be on them?
McKenzie: Never. We got here and we said yes to every show that was asked of us. We never booked a show ourselves. Until our Get Ugly album release show in 2024, we just said yes to everybody. To get experience, play more, and meet people. We were spoiled in that way.
Across Pathetic the lyrics are detailed, personal moments that read like a diary. What did the writing process look like for the album?
McKenzie: I would wait until I had something. I keep a notes page in my phone and every time I have an idea, I write something down. Not necessarily a song, but a line, a word, or sometimes I’ll write something really long and annoying. Then when I want to write a song, I’ll look back into my notes and take pieces. A lot of the songs aren’t about one thing, they aren’t about one moment, it’s almost a through line of connections I’ve made from different things and experiences. But, I wrote it all between 2024 and when Pathetic came out.
What was the last song that you finished on the album?
McKenzie: It was “Alone.” I didn’t think that it was good or that we should have it on the album. But then, Mena and Christian and Michael were like, let’s just try doing it.
Mena: And then, we all loved it up front. It was so good. It came together so fast, like faster than any other song ever. Michael was playing the drum part, and I was about to be like, “I have an idea for the drums,” and he played exactly what I thought he should. It was already written by God.
McKenzie: But, I for some reason was like, I don’t think that this is a good song.
You’re always your own biggest critic.
McKenzie: Good. That’s how it should be. Nothing is worse than somebody that’s not their biggest critic.
When I was listening to Pathetic, I felt like the lyricism revealed a lot about power dynamics within personal relationships. Does writing music allow you to reclaim power within imbalanced relationships? That might be a stretch.
McKenzie: I don’t know that’s a stretch at all. Honestly, I wrote a lot when I was trying to twist a situation, so that I was in control. It’s like when you’re talking to your friends and you’re like “no, I am actually the one who wanted to do this, this, and this.” I was trying to squeeze control out of situations where I felt out of control and turn it around. And, you know, take a look at myself harder.
Why did you title the album pathetic?
McKenzie: We went back and forth for a long time. The album was almost called “Dirty Movie,” which is the last track on the album. But, from the start, Christian was like, I think the album should be called pathetic because of the first line of “So Hard,” “Can’t you get pathetic for me?” Right before we uploaded everything, we were like, okay, it’s pathetic.
What is it like when you work together? What’s the band dynamic like?
McKenzie: I always bring in the lyrics, melody, chords, just me and guitar. Then, I bring it to Christian, Michael, Mena and we make it into a real song. I usually play it for them by myself and then we are like, “Okay, let’s try it and see what happens.” Sometimes, like “Alone,” it happens immediately and the whole song comes together. Then for some songs, like “Kind Of Girl,” it took us so long to get it right.
Were there any songs on the album that you guys almost axed or doubted putting on?
McKenzie: No, we don’t have extra songs. There’s only what’s out. It’s not like there were fifteen songs at first and we cut six. We wrote nine songs and that’s it. I don’t tend to write more songs than are necessary for me.
When I was listening to the album, the songs “Paragraph” and “Nesbit” reminded me of Wednesday. Where do you take your influences from?
McKenzie: Obviously, we’re inspired by everything that we hear. I grew up on a lot of country music, so I think that’s definitely an influence in my songwriting. I mean, yeah, we love Wednesday, they’re awesome. But, I think that we all have our own things that we pull from and I think that makes us sound like us. We don’t have a band that we’re specifically chasing after.
We also all listen to our own stuff. Christian listens to a lot of death metal and classic rock and Michael really likes electronic music, like Björk and Arca. We all have music we love that overlaps, but my favorite artists are Arthur Russell, Tori Amos, and Xiu Xiu. Mena listens to a lot of emo stuff.
Mena: Yeah, I like a lot of emo music. I feel like what I like is that we all listen to different stuff. Recently, I realized subconsciously how important this is to me. I think all of us like music that’s honest. All of our favorite artists are writing really honest stuff.
Do you have any favorite bands in Brooklyn right now?
McKenzie: Yes. Mena’s in a band called Trash Rabbit that she fronts and also our friends, Paper Lady, are really awesome. Also Laveda, bloodsports, Wulfer. Or Best Offer and Meg Elsier are both awesome and they’re support for us at our release show on the 24th.
Mena: There’s so many bands in New York that the ones that stick out are so good.
Pathetic closes with the track “Dirty Movie,” why did you choose to end the album on a discordant note?
McKenzie: That’s a good question. I would say we kind of knew that the song was going to be last because we felt like it tied it off the album nicely. When I wrote the song with just me and the guitar, I knew that the end would kind of get crazy. I had already written it dynamically that way. Towards the end, we kept layering it on and seeing what we could do with it. We love noise and screaming and heavy music.
Do you scream on stage for that one?
McKenzie: Oh yeah. I’m often screaming on stage. I’ve figured out how to do it every time. You don’t often get to scream in front of so many people and then everyone says yay. That doesn’t happen much in your adult life. I will take every chance I can get to throw a tantrum.
So, what can people expect from your album release show at Baby’s?
McKenzie: Screaming, drinking, and we have temporary tattoos. They’re tramp stamps that say Trophy Wife.
Mena: That’s exactly what I was going to say.
Listen to Pathetic