Over the years, the New York-based musician Mary Jane Dunphe has spent time in DIY bands like Vexx, CC Dust, and CCFX. Right now, Dunphe is getting ready to release her solo debut Stage Of Love, and it’s shaping up really nicely. We’ve already posted the album’s title track, a powerful piece of homespun synthpop, and Dunphe is getting ready to play a pretty sick slate of shows with bands like Angel Du$t, Fiddlehead, and Candy. Today, Dunphe has shared another song, and it’s another good one.

The new Mary Jane Dunphe single is called “Always Gonna Be The Same,” and it’s a warm, pulsing track that was inspired by what sounds like a nightmarish situation with Dunphe’s dental health. Over a gorgeous swirl of keyboards, Dunphe sings the line “once you know you’re in control” again and again, turning it into a kind of mantra. Here’s Dunphe’s backstory for the song, which is not for the faint of heart:

“Always Gonna Be The Same” is like a collage of feelings and thoughts and things said to me during a very hard moment of my life in 2021. I was dealing with health problems with my teeth which grew into an awful infection that caused me to have to get multiple surgeries and even lose my voice for almost a year. All the while my personal life was going through a huge painful upheaval. It was the most internal reflection of the external I have ever had. While I was in the first emergency surgery the dental surgeon shouted at me, ‘Open up your eyes, you are in control!’ I was panicking and choking on everything, and they couldn’t numb me because my tissue wouldn’t take it. It was horrific but also a wake up call, and connects back always to this idea of breathing into things that were causing me extreme pain and that giving up or more over letting go can actually be a victorious act. I don’t have to hold onto the pain in order to honor my journey; I can release it and everything else that doesn’t serve my growth, without grudge. It’s about forgiving yourself for getting hurt.

Mary Jane Dunphe co-directed the “Always Gonna Be The Same” video with Ewelina Rosinska. Below, watch the video and check out Dunphe’s tour dates.

TOUR DATES:
9/23 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
11/13 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre !
11/14 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Beehive !
11/15 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Ballroom !
11/16 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos !
11/17 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre !
11/19 – Reno, NV @ Holland Project !
11/20 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone !
11/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex !
11/22 – Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction !

* with Fiddlehead, Never Ending Game, & Praise
! with Angel Du$t & Candy

Stage Of Love is out 8/25 on Pop Wig Records.