Loren Beri shares mystical single "Greta's Inn" feat. Kishi Bashi ahead of debut EP - @lorenberi

Artwork by Giulia Nardi / Photograph by Hannah Cohen

 Loren Beri shares mystical single "Greta's Inn" feat. Kishi Bashi ahead of debut EP

OUT TODAY LISTEN HERE

BERÍ'S DEBUT EP STRAY CAT KINGDOM IS DUE OUT JULY 20, 2022


Brooklyn-based synth-pop artist, Loren Berí, releases his third single, “Greta's Inn," today, this time featuring multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi (of Montreal, One Jupiter). Picking up where "Prince V," left off, the two narrate the story of characters they find in an otherworldly tavern, Greta's Inn, in a fictionalized version of New York City. Loren Berí's debut EP, Stray Cat Kingdom, a five-track collection written and recorded by Berí, is due out July 20, 2022 and available for pre-order now.


Both of Berí's previous singles, "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)" and "Prince V" featuring Itamar, return to a world set in a romanticized, alternate version of New York City. Here, imagination and distorted reality meet, as Berí introduces a slew of characters, and in turn, various aspects of his life, over bubbling, synthy beats and tongue-in-check lyricism. The first single, "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)" premiered with FLOOD Magazine, who called it "a wildly magnetic—and hilarious—homage to NYC." FLOOD continues, "The song pairs Berí's bubbly synths and catchy melodies with tales of a fizzled cross-country fling, visions of Berlin and brunch and Bryant Park, and plenty of tongue-in-cheek digs..with a joyful, roving feel."

"Greta's Inn" is a hidden tavern shrouded in mystery where the icons of Berí's world–both past and present–coincide. On the twinkling track, Berí is joined by Bashi, who plays violin and contributes lead vocals and harmonies, as well as Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms For Peace, Dirty Projectors) on percussion, who combine to immerse listeners into an enchanting realm, in which it's easy to escape.

In addition to Bashi's musical contributions to the track, he also introduces listeners most formally to the specific characters of the fictitious world, like Alby. Bashi sings, "There is Alby who has everything and Dogen who loves nothing / Kusama’s by the polka dotted blinds / Watts cures you of your taboo / Shunryu sights “untrue is true” / As Kahlo’s staring death to cry.”

From there, Berí continues to add brush strokes to the musical mural of the unruly Stray Cat Kingdom, re-entering "Prince V" into the picture, who gathers the courage to face his own past.

Providing further context for the characters within the kingdom, Berí adds, "Alby lives a sort of lonely life as a now older and iconic musician, and a hero to the younger characters. While my song "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)" goes into how the idea of a place can outgrow the place itself, I think Alby represents how the idea of an icon and hero can cover up who the real person is behind the larger than life character we see them as." Tying Alby into the the world of real life superstars, Berí continues, "I always imagined Alby as a mix between Bowie and David Byrne, this iconic, older and quintessentially New York artist who is looked up to by the other characters, whose archetype inspired them to do what they do, and isn’t actually much like who they think he is. And Alby represents what these New York City transplants aspire to become." Ultimately, Berí illustrates how utterly ridiculous the pursuit to be an artist in New York City can be. In a city so oversaturated with aspiring stars, it quickly becomes impossible to stand out. Yet, through Alby, Berí is able to find the beauty and lessons within the pursuit itself.

An overwhelming sense of excitement washed over collaborator Kishi Bashi upon receiving the track as the two began to mold it into what it is today. Bashi explains, "When Loren sent me this track for a potential collaboration, I was immediately hooked by the character of the song and its addictive melody. His song oozes with that powerfully classic Brooklyn hipster neuroticism."
Berí uses the various characters as vehicles through which he is able to tell his own truth, and illustrate his own experiences from asking intricate, existential questions, to better understanding his identity in all its forms, while tending to his mental health, and exploring aspirations and roles he might play in his own life.

Loren Berí grew up surrounded by classical music, spending countless hours at the piano. Berí began writing songs by the age of 15 to cope with the loss of his father, and by college, he was bouncing around various bands before planting roots in New York City. After a naturally lonely and difficult adjustment period amidst a pandemic, Beri's debut EP began to take shape. After meeting and befriending producer O Mer, who produced and mixed three of the EP's five songs, a project began to solidify, catching the hearts and minds of both Bashi and Refosco who are both featured on the EP.
 
