Seaking to IDER the morning after performing in Groningen’s stunning Lutherse Kerk church as part of Eurosonic Festival, Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville are in high spirits. “The venue was beautiful,” they agree. “It felt a bit naked; everyone was watching, stood silent…”
Having met while studying music at university, they were put together “on a project” in their first year. “It’s all by chance,” Megan jokes. “We just became really good mates and started working, writing music and singing together,” Lily adds affectionately. “We quickly realised that we had chemistry vocally, and when we suddenly realised our voices sounded good together, we decided to stick it out. There was a real connection straight away,” they agree; “and with the timing, we do feel like we form one voice together.”
[sc name=”pull” text=”I love that our sound is hard to describe.”]
Post-uni, Lily moved into Megan’s London home three years ago, and that’s how IDER – a perfectly formed combination of harmonised vocals and ambient electronics – was born. “She’s the third member of the band, IDER is our combined voice – an old Swedish lady,” they laugh, having since released affecting, emotive EPs on Glassnote Records and supported Oh Wonder in Europe. Having both learnt to play the piano when they were younger and started singing as teenagers, Megan and Lily have always had a love for music. From listening to Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell thanks to their parents’ record collections to getting into Dido, Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne growing up, their musical taste is ever-expanding.
With an increasingly diverse taste nowadays – listening to everyone from Frank Ocean, and Sza to Wolf Alice and Kurt Vile – it’s unsurprisingly difficult to describe IDER’s sound by genre. “I love that it’s hard to describe,” Lily considers. Instead, they’d rather their music provokes feelings and emotions. “We just want people to feel powerful, warm, in touch with themselves and thought-provoked. We want to make a lasting impression when people listen to us or see us.”
Now busy readying songs for their first record, mainly writing in their London bedroom then recording at the studio, IDER say they are “delving deeper” and that “a lot of stuff has been channelled recently. “We write very personally, so it’s always coming from the perspective of two young women living in London in their twenties, trying to figure life out,” Megan laughs. Lily adds that the songs they’ve been recording for their debut album are “even more honest and raw – there’s no more beating around it – we just say what we want to say.”
While they dream (half-jokingly) of playing Wembley in the future, focusing on the lyrics and harmonies is what’s at the heart of IDER; as well as having fun being on the road with your best mate. “We just want to push ourselves and make sure we’re really saying what we mean. Because when you do that, how can that not relate? We’re all feeling the same shit really… just in different ways.” [sc name=”stopper”]
IDER play Rich Mix in London on 27th March.