Q&A: IDER Embraces Female Rage in New Hard-Hitting Single “Know How It Hurts”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
IN A POWERFUL RECLAMATION OF FEMALE ANGER – British alt-pop duo IDER, made up of Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville, have unveiled their evocative new single, “Know How It Hurts,” a track that fiercely channels both their anger and resilience in response to the Roe v. Wade abortion bans in the U.S. As a first look into their highly anticipated third record, Late To The World, set for release on February 21, the single offers a raw, anthemic take on personal choice and the struggle against restrictive ideologies.
“Know How It Hurts” taps into IDER’s signature style, blending intense synths and powerful percussion with their trademark harmonies to create a song that is both deeply intimate and universally resonant. The duo’s ability to harness anger and pain into something uplifting makes this track feel like a collective anthem for resilience.
“We started writing this song a couple of years ago in reaction to the abortion bans in the USA,” IDER says. “It’s about the collective feeling of hurt and disempowerment that was felt during this time and continues to be felt. More personally, it’s about looking back at being a young girl and not knowing how to fit in. It’s an anthem for anyone who feels affected by patriarchal ideologies.”
Discussing the video, they say, “The video for ‘Know How It Hurts’ is loosely inspired by the 90s classic and our favorite film, Thelma & Louise. However, instead of driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon, we decided to poetically rewrite the ending in which we ‘burn the patriarchy’ and drive off into the night.”
Drawing on a mix of dejected British new wave, euphoric electro-pop and swooning alt rock in the vein of Mazzy Star, the resulting sound is as cinematic as their storytelling – with an added dash of grit and the introduction of live drums (while they’ve always used a live drummer on tour, this is the first time they’ve been laid to record) that reflect the album’s real world footing.
Late To The World is a reflection of IDER’s journey into adulthood and self-empowerment. Embracing their roles as artists in their thirties, Markwick and Somerville use this album to reject societal pressures and to chart their own path. Each of its 12 tracks emerges as a rallying cry to step away from cultural expectations and, instead, arrive in one’s life on one’s own terms – a theme that echoes the duo’s enduring message of self-ownership and independence.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
IDER: First and foremost, conversations that we have together and our friendship is probably the biggest source of inspiration for our music, lots of other music as well, like fashion, books and psychology. We tend to dive into all of that stuff. At the heart of what we do is we make music from conversations that we have with each other.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
IDER: I think it depends. There's a big spectrum into the music that we make in terms of the sounds and the feelings that we want to give off with this record. I feel like there's a lot of movement, there's quite a lot of pace. It feels like the kind of music you'd want to drive to, run to or dance to. There's definitely a pace to it. We really value and love writing lyrics. It's a really big and important part of what we do. I think diving in with your headphones and being fully absorbed when you're on the move, it's probably the right atmosphere.
LUNA: Say if someone hasn’t heard of your music yet, which song would you introduce your discography to and why do you gravitate towards that song?
IDER: “Know How It Hurts.” What I love about it is it's got that real Ider harmony in the chorus where our voices feel really buzzy and we're both singing at the same time. I love the lyrics because I think they feel introspective and personal and universal. There's a power to it as well, which I think is it feels like a bit of a call to arms, which is reflective also of the tone of the album as a whole that we're going to be putting out next year and that feeling of power and call to arms.
LUNA: You have released your new single “Know How It Hurts” and it feels deeply introspective and emotionally resonant. What inspired you to explore this theme in the song?
IDER: It was a couple of years ago when we started writing that song. It was actually around the time of the abortion bans, and when that was kicking off in the U.S. in 2022 when Roe v Wade was being horrifically overturned. We went into a studio session, and it was very much on our minds. We decided we wanted to tap into how it was making us feel. I would say that's the original source of inspiration and what we wanted to write a song about. I think, quite naturally as songwriting goes throughout the writing process, it starts to feel like a bit of a call to arms, an anthem for anyone and everyone who's ever felt let down by the world and feeling the weight of patriarchal ideologies. It's extremely painful, but the poignance and the relevance that it's having today, as well for a lot of people especially in the U.S. at the moment. It feels quite bizarre. It's quite mad that we started writing the song two years ago, and now it's coming out with everything that's going on at the moment in the world and politically, it feels very resonant. It's an anthem for everyone.
