Brooklyn-based synth-pop artist, Loren Berí, returns with his second single, “Prince V," featuring Itamar, where Beri continues to weave reality and fiction into a world of his own. The track arrives accompanied by a lyric video,
that takes the perspective of the full-length school bus that's featured in the tale of the song. Loren Berí's debut EP, Stray Cat Kingdom, a five-track collection written and recorded by Berí, is due out June 22nd, 2022 and available for pre-order now.
"Prince V" arrives as the follow up to Berí's debut single, "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)," which sees the musician begin to craft an alternate universe of characters, both real and imagined, where the forthcoming EP takes place and gets its name -- in a romanticized version of New York City called the Stray Cat Kingdom. FLOOD Magazine, who premiered the track, 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."
Years after the death of his father, Berí began experiencing alternating waves of mania and hypomania. In the midst of one such episode, paired with a fleeting inheritance, Berí bought a full-length, thirty-five foot school bus to tour the country with. Enter “Prince V" (feat. Itamar), and the rest is a character’s (partially real) history. Which parts are reality, and which are fiction, however, is up to the listener.
Over a twinkling bass line and effervescent synths, Berí paints a picture of his character singing in the chorus, "Poor little rich boy going broke in the rain / Rolling stone, more like a blown out flame." It is here, in the rainy Stray Cat Kingdom and within Prince V, that Berí finds the courage to face his past.
“Writing this song was cathartic for me because it helped me process my own stupidity and delusion," shares Berí. "In a period when I was resisting embracing change, and losing my grip on reality, I bought a full-length school bus and moved to New York. I used this as the basis of my character "Prince V," within my songs’ alternate version of Brooklyn called Stray Cat Kingdom.”
In the lyric video, the bus rolls along in Brooklyn, with footage shot in Bushwick, near the Morgan L train, within a block of where the real-life version of the bus was parked for over 14 months before disassembled, as parts were donated to charity. Berí was asked to be interviewed about the bus by Pix11 News when his Craigslist post went viral,
as he tried to sell it. Gizmodo wrote a piece on the moment titled, 'Apartment Hunting in NYC is So Bad, I'm Considering This $8.000 bus.' An Emmy nominated journalist reached out via Craigslist, but Berí had hidden his name from the post, and he decided not to do the TV interview.
About the experience, Beri says, "I'd had a trippy experience after the literal trip, and then finally I was crashing hard after being here in Brooklyn a year. So, this Emmy nominated journalist wanted to interview me for TV and talk about the bus, but I was so ashamed and in my head that I didn't do the interview. I'm glad I can tell this story after having had the chance to process it all. I'd like to think in a way I'm still on that trip though."
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 Kishi Bashi (of Montreal, Jupiter One, Regina Spektor) and Mauro Refosco (Atoms For Peace, David Byrne, Dirty Projectors), who are both featured on the EP.
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