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Photo by Sami Weller

When you feel beaten down, it’s incredibly easy to just lay down and give up, to wallow in your misery. The more productive thing is to acknowledge your feelings and control what you can. This is exactly what IDER does in their latest single, “Know How It Hurts.”

IDER, made up of Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville, wrote "Know How It Hurts" as a reaction to abortion bans throughout the US. Despite hailing from the UK, IDER felt the pain that millions of American women were feeling. “It’s about the collective feeling of hurt and disempowerment that was felt during this time and continues to be felt. More personally, it's about looking back at being a young girl and not knowing how to fit in. It’s an anthem for anyone who feels affected by patriarchal ideologies,” the duo shared.

The song’s opening lyrics reflect on a childhood staple: the playground. This is an early moment where IDER remembers feeling lesser than, simply for being women. The first verse’s closing lyrics, “and my body isn’t mine,” directly reference the abortion bans that inspired the song. The second verse expands on the sentiments from the first verse, and how this feeling of disempowerment continues well beyond childhood with the lyrics “It’s a different kind of playground now / where they still don’t hear my voice.”

Despite being born from frustration, the song’s tone is overall hopeful, mainly thanks to the chorus with the lyrics “You don’t have to hide it / I know how it hurts / It’s hard to describe it / You don’t have the words / We still have to fight it / We still have to work / You don’t have to hide it / I know how it hurts.” The duo’s earnest voices accompanied by a driving beat that builds at the end of the chorus saves the song from feeling like a doomsday anthem and instead turns it into an anthem of hope and change.

The song’s accompanying music video, directed by Lewis Knaggs, also has a thread of hope running through it. It features IDER driving through the countryside while blasting their anthem. The video’s final moments focus on IDER staring down a pair of burning suits. “The video for ‘Know How It Hurts’ is loosely inspired by the 90s classic and our favorite film, 'Thelma & Louise,’” the duo shared. “However, instead of driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon (which was slightly out of our budget), we decided to poetically rewrite the ending in which we ‘burn the patriarchy’ and drive off into the night.”

Looking to 2025, IDER is set to release their third album Late to the World, which will feature “Know How It Hurts” alongside 11 other songs. The duo will also go on tour in Europe and North America in the spring.