David Berkeley
David Berkeley
Brooklyn, NY
Folk / Singer Songwriter / Indie
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The story of David Berkeley is the story of so many indie musicians: He first sang publicly at age 4 in the company of a traveling saleswoman. They went door to door, and he sang to help her sales. He honed his musical skills at a nursery school run by hippies, where young female teachers wore guitars around their necks (and in David's memory, nothing else). "My first crush was Miss Judy," David recalls. "She had an old Gibson and flowers in her hair. I was 5 and had found my calling.
That said, the true uniqueness in David's music is his gift for melody and his poetic and philosophic lyric writing. "I've always been singing, but I came to song writing late," David says. "I can't quite say where my melodies come from, but I work long and hard on every word in every song I write." There is a profound depth in his songs, a refreshing honesty, and his delivery is unaffected. The New York Times' Jon Pareles praised Berkeley's "lustrous, melancholy voice," finding "shades of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake" in David's music, a comparison also made by Rollingstone,com. Pareles went on to write "as [Berkeley's] melodies ascend to benedictions and consolations, the music shimmers and peals." Atlanta's Creative Loafing writes that "Berkeley crafts his songs like watercolor paintings, intimate and introspective." Relix Magazine calls David "one of the most promising young singers to emerge in recent times."
Summer '06 saw David Berkeley record his 3rd studio album at the legendary Engine Studios in Chicago with Brian Deck (producer of Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter, Modest Mouse). The album, to be called Strange Light contains Berkeley's smartest and catchiest work yet and features guest vocalist Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek. "Brian Deck was the perfect person to work with," Berkeley offers. "He managed to capture the naturalness of my music, the rawness of it, while still pushing the songs into more powerful, more polished places."
Berkeley recently finished participating in the Jeep Compass Summer Music Tour, during which he was given a new Jeep and a tour manager and performed over 50 shows in 30 days. Coke, Paste Magazine and iTunes are set to launch an international promo campaign featuring David's music. He received ASCAP's Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award and is one of WXPN's Artists to Watch. He showcased at South by Southwest two years in a row (in the ASCAP showcase this past spring), an original song of his was featured prominently in CBS-TV's Without a Trace, and his latest studio album After the Wrecking Ships has sold over 10,000 copies. Berkeley's Live from Fez CD/DVD captures a single show with David's full band before the legendary NYC listening room closed. The album is about to be released in the UK in advance of David's upcoming UK tour.
Born in the Garden State, David Berkeley graduated from Harvard where he studied literature and philosophy. He has lived in Santa Fe (working for Outside Magazine), Alaska (writing for Let's Go Alaska), Idaho (where he worked for 5 summers as a river rafting guide), Santa Cruz (misbehaving) and Atlanta (writing songs). Berkeley is now in Brooklyn (with his wife and newborn son, Jackson).
His near constant touring schedule is booked worldwide by The Agency Group David has toured with Nickel Creek, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Ray Lamontagne, Howie Day, Rhett Miller, Rachael Yamagata, Gary Jules, Dido, Vienna Teng, Joseph Arthur, Hem, Mason Jennings and Ben Lee. Berkeley has a history of sold-out dates in NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, LA, Chicago. Radio stations across the country (like WXPN-Philadelphia, WFUV-NYC, WXRV-Boston, KCRW-Los Angeles, DAVE-FM-Atlanta, KPFA-Bay Area, KTBG-Kansas City, WTMD-Maryland, WICN-New England, WCFR-Amherst, GPB-Georgia, XM Satellite Radio) and around the world embrace Berkeley's music.
The future is bright for David Berkeley. We hope you'll be a part of it. For inquiries contact David's manager Alan Wolmark at cecus@aol.com or 212-206-6765.
To purchase David's CDs go to http://www.cdbaby.com/all/ngeo or itunes or ask your local retailer.
That said, the true uniqueness in David's music is his gift for melody and his poetic and philosophic lyric writing. "I've always been singing, but I came to song writing late," David says. "I can't quite say where my melodies come from, but I work long and hard on every word in every song I write." There is a profound depth in his songs, a refreshing honesty, and his delivery is unaffected. The New York Times' Jon Pareles praised Berkeley's "lustrous, melancholy voice," finding "shades of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake" in David's music, a comparison also made by Rollingstone,com. Pareles went on to write "as [Berkeley's] melodies ascend to benedictions and consolations, the music shimmers and peals." Atlanta's Creative Loafing writes that "Berkeley crafts his songs like watercolor paintings, intimate and introspective." Relix Magazine calls David "one of the most promising young singers to emerge in recent times."
Summer '06 saw David Berkeley record his 3rd studio album at the legendary Engine Studios in Chicago with Brian Deck (producer of Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter, Modest Mouse). The album, to be called Strange Light contains Berkeley's smartest and catchiest work yet and features guest vocalist Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek. "Brian Deck was the perfect person to work with," Berkeley offers. "He managed to capture the naturalness of my music, the rawness of it, while still pushing the songs into more powerful, more polished places."
Berkeley recently finished participating in the Jeep Compass Summer Music Tour, during which he was given a new Jeep and a tour manager and performed over 50 shows in 30 days. Coke, Paste Magazine and iTunes are set to launch an international promo campaign featuring David's music. He received ASCAP's Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award and is one of WXPN's Artists to Watch. He showcased at South by Southwest two years in a row (in the ASCAP showcase this past spring), an original song of his was featured prominently in CBS-TV's Without a Trace, and his latest studio album After the Wrecking Ships has sold over 10,000 copies. Berkeley's Live from Fez CD/DVD captures a single show with David's full band before the legendary NYC listening room closed. The album is about to be released in the UK in advance of David's upcoming UK tour.
Born in the Garden State, David Berkeley graduated from Harvard where he studied literature and philosophy. He has lived in Santa Fe (working for Outside Magazine), Alaska (writing for Let's Go Alaska), Idaho (where he worked for 5 summers as a river rafting guide), Santa Cruz (misbehaving) and Atlanta (writing songs). Berkeley is now in Brooklyn (with his wife and newborn son, Jackson).
His near constant touring schedule is booked worldwide by The Agency Group David has toured with Nickel Creek, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Ray Lamontagne, Howie Day, Rhett Miller, Rachael Yamagata, Gary Jules, Dido, Vienna Teng, Joseph Arthur, Hem, Mason Jennings and Ben Lee. Berkeley has a history of sold-out dates in NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, LA, Chicago. Radio stations across the country (like WXPN-Philadelphia, WFUV-NYC, WXRV-Boston, KCRW-Los Angeles, DAVE-FM-Atlanta, KPFA-Bay Area, KTBG-Kansas City, WTMD-Maryland, WICN-New England, WCFR-Amherst, GPB-Georgia, XM Satellite Radio) and around the world embrace Berkeley's music.
The future is bright for David Berkeley. We hope you'll be a part of it. For inquiries contact David's manager Alan Wolmark at cecus@aol.com or 212-206-6765.
To purchase David's CDs go to http://www.cdbaby.com/all/ngeo or itunes or ask your local retailer.
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