Amanda Warner

Electro-pop up-and-comer, laser lover and self-professed sci-fi nerd, MNDR’s Amanda Warner takes us where no man has gone before—on a star trek of sorts through Chelsea’s best-kept secrets.

"Oh my god, I love Battlestar Galactica!” screams New York–based techno-pop juggernaut Amanda Warner. Apparently, she’s a science fiction fan. “You’re planning to write about how nerdy I am, aren’t you?” But the Fargo-born Warner—one half of retro-futuristic dance-pop outfit MNDR, alongside producer and collaborator Peter Wade—isn’t afraid to embrace her fangirl side. Over the course of an afternoon in May, she betrays a fondness for Blade Runner, legendary sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein and, yes, Battlestar. Given the amount of time she spends in Wade’s Chelsea recording studio and the fact that she designed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ synthesizer rig, it should come as no surprise that Warner treats music-making gizmos like old friends. “Different drum machines have their own personalities,” she says. “Some were made to be really synthetic. Some are stiff. Some can swing. I like trying to understand what makes each one special. But machines aren’t my slaves like they are in science fiction stories—they’re my little buddies.”

Warner moved from Oakland, California, to New York a year ago to work as a songwriter for hire. But it was only after meeting Wade that she began to consider fronting her own act. Before long, MNDR was opening for bands like Yacht, Massive Attack and Deerhoof. “It was totally natural,” says Wade of his partner’s career shift. “She was confident as soon as she stepped out from behind the table. It’s like there are laser beams shining on her at all times.” Together, the duo uploaded four tracks to MySpace last year. Glowing word of mouth spread like wildfire, and the songs eventually morphed into MNDR’s debut EP, E.P.E. Mega-producers Diplo and Mark Ronson have already remixed two of their tracks, and the band is currently at work on their first full-length album, tentatively scheduled for release late this fall.

Prior to landing in the Big Apple, Warner had been skipping around the country with the careless attitude of a true nomad. But she intends to stick around Manhattan for a while. “New York has been really warm to me, which has been nice because it’s a really discerning city,” she says. “It makes me a better musician, because everything I do here matters on some level. I have to be good at every show. There’s something liberating about that.”