David Berkeley’s Strange Light
Photo courtesy of Tijuana Gift Shop
Through the melodic strums of guitar, lyrics that bring about a range of emotions in his listeners, and a powerful, yet soothing voice, David Berkeley displays both his passion for music and his array of talents in his songs. Having recently performed at Mark Mulcahy’s tribute event in Brooklyn, he is back once again to play for New Yorkers at Housing Works this Friday. Curious about his early beginnings in music (he has Avon to thank, believe it or not!), his many travels across the country and the world, and his new music project, ATL Collective, Sinister Girlz had the fortunate opportunity to ask David a few questions. Here’s what he had to say:
Sinister Girlz: How did you get started on music? I read something about being you involved with Avon?
David Berkeley: I’ve been singing for about as long as I could talk. I went to a hippie nursery school, and we were singing 60s folk songs while we were still in diapers. The Avon thing is true, too. I had a babysitter who would take me around the streets on her rounds trying to sell perfumes and such. She realized that having me sing helped the sales. The people would give me Oreos and Fig Newtons, and they’d buy her products. We were a good team.
SG: Where did you live before Atlanta? Why did you relocate there?
DB: I’ve lived in a lot of places, but we moved to Atlanta from Brooklyn because my wife (then girlfriend) started graduate school. I’m a modern man and not afraid to move where my woman’s work requires.
SG:Did the various locations you’ve lived in affect your music?
DB: Definitely. I write most of my songs within the first few months of moving to a new place. I think that change helps me to see. You notice differences and can reflect on them. You feel out of place and lonely. There’s longing. There’s nostalgia. And then there’s excitement and promise. Most of my songs start from emotional places, and I find my emotions are closer to the surface when I move around a lot.
SG: ATL Collective seems like an awesome thing. Was it your idea? How do you pick the albums or artists you’ll cover?
DB: It is a lot of fun. I came up with the idea with a friend of mine, musician Micah Dalton. We do an event a month, and so far, they’ve been really great. We pick a classic record each time and handpick a group of mostly local acts to play the record in sequence. We have some sort of gimmick each time like bloody marys when we did Blood on the Tracks. Next month (October 27), we do Neil Young’s Harvest. I’m baking pumpkin pies for everyone. And the turnout has been really big, so that’s a lot of pies.
DB: We pick artists that we like and respect. We try to find bands that we think would bring a unique perspective to the songs. We’re not interested in note for note reproductions. And we look for people with the right spirit musicians who are trying to build careers but can leave their ego aside and get excited about other musicians and other people’s music.
DB: Our goal with the Collective is twofold. We’re trying to restore faith in the album as art form and celebrate some of the best records ever made. And we’re trying to unite and excite the Atlanta music scene, to build connections among musicians and to promote each other’s work.
SG: You have a pretty colorful job history what was your favorite job?
DB: I wrote for the travel guide series Let’s Go in Alaska. That was my favorite job. They paid me to explore the state with a backpack and a guitar and write about it.
SG: Do you have any advice for people who aren’t sure what path they should be on yet?
DB: I’m probably the wrong person to ask, because I don’t know what path I should be on either. Maybe my advice is that there’s no shame in not knowing what path you’re on. Maybe certainty is overrated? I play music because I believe it is the deepest, most personal, most beautiful thing I have to give to the world. But if I find something else, I will change paths.
SG: What messages are you trying to get across in your music? What provides the inspirations for songs? What are some of your favorite songs you’ve written?
DB: As I was talking about above, most of my songs start as vague emotions maybe love or longing or loss or political outrage. Sometimes an image triggered the emotion, and I’ll work with that for a while. I often try to weave a narrative that is more universal, if still specific, so that a listener might be able to experience a similar emotion. Not sure if there’s one thing that I’m trying to get across. Each song has its own purpose, I think. Maybe I’m trying to get some sort of openness across in my music, some sort of appreciation of others and the world around us. My favorite songs shift. The songs that I think are the most interesting on Strange Light are Measure of a Man and The Only Broken Man. I think that they’re lyrically more complex and provocative than some of my other songs.
SG: Do you feel your albums are very different from each other? Why?
DB: I think they’re all in the same sonic universe. But my sound has matured, and my songwriting has improved. The productions are bigger in Strange Light. Some of the guitars have more distortion.On the Confluence, I wanted it to be almost all acoustic and natural. We used some electric instruments, but the tone was pretty clean. I don’t care about that anymore. I like the tension in blending organics and effects.
SG: Your new album, Strange Light, has been compared to the sounds of James Taylor, David Gray, and Jackson Browne, to name a few. Do you agree? Are they some of your influences? What are some other musical influences?
DB: I have a hard time with influences, and I don’t pay a ton of attention to comparisons. Sometimes people name artists I love (Nick Drake, for example). Sometimes they name people I’ve never heard of. I listen to music all the time, of course. And certainly it seeps inparticularly music I grew up listening to (Paul Simon, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young), but I’m more influenced by things I read, by art I look at, by traveling, by family.
SG: How did you get involved with the Mark Mulcahy Tribute show?
DB: First off, Mark’s music is amazing. I’m honored to be part of this project and really excited by what I’ve heard A guy named Nathaniel Smalley was the mastermind behind this project. He had booked me a few times at his college and asked me to be part of this as he was coming up with the idea. At the time, he told me all these huge artists he was hoping to get. I thought there wasn’t a chance he’d get them. The next thing I know Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke had both said yes. Nathaniel is amazing. Very humble and unassuming, but he really staged a coup here.
To view a recent live performance of David’s, click here:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2009/11/watch-david-berkeley-live-at-paste.html
And to hear David in person, don’t forget to check him out this Friday, November 13th at 7pm at Housing Works! Click here for more information:
