Teen Idle reintroduces herself with a cinematic serving of ‘Birthday Cake’

For many, the idea of a birthday cake represents a maturing progression, the passing of time, and a person’s evolution into a continuing, or journey towards, adulthood. But for “Birthday Cake,” the new slow-burning single from New Jersey’s Teen Idle, the cake that sits in front of its antagonist represents something at difficult odds with its intended purpose – time may be passing, as its uncompromisingly does, but the person is not pushing forward or progressing alongside it.

Teen Idle Birthday Cake Artwork — ***Art Credit:*** *Samantha Abdelbarry*

It’s a weighty subject, and one that belies the title’s reference point of a sweet dessert that usually elicits smiles. And that’s by design. “Birthday Cake,” available now via H1 Massive, is the first delectable slice from Teen Idle’s forthcoming fall album Nonfiction, a largely autobiographical album from songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sara Abdelbarry that carries forth her musical vision of “emotional rock with a cinematic tendency” while dancing loosely within the ever-expanding halls of indie, dream-pop, and grunge.

“‘Birthday Cake’ isn’t specifically about anyone, but rather a caricature of a person,” Abdelbarry says. “In some ways the song is autobiographical because the character it deals with is a hyperbolic version of people I’ve known. The song reflects on having a friend who is acting in immature ways you’ve outgrown, but knowing they still need your support and friendship. The character in the song is a reckless young adult who makes a series of bad, impulsive decisions and constantly worries all their friends and family. The type of self-destructive person who gets into legal and drug troubles and doesn’t take advice. Someone who has moved thousands of miles away with no clear plan for their life. And once they come back home, this person has burnt basically all their bridges.”

Harnessing the stories around her and filtering them through Teen Idle’s penchant for melodic, yet unflinching, songwriting is part of the larger narrative for the upstart artist. As Teen Idle, Abdelbarry produced the entire Nonfiction album herself, and performed all its instrumentation aside from its drums (performed by Samir Tawalare and recorded by Connor Hanson). A deep exhale of a single and a mental and emotional release, “Birthday Cake” is the follow-up to her breakout 2020 EP Insomniac Dreams, which earned Teen Idle global indie media praise from the likes of V13 and Mean Muse, and radio play from a spectrum of shows and stations, including KEXP, DKFM, and WRSU. One of the EP’s singles, “Burning,” won Best Music Video at the 2022 Stockholm City Film Festival.

The anticipated release of “Birthday Cake,” however, starts a new chapter for Teen Idle, one that crystallizes previous efforts into a more dedicated nature that reflects Abdelbarry as a person as well as a songwriter and producer. Mixed by Evan Rudenjak and mastered by Kramer (Low, Galaxie 500, Pulp Fiction soundtrack), Nonfiction is designed to glow out of the speakers as a sort of memoir.

With a sound that skillfully interweaves a multitude of styles, Teen Idle can be placed among the likes of Wolf Alice, Lucy Dacus, and Japanese Breakfast, artists that excel in crafting stories. And within it, there’s a delicate balance of weathered grit and an ethereal glow. Falling into the yearning areas in between, allow “Birthday Cake” to act as a sort of reintroduction, she says.

“I toyed around with what the first single should be for a while,” Abdelbarry admits. “At first I very much wanted it to be a song that’s the complete opposite of ‘Birthday Cake’ and very upbeat, but then I realized that the dance-inducing quality of that song didn’t feel appropriate for the first single. A song that reflects on the people around you seemed like an apt way to introduce a record called Nonfiction. The more dance-y track I initially considered as the first single feels more like something to work towards, as it was something I had to work towards in my personal life, that feeling of release.”

That will come in due time, as Nonfiction slowly opens its musical narrative like chapters in a diary, with a series of singles and videos surfacing over the next few months before the album drops in September. Nonfiction is Sara Abdelbarry in this moment, harnessing her life experience over the past few years, starting in 2018, enduring the global pandemic, and emerging out on the other side of the most challenging period of her life. It’s a moment in time, documented through her music. Just don’t expect her to stay in one creative spot for very long.

“As I combine my musical influences and figure out more specifically what aspects of each of them I want to harness and also depart from, my music will keep changing,” Abdelbarry notes. “I’m proud of my first EP, Insomniac Dreams, and I think it’s the best work I’ve released to date; but a lot of those songs adhered to a specific sound. ‘Birthday Cake’ is the perfect example of a departure from that sound that doesn’t feel too foreign. With ‘Birthday Cake’ as my vehicle, I’m introducing myself again for the first time. It kind of feels like I’m saying ‘Hey guys, it’s me again. This is what I sound like as I approach my 26th year of life and it’s only going to get better from here.’”

Suddenly, the metaphor of the birthday cake, and all the things that come with turning another year older, and in some cases wiser or un-wiser, start to take on a parallel view, one that perhaps suddenly has Abdelbarry’s storylines open to wider interpretation. That’s up to the listener to decide. But as for actual birthday cake? That’s not up for debate, as Abdelbarry certainly has her favorites.

“I have a heavy bias towards carrot cake and am borderline obsessed with it,” she concludes with a laugh. “But if for some reason I couldn’t get that, I’d definitely go for chocolate cake. Maybe not so surprising since the single artwork is a chocolate cake.”