On "Greta's Inn," featuring Kishi Bashi, out everywhere now, Loren Berí carefully cultivates hope with the help of those around him, including Prince V, in the surreal universe of the Stray Cat Kingdom. All three of the latest singles from Berí including "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)" and "Prince V" featuring Itamar are out everywhere now. Find Loren Berí on Instagram and Facebook and stay tuned for the rising musician's debut EP, Stray Cat Kingdom, due out this July and available for pre-order now.

Photo credit: Hannah Cohen 

About Loren Berí

Loren Berí’s debut EP Stray Cat Kingdom is inhabited by madcap characters and intersecting storylines in an alternate version of Brooklyn. Set to synth-pop, a cast of artists in New York arrive, fall out with one another, meet their heroes, or become heroes themselves.

These twelve songs are lush, expansive psych-pop at its richest and most tantalizingly melodic, introducing a bold new voice in indie-pop and inviting listeners to explore the bigger picture not only on the album, but with life itself as well. The funky, spiky style of psych-pop greats of Montreal can be heard throughout, from the arpeggiating synths of “My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)” to the starry-eyed melodies of “Genesis 2.0.” Fittingly, the punchy anthem “Greta’s Inn” features NYC indie-pop vet and former of Montreal member Kishi Bashi, as he transports the listener to a mystical club space, tying into Stray Cat Kingdom’s larger projection that nothing may be as it seems. 

Stray Cat Kingdom is the culmination of Berí’s lifetime immersed in all things music. He was raised on classical music through his grandfather’s frequent involvement in concert planning; after teaching himself to play piano as a teenager, he started writing songs at the age of 15 and bounced around in several bands throughout college. While embracing a variety of musical styles ranging from bouncy synth music to ornate chamber pop, Berí kept his classical fixations front and center throughout: “Harmonically, that’s where my heart lies,” he explains. 

Work on Stray Cat Kingdom started after Beri had established roots in NYC, a moment when he also found himself at a general crossroads: “I was having a tough time, artistically and otherwise,” he recalls. “I wasn’t sure I really wanted to put myself out there anymore. But continuing to write songs was better for my mental health than not doing so.” After befriending fellow musician and producer O Mer—and finding out that Omer grew up with Loren’s cousins—the latter encouraged Loren to send him his music and ended up contributing production to several of the album’s songs. 

Beri continued demoing and recording what would become Stray Cat Kingdom during the pandemic, tying together the songs’ overlying concept while referring to an unrealized pilot script that “helped me develop what was going on in the music.” The wide-scale setting is an alternate-universe version of Brooklyn that the album’s protagonist Zo (short for “Lorenzo”) lives in. “I found out recently that my family descends from an Italian family of Kabbalist rabbis, instrument makers, musicians, and poets. I didn’t know I had Italian roots, but I was randomly drawn to learning Italian when I was 19” Beri explains. 

“I always thought my roots were just Jewish on both sides and from other countries besides Italy. What if the Italian version of me never left Italy? I wanted Zo to have a similar identity revelation, too—almost the inverse of mine, as if our ancestors never left Italy. So Zo grows up there, descends from conversos, moves to New York a classical composer, and in New York he finds out he's Jewish and he likes synth-pop music. ”

The results are a fantastical journey that also feels resolutely down-to-earth, with Berí’s observational lyrics—at once funny and insightful, emotional and witty—grounding his impossibly lush sonic flights of fancy. First single “My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)” is lovely and laconic, as Berí’s vocals lay atop a percolating melody as he ruminates on gentrification and a chattering creative class. “It was a joke song at first—it made me crack up,” he explains. “But then some time passed, and the idea in my mind became all these people talking along with an exaggerated version of myself—a careless jerk, some Bushwick hipster. It’s a satire of where I found myself.” 

After arriving in New York, “Berí’s character ‘Zo’ unknowingly traipses into Greta’s Inn-an otherworldly speakeasy, a hideaway shrouded in mist, “someplace downtown no one will ever find.” Here, icons of past and present meet, Zo seemingly an accidental guest. Grappling with some of the same issues as Berí, at first he questions if this was real. Berí explains, “Through my experiences with manic episodes, at the end there’s always a shred of truth even when I’ve imagined other things. Afterwards there’s always something real that you can’t explain away.” Stray Cat Kingdom, out June 22nd, 2022 is an evocative, deeply felt journey to the heart of the real, marking an auspicious debut for Berí as a songwriter and artist. (Larry Fitzmaurice)

Artwork by Giulia Nardi / Photograph by Hannah Cohen

Tracklisting: Stray Cat Kingdom (EP)

01. My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)
02. Greta’s Inn (feat. Kishi Bashi)
03. Prince V (feat. Itamar)
04. Genesis 2.0
05. YOLO Crayon




Photo credit: Hannah Cohen

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