 |
| Louis Rodiger/Mint Artist Mgmt |
https://www.pe.com/2020/02/16/berlins-terri-nunn-says-getting-older-is-cool-ahead-of-southern-california-shows/
Read the rest below...
Q: Hi Terri. Where have I reached you?
A: I’m at home, making phone calls, revamping the show and going for an intro video with Gerry Casale from Devo, who did our last intro video. I love his work. We spent the morning conferencing because we need a new one. It’s just great to work with amazing talent.
Q: The last time we spoke was in 2002, when Berlin was about to play a NASCAR event in Fontana. You were preparing to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the first time.A: I was terrible. Awful. It was bad. I thought I’d try to change it up a little bit, because people have heard that song for a million years. They did not like my change up at all. They didn’t out and out boo, but there no love for it [laughs].
Q: Now that John Crawford and David Diamond have rejoined Berlin, I was wondering: Was VH1's reality series “Bands Reunited” the initial catalyst for the three of you rekindling your musical relationship?
A: Yeah. That really brought John and me back together, honestly. That was not staged. I had not seen him for seven years.
Q: You’d been touring and recording with your own version of Berlin for more than a decade before John and David came back into the fold. How did their return play out?
A: John was in a marriage where he got very religious for a time. Making music was looked down upon. It was a much more restrictive time for him. He’d been so out of it for so long. He was really nervous about coming in, but he’s so brilliant that it didn’t take long. We knew it wouldn’t. And it didn’t.
So he started playing with us. Then we started writing together again. It took awhile, actually. It took about a year of trying stuff. People were excited about a couple things, but not enough. We tried all kinds of things. Then we landed on working with this team from Australia to produce and co-write some of the songs with us. People were really excited about what they were hearing. That’s what created “Transcendance,” the new album.
A: Yeah, it is. Why say the same thing for the rest of your life? [laughs] I understand. I totally get it when people come to our shows, they want to hear the songs they know. I’m the same way. They also like a few fresh sounds too. It’s a combination. You don’t want to go too far one way or the other. You don’t want to be too stale or too new.
I get pretty really pissed off [when I go to a show and that happens]. There was one show - and I don’t think he’s done it since - I’m a big Trent Reznor fan. I went to a [NIN] show and all the songs that I love, he didn’t do any of them. He just did basically his new album and I was like, ‘fuck you, dude. I like your new album, I listened to it a couple times. But come on, we’ve got a history together. You worked this hard to create a body of work that people love and you’ve achieved it. So please celebrate this with us. Don’t throw it away!’
Q: For “Show Me Tonight,” you got SiriusXM/1st Wave DJ Richard Blade, formerly of KROQ/106.7 FM Los Angeles to add infomercial announcer bits.
A: I’ve known Richard for 40 years now. Of course I knew he could do it. And he would. I called him and said, ‘Dude, we’ve never been on an album together. Would you do this part with us? I think you would kill it.’ He did, man! He took what I wrote and just went further [laughs].
Q: Is that particular song, about female body image, a good example of one of your newer songs that have a message?
A: I don’t know if it has a definitive answer in the song, but it’s about coming to accept the changes that my body’s going through. That I’m dealing with. It’s not easy. Then there’s new stuff that comes up and I’m like, ‘what the fuck is that?’ Then having to deal with that and getting to a place of ‘yeah, this is me.’ The other day I was talking to my girlfriend. She’s my age. I said, ‘This fucking tummy, man. I’m tired of this tummy shit.’ She said, “I got it too. So what? Quit being so egoed out that all you think about is your fucking tummy. There’s more to life.' So these are things I’m dealing with.
Q: What have your fans thought about the remixed version of “Sex (I’m a)” on the latest album?
A: They love hearing it live. They just love that song because I get to sing it with the man that I wrote it with. That’s wonderful for me and he’s of course amazing at it. That’s a big highlight of the [live] show.
Q: You’d originally wanted to include a new version of the song on your last album "Animal," but had to hold off, right?
A: Yeah, the label didn’t want it. They wanted all new songs and didn’t want me to hark back to anything. I understand that. That’s a choice. We went with it, but it was actually Richard Blade who was playing that remix. I gave it to him to listen to and get his opinion. He thought it was great and kept saying, ‘Dude, you got to release that. Put it out by itself. Do something with it. Don’t let that one go away. That’s a good one.’ When this album came up, this label was fine with it.
