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Mar 11, 2016 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern Photography by Hannah Witacker

To end out the week, we ask Kristina “Teeny” Lieberson of TEEN some questions about endings and death. TEEN also features Teeny’s sisters Katherine and Lizzie Lieberson, along with Boshra AlSaadi. The quartet’s new album, Love Yes, is their third full-length and their most confident record yet, an eclectic collection that mixes ‘80s pop with jazz flourishes and electronic textures. Teeny partially wrote the album in a small lakeside cabin in Morehead, Kentucky and the band recorded the album at the Old Confidence Lodge in secluded Riverport, Nova Scotia (the Lieberson sisters originally hail from Halifax, Nova Scotia). Daniel Schlett produced Love Yes, which was surprisingly recorded live in the studio. Carpark released the album in February.

TEEN are performing at Under the Radar‘s official nighttime SXSW showcase next Wednesday night from 7:30 PM to 1:40 AM at Central Presbyterian Church (200 E. 8th Street, Austin, TX 78701, which is at the corner of 8th and Brazos). SXSW badges and wristbands get priority admission to this event. Walk-ups on the night hoping to buy single tickets to the event might be let in, capacity permitting. The event is all-ages. You cannot RSVP for this event. TEEN goes on at 9:10 PM. The rest of the lineup features Still Corners, Julien Baker, Eleanor Friedberger, Car Seat Headrest, England’s Younghusband, and Mass Gothic (former Hooray for Earth frontman Noel Heroux). The full set-times are below and all the info on our SXSW events can be found here.

Read on as Teeny discusses her favorite endings to movies, favorite last songs on albums, her ideal last meal, heaven and hell, and reincarnation

What song would you like to be playing at your deathbed?

If there were any music at all I guess the one song I could hear forever is “Peace Piece” by Bill Evans.

What song would you like to be performed at your funeral and who would you like to sing it?

Everyone singing “Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst,” led by my mother.

What’s your favorite ending to a movie?

I love an ending where it is inconclusive, or the perspective shifts. When an ending is too happy it feels unrealistic. I prefer realism or extreme fantasy—nothing sentimental. Last year’s Wild Tales are full of shorts with great endings. The Shining has a pretty good one as well.

What’s your favorite last song on an album?

My favorite closer is the ultimate, big ballad that doesn’t really have any other place on the record. I love when the artist leaves on a twisting, questioning tone, allowing some room to digest the record that you’ve just heard. I had to pick three!

“Another Life” from Black Messiah, D’Angelo

“Shadows and Light” from The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell

“You’re the One” from The Red Shoes, Kate Bush

What’s your favorite last album by a band who then broke up?

I’m not really one of those people who knows a ton about when bands broke up and all that, but I suppose Loaded is an amazing album that sorta fits here—even though it’s not technically the “last” Velvet Underground record, it is the last one with Lou Reed.

If you were on death row, what would you like your last meal to be?

I can’t tell if knowing you were about to die would make me feel indulgent, or if I would go the opposite route and have a hunger for clarity and cleanliness. But if I were to feel like eating, my favorite meal of all time is roast chicken with fingerling potatoes, carrots, apple, and onions. And lots of bread to dip in the juices.

What’s your concept of the afterlife?

Still pulling that one together.

What would be your own personal version of heaven if it exists?

The ability to swim as deep in the ocean as possible, with all the animals there. I’d be able to understand sonar. I’d also have the ability to show up in any town I felt like eating in that day—anywhere in the world. I suppose the world wouldn’t be that different in my version of heaven—I would still want to live in the world—it would just be incredibly clean, no pollution. Maybe no assholes (like jerks, not physically)—but maybe heaven would get boring without assholes. And I’d be a master saxophonist. And I’d know how to sew and sail. And bake bread. And everyone would smell really nice. Every toilet has a bidet. Or you never have to shit again. You’d be above basic human functions in heaven.

What would be the worst punishment the devil could devise for you in hell, if he exists?

I’d be on a plane, in permanent take-off, middle seat, air conditioning is broken and I’m in the back right next to the bathroom. The TVs are re-running 5 Seconds of Summer videos or any other band of that general area. The person next to me would be eating fast food of some kind, everyone would be talking as loud as possible. My pants and bra would be too tight and I’d have a hat, scarf, and jacket on that I wouldn’t be able to take off. We’d be flying right above a beach and it would appear that we weren’t too far and there would be the sensation that it may end, but then you’d take off again. Lots of burping and hocking—the big guy in shorts next to me would be hocking constantly. And they’re fixing something in the back with a drill every time I’m about to be comfortable and fall asleep. Or just spelunking forever.

If reincarnation exists, who or what would you like to be reincarnated as?

I wouldn’t mind coming back as a person who is more satisfied with simple things, or an eagle, or a whale.

www.teentheband.net

Under the Radar’s Official SXSW Nighttime Showcase at Central Presbyterian Church, Wednesday, March 16:

1:00 AM: Still Corners
12:00 AM: Julien Baker
11:00 PM: Eleanor Friedberger
10:00 PM: Car Seat Headrest
9:10 PM: TEEN
8:20 PM: Younghusband
7:30 PM: Mass Gothic