Our Origins series gives artists a platform to break down everything that went into their newest release. Today, My Idea give insight into their debut album, CRY MFER.
My Idea, the band of Lily Konigsberg and Nate Amos, have released CRY MFER, their first full-length album and the follow-up to their debut EP, That’s My Idea. The LP is out today (April 22) via Hardly Art.
For those who are plugged into a very particular sect of the indie scene currently burgeoning in New York City, My Idea might seem like an emotionally unstable, fucked-up version of a supergroup. Konigsberg makes up one-third of the NYC darlings Palberta and has earned name recognition in her own right thanks to her 2021 solo album, Lily We Need to Talk Now. Amos hails from the indie-dance duo Water from Your Eyes, who also had an acclaimed release last year with Structure. Both are hearts-on-their-sleeves, self-aware, committed artists.
But local scene politics and accolades don’t seem to have played a factor in the formation of My Idea. Instead, Konigsberg and Amos formed a messy, ever-evolving, and extremely close friendship. Both being artists at heart, what else could be the result of such intense confusion other than music?
Their debut album as My Idea fuses the two similar, but distinct, worlds of Konigsberg and Amos. Equally dancy and punky, as well as emotional and avant-garde, the 15 songs on the album play with a multitude of genres and tones. It’s no surprise then, that the album’s influences were similarly diverse.
“CRY MFER is chaotic in sound and content and serves as a document of what my brain was like in 2020 when I met Nate,” Konigsberg tells Consequence. “The chaos we created together and the chaos I created alone skyrocketed in that time.”
Such chaos defines CRY MFER without overwhelming it. It’s the type of chaos that makes sense within the context of Elliott Smith appreciation or a self-aware, unapologetic love of Justin Bieber. It’s pop for those without answers — for those who don’t even know what questions to ask.
Check out CRY MFER below, followed by Konigsberg and Amos’ explanation of everything that went into the album.
