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Sep 27, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Juliette Boulay

Brooklyn outfit Debbie Dopamine makes a moody and magnetic style of indie rock, built atop decadently layered instrumentation, grunge-tinged guitars, and startlingly confessional vocal performances. The band debuted with their 2022 EP, Pets, led by singer/songwriter Katie Ortiz alongside bassist Dylan LaPointe and drummer Zach Rescignano. Since then, the band have returned this year with a pair of new singles, “Worried” and “Marzipan” and are back today with another new track, “Negative Space,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Negative Space” hits new heights of aggression for the band, driven forward by a galloping bassline and cascading guitars. It is short, fast, and heavy, piling on the distortion and dissonant fury to give the track a blistering punk edge. However, the track’s focal point is Ortiz’s nervy, ranting vocal delivery and their searing lyrics. They explore themes of gender dysphoria and perception, narrating their disconnection from their body and pleasure. Gradually, these feelings turn to fury, with Ortiz spitting venom at those who objectify them and use them: “And the fact is I was born a girl / In the shape of a body that’s taunting the world / Fuck the wanting the pleading the nodding / One sight of my skin and you’re suddenly throbbing like / Why? / For this sack of meat?”

Ortiz says the track was written in the aftermath of a weeks-long dissociative episode. “I remember sitting on the subway, staring at my hands, feeling completely separate from myself, “ they share. “I felt like an alien. I had this sudden apathy towards my body, which turned into questioning what I was looking to feel in the first place.”

They continue, saying “I realized I’ve struggled with existing in an AFAB body, both wanting to embrace and completely reject whatever that means. I’ve struggled to embrace my sensuality whilst simultaneously wanting to take it back from those who have projected their idea of what a sexual woman should be on me. I started peeling back the layers, and I discovered there was a great deal of anger there.

I didn’t know how to vocalize how I felt or how I wanted to be perceived in a sensual way. Now I’m exploring something beyond the binary boundary. That’s threatening to the belief systems I’ve learned to internalize, and I like how that feels.”

All of these feelings come together in the track’s final moments, offering a climactic moment of reclamation: “My body is a house, is a home that I build for my goddamn self.”

Check out the song below, out everywhere now.