Lovers

With their seventh album, A Friend in the World, Lovers fuse intimacy and empowerment into a modern atmosphere of honesty, new feminist humor, and rhythmic complexity. The result is at once arresting, tender and romantic. The new record is a rich engagement of acoustic and electronic extroversion and introspection–an uplifting ride into uncharted territories of the heart and mind. A Friend in the World is the follow-up to Lovers’ well-loved 2010 album  Darklight, and the second for the band as a trio.   Lovers (celebrated lyricist Berk, producer and sound artist Kerby Ferris, and producer and percussionist Emily Kingan) craft an intimate portrait of female friendship, sexuality, and evolution as an infinite process.   The three first encountered in 2002 after Berk’s near-fatal van explosion while on tour with an earlier incarnation of the band. Emily Kingan, then on tour with classic Portland feminist hardcore band The Haggard, invited Berk to join the bill.  Ferris was their roadie.  Years later, Kingan organized a meeting for her two friends and future band-mates in South America, where Berk was traveling and Ferris was living at the time, performing in various experimental electronic projects in São Paulo’s thriving music scene.  The result was sisterly love at second sight, and prophetic premonitions of the creative collaborations to come. Says Berk about Lovers presently:   “There’s something very cosmically powerful about choosing love over and over and over again, recommitting to people, cooperating on creative endeavors. We wanted to make an album that reflected our commitments to supporting each other’s creative processes. There is something so pure and magical about true friendship love, and we wanted to pour that into this album.”   A Friend in the World was recorded at Portland, Oregon’s beloved Type Foundry with Badman label owner Dylan Magierek (Thao Nguyen & Portland Cello Project, Mark Kozelek, Starf**ker) and Adam Selzer (She & Him, M.Ward), and mixed by Andy Lemaster (REM, Bright Eyes).  The band also spent a good deal of time writing and recording at their home studio. Berk says of that experience, “Everyone involved was a total delight to work with. I’ve known Andy since I was 18 – he produced some of my first two albums and has always been a hero of mine – so it was a dream come true to work with him again.”   “Carolyn Berk’s Lovers has had many incarnations over the years, but something stuck when the project coalesced into a meaty, synth-driven three-piece: the intensity upped, understated love songs became huge dance-club anthems and the trio’s live show became a must-see.” - Willamette Week   Lovers is on tour now in the US and plays the US/UK/Europe in Fall 2013.  The band plans an extensive US tour in spring 2014.