Teen Idle

Photo provided by, Teen Idle

Meet Teen Idle

Another fine addition to the ever-growing music scene in beautiful Asbury Park NJ. Teen Idle creates soft swirling tunes that are guaranteed to quell the most turbulent of times. We need that more than ever out in this crazy world.

Their new single “In The morning” is out today and linked below for your listening pleasure. The track is a rocking slow jam that will give you warm feelings all over. Have a listen and get to know this spectacular artist in our latest interview.

A Self-Portrait by, Teen Idle

Would You Rather

fight a 5ft tall nutcracker or a snowman on their home turf? What would be your strategy?

I’ve never liked nutcrackers, but I feel like it’d be easier to defeat a snowman. I do better in colder climates, so I’d be down to take on the snowman. I’d probably try throwing large objects at it until it’s reduced to a mound of snow, but if that doesn’t work I’d probably melt it with a flamethrower, provided I can get Quentin Tarantino to loan me his.

Some questions with Teen Idle

Who has been your biggest support throughout your musical career?

I feel like my parents have always been my biggest cheerleaders. It’s funny because I come from a Middle-Eastern family and I feel like a lot of the time in our culture parents want their kids to get into careers like law or medicine. So I’m super grateful that my parents are supportive of me being a creative person..

What is your favorite park to visit? Why?

This might be what everyone who’s ever lived in New York says, but I love Central Park. I used to live less than a block from it and would walk from the West side of it to the East whenever I needed some fresh air. I studied abroad in Copenhagen for a few months though and am always looking at the pictures I took of the parks there... So I think the Frederiksberg Gardens in Denmark are pretty much tied with Central Park.

What was the last fight you had about / with?

Nothing serious, but I’m pretty sure it was my sister yelling at me for accidentally dumping a very tiny amount of pineapple juice down the kitchen sink. I’m not really sure why I dumped it — it was on the kitchen table and I was just in cleaning mode. It was just one of those mindless things you do when you’re thinking about other things. Maybe this exposes my true feelings about pineapple juice.

What do you think will be the lasting result of COVID 19 on the DIY music scene in Asbury?

Well, the Asbury music community has always bounced back and rose from the ashes so to speak, so I’m not worried about any negative impact. The city has a hunger for music that will never disappear, so I just think what will change, at least as long as we’re still taking public health precautions, is just the scale of things — everything will probably be done at a smaller scale to accommodate for social distancing. A friend of mine owns a studio in Asbury, and he was saying they’re open for business but are just doing smaller recording sessions than before. In terms of live music, people will probably find ways to hold outdoor concerts while social distancing. There’s this DIY venue around here called The Clubhouse, which held an outdoor show a few days ago in its parking lot. People sat in their cars and tuned in over FM radio. That was pretty innovative, and I feel like things like that will keep happening.

With the project being a solo endeavor do you workshop songs with anyone else before they are finished?

I don’t have a co-writer or usual collaborator or anything like that. But sometimes I’ll send my finished demos to a good friend of mine/old music mentor who is a producer, and he’ll help me figure out how to make the song better. He has a great ear and helped produce my first single, “Dreaming,” and a lot of the songs that‘ll be on my upcoming EP.

Was there a catalyst that led to the creation of your single “In The Morning”?

After leaving NYC and moving back to NJ after graduating college, I was pretty miserable in every way. I also had a pretty rough year emotionally, and I remember one day last June, I was sitting on the edge of my bed with an acoustic guitar and the guitar riff for the song just kind of came out. The lyrics were also super stream-of-consciousness and mostly done at that moment.

How would you say the music scene in Asbury compares to Brooklyn? Are there any similarities?

I feel like the scene in Brooklyn is just a grander version of the one in Asbury. Since there are more people in NYC, naturally there are more bands in Brooklyn trying to make a name for themselves and it’s harder to stand out. If you’re a shoegaze band in Asbury, you might find two or three bands making similar music, whereas in Brooklyn there might be a hundred. And I think that leads more bands to get quirky and experimental, because it becomes like a cult of personality where everyone wants to be known and unique in some way.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

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