LUNA: Can you walk us through the creative process for “Know How It Hurts?” How did the song evolve from the initial idea to the final version?
IDER: When we first started writing, it was really quite a pop banger, and we finished writing the lyrics and changed it around a bit, and then we took it to the studio in Wales – which is where we made the album and the lyrics – we found the world that it sits in, which is this mashup of 80s, guitar-driven vibe to it. We feel like there's this electronic, synth-y inspiration going on, married up with a 80s British rock, kind of Joy Division energy.
LUNA: “Know How It Hurts” is accompanied by a music video which adds another layer of depth to the song’s introspective themes. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
IDER: We were quite specific about the inspiration for this video. Our favorite film is Thelma and Louise, and we always had it in the back of our mind. It would be quite fun to reference that film in some way, and it's the friendship that they have in that story that we relate to. We had the idea already, and then thought “Know How It Hurts” makes the most sense in terms of the themes and the message of the song, and the empowering energy that the song has, likewise to Thelma and Louise, it's such a feminist 90s classic. The tone is it's them against the world. They're running away from the patriarchy. They're running away from their husbands, and obviously that ends with them going off the edge of a cliff. We wanted to rewrite the editing in an artistic way that's actually us burning the patriarchy.
LUNA: “Know How It Hurts” offers an exciting preview of your upcoming record, Late To The World out early next year. What inspired the direction of Late To The World? Could you share a bit about the emotional journey you take listeners on throughout the album? What themes or experiences are you exploring this time around?
IDER: A lot of power. Some big statements. The theme of the record lies in that we feel like late bloomers in this world and we’re late to the world. We’ve come to a realization that is something to be celebrated. Being a late bloomer just means that you're on your own path and you're doing life in your own way. It's also quite reflective of where we're at in our personal lives. We're in our early thirties, and again, there's pressure put on women. We are fully rejecting those and celebrating doing things a bit differently, and I think that's reflective in the music. It's joyful. It's powerful. It feels more mature. There's a dynamic flow to it as well. There's some real down tempo, soft, sad moments, but there's also a lot of anger and celebration and driving force to it, which revolves around the theme of female anger. We touch on what it means to have female anger and that being a vessel for change and a vessel for turning things around.
LUNA: How does this record compare to your previous work in terms of style and sound? Have you taken any new creative risks with this project?
IDER: Every record is a real reflection of where we're at and also what's going on around us. I would say the biggest difference from the first, which we recorded with a bunch of different producers all over the place, we were still discovering our sound and that was really beneficial to that record, whereas this record we made with one producer in one studio locked away in this amazing place in Wales. We had real time to create something that felt really cohesive and of the same world. Also the addition of live drums, which is such a funny thing, because we had never recorded live drums on previous records, but we'd always toured and played live with a drummer, and it felt like an obvious thing to do, but has really changed the game. Sonically, the record feels bigger in that sense. I think that we've also explored our voices and our joint voices together in a new way that we haven't fully explored in the past, the way that we sing together, the way that we sing on our own and our two voices taking different parts and coming together in different ways has been a new exploration for this record.
LUNA: Is there a particular track on the album that you feel captures the essence of this new era for IDER?
IDER: I would say “Late to the World,” the first track on the record. The title track is really like the mission statement, and also it's the opening song of our new live set as well.
LUNA: As you prepare for this album’s release, what do you hope fans will take away from this new chapter in your music?
IDER: I hope that they feel empowered and connected. Find connection in the lyrics and in the themes that we're talking about. I think that feeling of connection is important, because the things that we're talking about are quite universal things, but can quite often feel like lonely things. So maybe help people to feel slightly less isolated or not alone in things, and create community around that message. Lastly, self acceptance and unapologetically being yourself and honoring your own individual journey.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
IDER: The rest of the we're shooting a couple of music videos, and we are getting ready for tour next year. We're going to be doing UK, Europe dates in March, and then U.S. dates in April next year. We’re coming to Chicago and LA which we’re very excited for. We're gearing up for the release of this album and getting all our ducks in a row.