Q: Back in the ‘80s, Berlin released several memorable music videos. At the time, do you think your prior acting experience was a big help in making them?
A: Yeah, it helped me to focus my emotions in a set amount of time. That’s the best way to describe it. That’s really a good discipline to have in music, because songs are three to four minutes. The most important thing is to focus my honest emotion that I either wrote myself in the song or someone else wrote and I’m relating to in my life into that three minutes because a song is just a communication. That’s all it is. It’s an honest feeling that I need to be on top of, that I need to share right then when the song’s happening to make it effective. To make it translate.
That’s what acting taught me, because even though people think acting’s not real, what I learned doing that craft is that I had to tie in something honest that I related to in the scene that I was doing with a real life experience in my life. It’s not pretend. It’s ‘this is how I feel in this situation right now.’ It’s real. Music and songs are the same way. They’re a different craft but the feeling is the same. The honest emotion has to be there.
Q: If you need to make a new music video these days, do you mind going through the process?
A: It depends. If I can get out of my own head. I’m not a model. Part of my job is to do photo shoots and it’s not really my thing. I don’t really feel that comfortable with it. So it’s a constant challenge for me. I can do it well enough to get the job done. I like making music, but the other stuff: the videos and photo shoots, are more challenging for me.
Q: When the band released its first single and EP, KROQ was a big supporter. Did that early airplay help you get exposure on a national level?
A: They were the only supporters in the beginning. Without them, I don’t know if Berlin would’ve had a shot. They were so powerful that their format got taken over across the country. It did so well here, that everybody wanted it. If they hadn’t been here, we [still] might’ve done something because slowly, other stations around the country started playing us. But it was such an explosion for Berlin when KROQ started playing us that it was hard for the rest of the country to deny. They were at least listening to us and asking, ‘what’s Berlin?’
We had a shot because of KROQ, but before KROQ, there was only KLOS and corporate rock, arena rock. KMET was mostly hard rock. It was very unlikely either one of those stations would touch us. We got lucky twice. KROQ started playing us and MTV started in 1982 right when we got our first video going. Thank God for them. That gave us exposure we’d never had before. We were lucky with the timing with all of these outlets because our music was weird. Nobody was really doing electronic music yet. It was all coming from overseas, which was why we were trying it. It was hard. That was really fortunate.
Q: What was it like back then playing the second US Festival's “Rock Day” in May 1983, alongside David Bowie, the Pretenders, U2, Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh, Los Lobos and others at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore early in your career?
A: To this day, it was one of the best days of my life. Oh my God! That lineup? Holy shit! Incredible. And in one day! It was the entire weekend, but that was just our day. It was an absolute dream. And then the people - 250,000 people in this empty [field], it was nothing then. Just space.
Q: Is it inspiring to see so many bands that you shared a stage with back in the day still continuing to tour and make new music in 2020?
A: Yeah, because I have such admiration for them. Many of them I look up to, like the tour we just did with the B-52s. I think they’re brilliant musicians. They have a sense of humor that is so incredibly amazing. They don’t take themselves too seriously. Their music is so well written.
We are opening for Blondie in Dallas in May and looking at [Debbie, who’s 74] - fuck man. I feel old in the business, but look at her! She’s just going and going. Amazing. We’ve done a few shows together and every time, she’s a great person. She loves what she does. She said to me, ‘Terri, what else am I gonna do?’ [laughs]
[Blondie guitarist] Chris Stein is so supportive and hugs me as I get offstage. C’mon! It’s so wonderful to have these people to look up to. To see that you can still rock it and bring this joy to people. It’s a gift.
Q: Do you think Berlin will follow their lead and continue for another 10 years or more?
A: We’ll see. I have no idea. We don’t even know what’s going to happen in five years or even a year. But they make it possible for me to even consider something like that.
Q: I read that John had a bunch of extra songs leftover from were making the latest album. Can fans expect more new material sooner than later?
A: He’s a machine. He had 30 songs after we started working on the 12 we were recording. He kept bringing them in and I said, ‘John, we gotta focus. No more songs. We gotta get this album out.’ He said, ‘I just wrote this last night!’ I’m like, ‘Oh fuck!’ [laughs].
Q: You can always put them out as EPs.
A: True.
