Teen Idols

Kristina 'Teeny' Lieberson's TEEN is a four-member dream-pop collective composed of Lieberson herself, her siblings Katherine and Libby, and close friend Jane Herships. TEEN's sound is sweet and innocuous, but Lieberson explains that the motivators behind the outfit's debut album In Limbo were blunt. “I got broken up with,” says Lieberson. “I was between bands, that's in there. My father died too. A lot of pretty heavy stuff happened. I feel like there's a lot of anger in there. There's also that liberation in there, after someone's fucked you over and you get over it. And then trying to get over the heartache.”

Formerly the keyboardist of Brooklyn alt-pop band Here We Go Magic, the severity of Lieberson's recent life does not translate directly into the album. In Limbo's opening track, Better, has Lieberson cataloging stuff she does 'better' than an un-named antagonist, including but not limited to 'sitting on top of a pile of horseshit'. “I was actually making fun of someone,” she explains, while probably not actually sitting on a pile of horseshit. “My friend and I were talking and he was like talking about making a film, and how he could do it better than another friend who was a filmmaker even though he had never picked up a camera before. And I just thought it was so ridiculous, so I went home and wrote a song. Sarcastically,” Lieberson concludes.

In Limbo's dense, lo-fi synth, coupled with droning guitar, evokes The Horrors' capacity for triumphant lament. Likewise, Come Back hears Lieberson singing “I've seen too many loves/I've kissed too many men”, a lyric she insists is not to be taken in its literal sense. “I don't actually think that; I think that it was more of a personal thing of, 'Am I doing this again? Am I trying this again? I've done this too many times'. The idea of doing the same kind of boring thing over and over again. It was like, 'I want something different to happen. Please come back'. I think you can sleep with as many people as you want,” Lieberson qualifies.

Lieberson has been making music for almost a decade; having arrived in New York in 2002, she witnessed first hand the final phase of gentrification lamented in LCD Soundsystem's New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down. “Man. When I first moved to New York, we were going to places like Bushwick, which were really rundown,” says Lieberson. Located to the immediate east of Williasmberg, the Bushwick neighborhood is a mixture of formidable, grey apartment blocks and marked ethnicities. Lieberson watched on as its infamously contrived neighbour evolved into the Rome of hipsters, a shift she felt hurt the autonomy of her musical community. “Brooklyn wasn't very Williamsburg back then, specifically, and Bushwick was completely off the map. All those makeshift DIY spaces were really happening, and now, it's just not possible. Because the neighborhoods can't keep up, the rent is too high, and everybody's getting out. It's okay, I've been here for a long time though.”

Following a conventional route in contemporary alt-pop, as Lieberson's sound matured, she moved beyond the instrument in which she initially specialized to a broader range from instruments and influences. “I mean, so much has changed since Here We Go... I make some electronic music, but I'm obsessed with synths now, working and doing everything on the computer,” explains Lieberson. “I'm definitely into more experimental stuff. I play guitar, I didn't play guitar back then. And singing, it's funny how your voice changes. I definitely had a very different way of expressing things. It's definitely more raw and aggressive now.”

Considering all that has transpired, TEEN'S maturation is a natural transformation.