THE INSIDER: MNDR

If you've ever been lucky enough to catch Amanda Warner aka MNDR live, you know that she's pretty much the coolest (and if you haven't, then what are you waiting for?). But turns out, the New York-based musician is equally as awesome offstage, as well. On the heels of the release of her new single "#1 in Heaven," she phoned in to talk about her new album, favorite zines....oh, and Beyonce.

Hey Amanda. Where are you calling from right now? I'm calling from home right now. I just played with the Ting Tings last night at Webster Hall, we're kind of in the middle of tour right now.

Are you the type of person who loves being on tour or hates it? I love it; I absolutely love it. I've been touring for so many years on so many levels, like, all the way from sleeping on floors so I'm used to it! [laughing].

Let's talk about your new video, "#1 in Heaven." How did the concept come about? Well, I thought it would be rad if my video looked like a zine. I worked on the video with my friend who does a lot of my art and merch on tour, and we talked a lot about the concept beforehand. We took inspiration from poetry design, '90s, '80s and '70s zines and we just wanted to go really bright; videos seem really dark right now, and we wanted to do the opposite.

What can you tell us about your new album, Feed Me Diamonds? It's a more classic production technique than trendy, you know? I wanted to make a pop record, but with some dance songs, some ballads..but although it has a little bit of everything, I wanted it to still be singular in the direction.

In your dream world, where should people listen to MNDR?

Listen all the time! Whenever, however- on the internet, from computer, just listen to it, period. I think it's a great album to listen to in your headphones over and over again...get on your computer, yall! [laughing].

What's your guilty pleasure music? It's not really guilty for me, but in terms of mainstream Top 40, I'm a sucker for Rihanna- "You Da One" is one of my favorite songs of the year, hands down. I'm also a sucker for Mariah Carey and Beyonce. Beyonce always looks amazing, moves amazing, sings amazing. I feel like it's not cool to like Beyonce, but I'll always thrown down for Beyonce.

Watch out for Feed Me Diamonds, coming this July.

Listen to more MNDR.