Written by Lucy Fudge
Minnesotan singer-songwriter Ber slots seamlessly into the sun-soaked garden of a south London coffee shop, despite her midwestern roots. Having spent the last six months hopping on and off tour supporting other artists, this April she will be embarking on her first headline tour in almost two years.
“The shows are the easy thirty minutes, really,” Ber explains, reflecting on her recent travels across North America and Europe. “The rest of it is all logistics and travelling. It’s waking up at 5 a.m. to get on weird, cheap planes and hoping your guitar doesn’t get smashed in by the crew… but the moments in between where you get to take a breath, and notice that you’re in a different state (or country) … that’s my favourite part.”
April also marks the release of Ber’s debut album, Good, Like It Should Be.
“It’s only taken me, like, five years”, she says with a laugh, as we begin to talk about the 12-track record. After revealing the tracklist through a game of hangman, the song ‘Forget Me Not’ piqued the interest of many fans. “I cried a lot while writing ‘Forget Me Not’,” Ber confesses. “To me, it’s about leaving home and being afraid to be forgotten by the people you left behind, but I also really associate it with my Grandma, and the pieces of people I hold onto, and see in little inanimate objects everywhere I go.”
In addition to her own music, Ber is vocal about her love for co-writing, previously working with artists such as Avery Lynch and Max Leone. Her collaborative nature is evident as she talks about the close-knit network of people who helped her to bring Good, Like It Should Be to life. “I had like 10 really incredible friends and writers – all people that I’ve known for a really long time – work on the album with me, and it was just like a super, super nice treat.”
The album was recorded and produced in the basement of Ber’s longtime friend and collaborator, Brad. Whilst smiling, Ber describes how Brad’s decision to experiment with synths helped shape the album. This led the pair to Women in Music Pt. III, the third album from the trio Haim. A band notorious for ignoring the constraints of genre and creating their own rules.
Alongside Haim, Ber named Kacey Musgraves as another primary influence on the album, describing how she decided to embrace her “inner yeehaw” by combining her love of 80s icons such as ABBA and George Michael, with “Minnesota yeehaw adjacent folk music” to create a sound that felt authentic.
“For a long time, I was shying away from it [country music], because every time I was in England writing songs, people would always go, ‘Oh, we should do a country song because you’re from America’,” She says, “But when I tried it, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I should have been doing this all along.’”
Ber fondly describes the album’s title track, ‘Good, Like It Should Be’, as her “little love song”, claiming “it’s the only song I could ever think about naming an album after. “It’s about a type of love that I never realised I could experience,” she explains, “[Self sabotage] is something I’ve done my whole life, but this song is about getting out of your own way.”
Much like Ber’s own circle of close collaborators and friends, her music has brought together a community of individuals from all around the world. “It is the most wholesome thing on the planet,” she says, smiling and shielding her eyes from the sun, laughing as she continues, “It’s also wild because it feels like my shows are a reunion for them now, and I just show up to be the entertainment.”
On the seventh of May, Ber will play her highly anticipated headline show in London, with support from The Man The Myth The Meatslab, otherwise known as Jamie, one of Ber’s oldest friends and co-writer of ‘Wish You Were Here’, the tenth track on the upcoming album. With fans travelling from across Europe and beyond to attend the concert, I ask Ber if she has anything special lined up, which elicits a head shake as she declares it top secret.
While she is keeping her cards close to her chest for the time being, Ber does confirm that she will be joined by a full band in London, including her boyfriend, Duncan. As we move onto the topic of life in London and Ber’s first British Christmas, it is abundantly clear that she has found her place here, her voice radiates warmth as she talks about the city and its culture.“I love meal deals. I love the public transportation. I like all the weird foods (beans on toast, mushy peas, etc),” she says, her eyes lighting up as she finishes, “and I love a Sunday roast.”
While we’re on the topic of food, I ask Ber which one of her songs she would choose to eat, to which she confidently responds with ‘Cool Boy’, stating, “It would taste like a tropical dessert, and that sounds delicious right now because the sun is shining on us.” A choice which both aligns and contrasts with her answer to my following question: if she were to become a blade of grass anywhere in the world, where would she choose to be? To which she quickly answers, “In the fields of Norway on a sunny day, and I would just be there with my other grass friends, and the air would be that really crispy Nordic cold air, but the sun’s out, so everything’s green.”
Taking my slightly odd questions in her stride, she admits, “I think about this a lot, actually,” when I ask her which bug she thinks she would be, ultimately deciding that while she would probably be a ladybug, she would actually choose to be an ant, listing their adaptability and ability to lift heavy objects as desirable traits because of “the amount of emotional baggage I have to carry”.
“Everyone needs to see Shrek at some point in their life,” Ber states when asked what media she thinks everyone needs to watch. “I rewatched it last week and was like, ‘Why don’t I watch this every week?’ and I think everyone needs to watch The Book of Mormon – one of my favourite musicals of all time. The laughs, the cultural nuance, the blatant lessons it just shoves in your face… I love it.”
As we finish our drinks, I have a feeling that Good, Like It Should Be is going to be Ber’s most honest project yet, offering a whirlwind of emotions, paired with twangy vocals and funky synths (thank you, Brad), and love deeply ingrained into its foundation. Warm and compassionate to her core with heaps of talent, something tells me that it won’t be long until Ber is taking to bigger stages, in front of bigger crowds.
What colour would Ber use to describe her music?
Deep blue
What song would Ber add to the Karma! playlist?
if u want by Keni Titus
Ber’s debut album, Good, Like It Should Be, is available now across music streaming platforms. You can find details of all her upcoming shows on Instagram @heythereitsber
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