Hey Sara! Congrats on your debut LP, "Nonfiction"! Why did you decide to call yourself Teen Idle and where did the idea for the name come from?

Thank you. I've sort of had the named "Teen Idle" in my back pocket since high school. At that time in my life I was sort of fantasizing about starting a band but was way too shy to. So I promised myself that once I had my own band, this had to be the name. "Teen Idle" is the title of a Marina and the Diamonds song that I heard about in high school, but the funny thing is I never listened to that song until 2021 or 2022.

You say that some of your influences are Lindsey Buckingham and The Supremes. Were there any other musicians or even other types of music that inspired you to become one later on?

The Supremes influence didn't really exist until I started to write my first EP, Insomniac Dreams. I'd always been interested in the pop melodies and lovelorn undertones of '60s music since I was younger, but I didn't realize it actually had a sonic influence on me until I started writing that album, actually.

The Fleetwood Mac influence has been there since I started writing songs, since it was actually my discovery of the song "Rhiannon" that made me want to write songs in the first place. At 15 years old I was really taken aback by how haunting that song is; once I discovered the rest of the Fleetwood Mac catalog, I decided that was the feeling I need to evoke with my own music.

The musicians who were the real catalysts behind me pursuing music and fronting my own band were, funny enough, pop artists like Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, and Gwen Stefani. As a kid still living in Queens, NY, I'd come home every day in the first and second grades and go across the street to my neighbor's house after school to watch hours of MTV music videos. This led me to buy various pop music CDs, the first Gwen Stefani, to accompany me on the bus to school.

"Birthday Cake," the single that was released before the album was released, is certainly a catchy song. The song is one that talks about themes of adolescence intertwined with recklessness that you had observed through your years in college. Why did you arrive at the idea to call the song "Birthday Cake"?

Yeah, the song is really about a troubled adolescent who refuses to grow up and makes a series of bad decisions that scare their loved ones. It's definitely an observational song and the protagonist is a caricature that combines various people I sort of came to know in college. The title comes from this line in the song - "You like the taste of birthday cake / And all your friends singing your name". To me at least, that lyric is about how, despite this person's reckless actions - whether it be drug abuse or running away from home - they still cherish moments of innocence like celebrating a birthday, recognizing the importance of keeping family and friends around. So it seemed like the perfect title for a song about reckless adulthood.

Interestingly, the song "Norway" that comes after "Birthday Cake" builds on more of the ideas of the previous track. Out of all the places in the world, why did you choose Norway to be the title of the song?

Why not? Norway is a cool place!

Just kidding, I do have an actual answer. I think I actually had the song title before writing this one, which doesn't really happen to me too often. Actually this song is not about Norway at all! But I was interested in exploring the idea of someone feeling stuck in their hometown and adopting a "grass is always greener" mindset, trying to escape their town yet never really feeling happy anywhere else they live. Aside from really just liking the way the word Norway looks for whatever reason, I suppose the fact that I lived in Denmark for a few months and have an underlying love for Scandinavia could have been a subconscious influence. But the lore is that the word Norway just rhymed really well with the lyric "away". I suppose the song could have also been called "Taipei". That'll be the remix.

The instrumental "Epigraph" is quite an interesting one indeed. I dug the guitar playing on this. When did you begin learning to play guitar and what was the idea of putting in a musical interlude in the middle of the album?

Well, thank you, it's always nice to hear that an interlude serves its purpose. I've been playing the guitar since I was 9. I started at a tiny little music school by my house that's in a shopping center in the back of a music store, and became obsessed with the instrument. I would force my teacher to teach me songs from Green Day, the Jonas Brothers, and Paramore, and then I would do my own learning on YouTube and come back and surprise him with some random new technique I learned. I was never really good at following a structured lesson.

I always knew there had to be an interlude on this record. I'm a big fan of albums that do this skillfully, sort of taking you to another planet on the same record and cleansing your palette at the same time. On my album it feels like after "Things You Say" there is a marked shift in ambience and mood, so the interlude does a nice job of bridging that upbeat, intense rock song into "Spiderwebs", a soft ballad.

Are there any more shows in the works for the future?

Oh yes! There are always Teen Idle gigs brewing. The next one will be December 14, headlining at Finnegan's Pub in Hoboken.

What other projects are you working on for the future?

Naturally when you release one album you start working on all the new material you've been writing. I'm pretty sure I already have full demos done for an entire new album, maybe two. I'm not sure what form these songs are going to take in terms of a body of work but I have so much music that I'm excited to record.

I'd love to also get Teen Idle to do some shows on the West Coast (Seattle, San Fran, Portland, L.A.), if I can find band members willing to make the trek, and maybe an East Coast weekender run.

Is there anything you would like to say to our readers?

Thank you for your support and giving me a platform to share my art. If you haven't checked out my album Nonfiction, I recommend it- you might like it! And I had fun answering these questions! They were refreshing.


Artist Bio
Teen Idle is the musical moniker of NJ-based producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sara Abdelbarry. In middle school, Sara was convinced she would become a cardiac surgeon – conveniently, her craft still gets to the heart, just with sound instead of a scalpel.

Sara crafts rock music with a pop structure that's an ode to the heartfelt sounds of '60s crooners like The Ronettes meshed with the gritty influence of '90s rock and abrasiveness of the guitar sounds of Lindsey Buckingham. Teen Idle's first full-length album Nonfiction is out everywhere now via label H1 Massive. The record debuted in the Top 150 on the NACC radio charts, just two positions below the Foo Fighters.

Listen to / Purchase "Nonfiction"

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

TikTok