Q: Did you finish the Christmas album that I read has been gestating for awhile?
A: There’s a Berlin orchestral album that we recorded at the beginning of last year. The label wanted [the studio album first]. It’s coming out in May. We’re in the mixing process now. I can’t wait [for people to hear it].
For tour dates, see berlinpage.com or Berlin - Official Band on Facebook.
That’s what acting taught me, because even though people think acting’s not real, what I learned doing that craft is that I had to tie in something honest that I related to in the scene that I was doing with a real life experience in my life. It’s not pretend. It’s ‘this is how I feel in this situation right now.’ It’s real. Music and songs are the same way. They’re a different craft but the feeling is the same. The honest emotion has to be there.
Q: If you need to make a new music video these days, do you mind going through the process?
A: It depends. If I can get out of my own head. I’m not a model. Part of my job is to do photo shoots and it’s not really my thing. I don’t really feel that comfortable with it. So it’s a constant challenge for me. I can do it well enough to get the job done. I like making music, but the other stuff: the videos and photo shoots, are more challenging for me.
Q: When the band released its first single and EP, KROQ was a big supporter. Did that early airplay help you get exposure on a national level?
A: They were the only supporters in the beginning. Without them, I don’t know if Berlin would’ve had a shot. They were so powerful that their format got taken over across the country. It did so well here, that everybody wanted it. If they hadn’t been here, we [still] might’ve done something because slowly, other stations around the country started playing us. But it was such an explosion for Berlin when KROQ started playing us that it was hard for the rest of the country to deny. They were at least listening to us and asking, ‘what’s Berlin?’
We had a shot because of KROQ, but before KROQ, there was only KLOS and corporate rock, arena rock. KMET was mostly hard rock. It was very unlikely either one of those stations would touch us. We got lucky twice. KROQ started playing us and MTV started in 1982 right when we got our first video going. Thank God for them. That gave us exposure we’d never had before. We were lucky with the timing with all of these outlets because our music was weird. Nobody was really doing electronic music yet. It was all coming from overseas, which was why we were trying it. It was hard. That was really fortunate.
Q: What was it like back then playing the second US Festival's “Rock Day” in May 1983, alongside David Bowie, the Pretenders, U2, Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh, Los Lobos and others at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore early in your career?
A: To this day, it was one of the best days of my life. Oh my God! That lineup? Holy shit! Incredible. And in one day! It was the entire weekend, but that was just our day. It was an absolute dream. And then the people - 250,000 people in this empty [field], it was nothing then. Just space.
Q: Is it inspiring to see so many bands that you shared a stage with back in the day still continuing to tour and make new music in 2020?
A: Yeah, because I have such admiration for them. Many of them I look up to, like the tour we just did with the B-52s. I think they’re brilliant musicians. They have a sense of humor that is so incredibly amazing. They don’t take themselves too seriously. Their music is so well written.
We are opening for Blondie in Dallas in May and looking at [Debbie, who’s 74] - fuck man. I feel old in the business, but look at her! She’s just going and going. Amazing. We’ve done a few shows together and every time, she’s a great person. She loves what she does. She said to me, ‘Terri, what else am I gonna do?’ [laughs]
[Blondie guitarist] Chris Stein is so supportive and hugs me as I get offstage. C’mon! It’s so wonderful to have these people to look up to. To see that you can still rock it and bring this joy to people. It’s a gift.
Q: Do you think Berlin will follow their lead and continue for another 10 years or more?
A: We’ll see. I have no idea. We don’t even know what’s going to happen in five years or even a year. But they make it possible for me to even consider something like that.
Q: I read that John had a bunch of extra songs leftover from were making the latest album. Can fans expect more new material sooner than later?
A: He’s a machine. He had 30 songs after we started working on the 12 we were recording. He kept bringing them in and I said, ‘John, we gotta focus. No more songs. We gotta get this album out.’ He said, ‘I just wrote this last night!’ I’m like, ‘Oh fuck!’ [laughs].
Q: You can always put them out as EPs.
A: True.
Q: Did you finish the Christmas album that I read has been gestating for awhile?
A: There’s a Berlin orchestral album that we recorded at the beginning of last year. The label wanted [the studio album first]. It’s coming out in May. We’re in the mixing process now. I can’t wait [for people to hear it].
For tour dates, see berlinpage.com or Berlin - Official Band on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment