Roast Chicken, Wine and Music: My Dinner with TEEN

Brooklyn based band TEEN is comprised of the Lieberson sisters — lead singer Teeny, vocalist/keyboardist Lizzie and drummer Katherine — and they’ve recorded a new album titled Good Fruit that’s set for a March 1, 2019 release. The record is brimming with intricate instrumentals, moody lyrics and vivid imagery. What sets this album apart from the rest of their discography is that the sisters have decided to pair it with an original cookbook called Good Food, which comes with a purchase of the album.

Over a homemade dinner of roast chicken and vegetables from their cookbook Good Food, Lizzie and Teeny have allowed me to interview them ahead of the release of their new album Good Fruit. During the course of preparing and enjoying the meal, they detail the process and inspiration behind Good Fruit, approaching romance and sentiment practically, dark chocolate hummus, their love of food and our shared love of Ina Garten.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

When I arrive, I am led upstairs by Lizzie Lieberson. The apartment, warm and deliberately adorned, is not yet filled with the smell of roast chicken and potatoes. She apologizes for not having started preparing dinner. I assure her I have no further plans and insist on helping out in the kitchen. I’m assigned the task of chopping potatoes.

Shortly after, Teeny emerges from Lizzie’s bedroom and introduces herself. Katherine, the third sister in the band, is absent. Teeny has just returned from a trip to their hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia where Katherine has moved after having a baby.

The kitchen swells with the sound of knives smashing against wooden cutting boards. Fractured bits of carrot and potatoes are scattered along the countertop. The smell of onion deluges the air, and Lizzie and Teeny discuss ways in which not to cry. Teeny doesn’t cry when chopping onions. Lizzie always does.

Once everything was diced and the sprigs of rosemary were sprinkled into the bowl along with the rest of the vegetables and the cubes of crunchy apples, Teeny drenches it all in olive oil. She mixes it together and coats the contents in the viscous liquid. A small dish of melted butter is brushed onto the pale skin of the chicken and inspected to see that every area on the surface has been glazed.

Lizzie watches as Teeny deposits the bird into the roasting pan on top of the bed of vegetables. They gently place the chicken in the oven and watch intently as they close the door and seal in the heat.

Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

Lizzie and Teeny fling quips at each other and for a moment, I am reminded of the same interactions I have with my sister. Teeny complained about Lizzie not having any power outlets in the kitchen. “There’s one here, ya idiot,” Lizzie replied. Their love for each other is clear and strengthened by the fact that they can tease one another and laugh about it.

I ask them about their upcoming tour and the places they’re most excited to play and eat. LA and Chicago always have good crowds, but New Orleans has the best food. What ensues is a discussion about Good Fruit, food, chefs, dog breeds, the television show Russian Doll and the lines that made us laugh the most. “A very tough lady, who looks like Andrew Dice Clay and the girl from Brave had a baby.” We agreed this one was the funniest.

Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

Todd Rundgren plays in the background as Lizzie and Teeny describe how they “explored transformation” on this record. “There’s a philosophical aspect of how to move forward,” Teeny starts off by saying. “How to let go. Where you want your life to go. What direction. And music is a huge part of that.” But she also cites the complexities that come with those messages. “How do you want to do all of that within the most important form of expression?” Teeny asks.

“We’re always the happiest when we can go somewhere and record and have some balance,” Lizzie remarks when I ask how they’re able to embody change and cultivate an atmosphere conducive to creating. “We really like to go away and hole up and really live and work in one place.”

They spent some time recording this album at the Outlier Inn near the Catskills and found the studio, which also doubles as a working farm, to be beneficial to their creative process. “Sometimes in New York, you’re living so hard and we all need space to figure out what it is we want to say,” Teeny reflects.

“We need space to download all of our experiences,” Lizzie says referencing Erykah Badu. Because of that space, she was able to write and create once at Outlier.

Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

Good Fruit is ultimately an uplifting record, but it addresses heavy subject matter such as loss and grief. Albums that are dark have a tendency of coming across as overly sentimental. TEEN has masterfully evaded writing saccharine-filled love songs about heartache. “We avoid writing like that because we hate how sugary it is,” Lizzie says. Both Lizzie and Teeny credit a small piece of this outlook on creation to Buddhism, which their parents practiced.

“There’s not much room for romance because your approach is pretty practical,” Teeny observes. “The most beautiful thing is just being with other people and listening and really having an experience. That’s true romance.”

“It’s the most honest. Music wise, it’s the most us.” Lizzie says nodding in agreement.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Lizzie stands up and places a bowl of salted popcorn on the countertop while Teeny looks in on the chicken that is beginning to seethe in oil and fat. The notion of moving forward, as well as a healthy balance between life in the city and the outdoors, are inspirations on the record, but what role did food play? “It’s part of the experience for us,” Lizzie declares as she tops off on the last bit of wine pooling at the bottom of the bottle. “We take a break and we eat good food and have some wine.” Writing a cookbook was a natural venture for the group.

“We’ve always wanted to talk about this. We love talking about food,” Teeny says as she leans back and sits comfortably in her chair. “Cooking is something that is very meditative. You’re making something to make other people feel good and enjoy a hearty experience together.”

“And that’s kind of like listening to a record,” Lizzie jumps in.

Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

Teeny and Lizzie both putter around the kitchen and finish prepping for dinner. “We should give credit to mom because that’s why we cook,” Lizzie remarks when I ask what chefs inspire them. Teeny cites Yotam Ottolenghi, while they both love the simplicity of Deb Perelman. Anthony Bourdain and his book Appetites have shaped Lizzie’s views on food. Lizzie pulls down platters from the cabinets when she swiftly swings around and grabs a book. She turns and raises it above her head to show me. The white lettering radiated from the hardcover. “I fucking love her,” Lizzie says while flipping through Ina Garten’s Cook Like a Pro. Ina is an inspiration to all three of us, but mostly Lizzie and I.

Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

As for food when on tour, Teeny and Lizzie have memorable experiences, both good and bad. The meals they most consume typically involve tortilla chips and hummus, but absolutely no dark chocolate hummus. Teeny is disgusted by the mere mention of it. “I can’t imagine what that flavor would be.” Lizzie’s concern focuses on what one would dip in such a concoction. We all try to unpack what it would taste like and how to make it before Teeny interjects with, “I don’t like this.”

Some of their worst food experiences were “Steak frites in California.” “It was shit,” Lizzie says as she sips on her wine. Teeny and Lizzie also remember a story about their tour driver in Hamburg. He ordered a potato dish and “It was just a pile of mayonnaise,” Lizzie says with a laugh.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

“That was a weird meal,” Teeny comments. Their meals on the road aren’t all terrible and some have stuck with them. “Egg sandwiches become a big part of your life,” Teeny says trying to remember a favorite meal she had in Wisconsin. “Fuck I don’t remember what it’s called!” She drums her fingers on the counter. “Fried egg with really sharp cheddar and avocado on a brioche roll.” Lizzie’s favorite was a bakery, known for their cinnamon rolls, in Iowa.

A meal that surprised both Teeny and Lizzie was one they shared at the Snuffel Hostel in Belgium. “The whole night was so weird and we were expecting to get shitty food,” Teeny explains.

“The sound guy and his wife, who ran the place, they pulled us into the back room, the kitchen,” Lizzie continues the tale. “There was like this long wooden table. Candlelit. Wine. And we ate the best food.”

As the clock counts down, the apartment slowly fills with the smell of roasting food and the sound of a salad spinner twisting out water from vibrant, green lettuce. When the timer beeps, they pull out the chicken and let it sit before carving into it. The knife sinks into the perfectly browned, crispy skin, into the dense and fleshy breast and cracks through the bones on the thighs. The juice runs clear and saturates the potatoes and the crisped apples. The meat, tender and perfectly cooked, falls away from the bone as they plate it onto a vibrant Italian platter.

Lizzie stacks our dishes high with chicken, vegetables and salad dripping with homemade dressing. We clink our glasses filled with acidic, herbal rosé and gaze in delight at the food in front of us. The chicken, rich with butter, dissolves in our mouths and the apples and potatoes fizz with crackling oil. The crunchy romaine adds brightness to the fatty meat and all the flavors swirl and flood us with fulfillment.

We devour the food and twirl the wine in our glasses as we sit back content. The night, like any other dinner party, ends with Teeny putting on System of a Down’s Toxicity as we reveal the music that spoke to us during our melodramatic teenage years, but now our love of Staind and Puddle of Mudd is fodder for embarrassment.

Food and music are two pairings that make a perfect marriage. As Teeny put it, “It’s curating an experience. They’re both sensual and interactive art forms and they’re both mood related. I think that both things have the possibility to make people feel good and both encourage conversation.”

The message is simple. Food and music bond us together. Some of the most important memories that people make are around a dinner table or hanging out in someone’s living room and listening to music. All of these experiences are shared and yet they are ultimately subjective. Neither Lizzie nor Teeny want to dictate others’ experiences, they affirm that these things allow us to connect with one another. TEEN’s art, whether it be music or a book of their recipes, serves to fuse people together through shared experiences and helps us manifest and explore our intrinsic need for togetherness.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Ari Fouriezos

Lauren Doyle: Lauren Doyle, a Bay Area native now lives in New York. She graduated in 2015 from Stonehill College with a BA in English Literature and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She has been writing for mxdwn.com since September 2015. When she’s not writing, she spends her time in the trenches of music and the stories of Flannery O’Connor. Her fascination with music began at the age of ten, when she purchased her first CD by Talking Heads. Fascination soon transformed into obsession and now she’s determined to spread her passion for music to others. Connect with her at lauren@mxdwn.com and lauren.doyle011@gmail.com
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