David Berkeley

More recently in 2018 David Berkeley has had one of his songs "The Faded Red and Blue" remixed whilst teaming up with Steve Brianwhich. This song whilst deeply political relates to the "faded red and blue flag of the USA missing a star or two" and focuses on the immigration issues (political issues) which the USA faces at the current time.

David Berkeley gave his voice for a second progressive house track called "Vueltas" created by the same Steve Brian who had worked on the dance version of "Fire Sign" and is rumored to be collaborating with other dance artists in creating new music to which he'd add his vocals. In early 2014, he also contributed vocal parts to a song on the album "Field Studies" by Ben Cosgrove, a composer and multi-instrumentalist.

David Berkeley released in 2013 Fire in My Head, recorded in only a few weeks with the help and the production of Jono Manson (who, besides releasing several album with his own band, worked with Blues Traveler and Donald Rubinstein amongst others and appeared at Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration) and accompanied once again by Jordan Katz and Bill Titus.

The album was released on January 25, 2011 and is accompanied by a book written by Berkeley himself and entitled 140 Goats & a Guitar, telling the stories behind the inspiration for each song in the album.

David Berkeley published a book called 140 Goats & a Guitar through his own Straw Man label. It was released in January 2011 as a companion book to his fourth studio album Some Kind of Cure and tells the inspiration behind each song in the album through short stories based on real-life events. Berkeley made clear that such tales are not to be considered synopses of the songs, but simple aids to better understand them.

"Fire Sign" from After the Wrecking Ships has been remixed by Steve Brian into an electronica trance track and released in September 2010 by Enhanced under the name of "Agulo feat. David Berkeley", which is reported to have been a dancefloor favourite of renowned DJs such as Tiësto and Sean Tyas. Further versions of the same track have been created by Will Holland, in a bigroom progressive style, and by Freigeist. The Steve Brian version was included in Enhanced's Best of 2010 iTunes compilation after listeners voted it as one of the best 25 releases of the year by that label.

In 2010 he was a finalist in the Mountain Stage Newsong Contest after having been one of the two winners of the "Early Bird" stage alongside Rebecca Jordan. The contest was eventually won by Amber Rubarth.

In late 2009, David Berkeley announced on his website and through his mailing list that he was working on a new album called Some Kind of Cure, mostly written while living in Corsica where, in his own words, he had the chance to listen to whatever surrounded him and take in the silence around.

David Berkeley also recorded a song ("Love's the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up") for Ciao My Shining Star, a tribute album to Mark Mulcahy (the former vocalist of Miracle Legion) that features contributions from Mark Mulcahy's favourite musicians. Besides David, other artists featured are Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. The album has been released on the 29th of September 2009 and David Berkeley's contribution has been widely appreciated. He also took part in the benefit live concert that followed that album, held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In July 2009, David Berkeley, then living in Atlanta, announced the formation of the "ATL Collective" (not to be confused with the "Atlanta Collective", a similar project focused on blues) featuring himself, Micah Dalton and Samantha Murphy. Their intention was to gather as many musicians from Atlanta as possible once a month, on a Wednesday, in a café in the Old Fourth Ward area to cover whole classic albums. On their debut the three artists, accompanied by other local musicians, covered the whole Bob Dylan album Blood on the Tracks. The second album covered has been Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Other albums played were At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles.

After having spent most of 2008 in Corsica with his family keeping his musical profile low, in 2009 after the release of Strange Light David Berkeley toured with Katie Melua accompanied by Jordan Katz of Common Rotation. With Katz he also toured once more the United Kingdom.

In early 2007, David Berkeley toured the United Kingdom for the first time, alongside Ben Parker. He returned to the UK at the end of the same year with Common Rotation.

2006 saw David Berkeley working at the Engine Studios in Chicago to record his third studio album, Strange Light, that would not be released until 2009. This delay allowed his fans and some reviewers to compare it – tongue-in-cheek – with Guns N' Roses's Chinese Democracy. When released, the album was enriched by the production of Brian Deck (Counting Crows, Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter). Its style has been judged affirming and intriguing even though downtrodden and melancholic.

In 2006, he participated in the Jeep Compass Summer Music Tour.

In 2005, David Berkeley released Live from Fez, the testimony of a live event held on the 22nd of February of the same year, one of the last concerts held at the popular Lower Manhattan club. Along with the CD is a DVD including four songs recorded in the same occasion. This live release displays not only David Berkeley's heartfelt musical style, but also his sense of humor in the intermissions between songs.

In 2004, Berkeley released his second album, After the Wrecking Ships, in which he made use of more electric instruments but still without abandoning the genre that he defines "acoustic/indie/alt/folk/whatever-you-want-to-add-here". It sold over 10,000 copies.

David Berkeley claims that this is the only live album ever released to be recorded at the now-closed New York club however, in 2004, Bree Sharp had released an album also recorded at the club, entitled Live at Fez.

After the Wrecking Ships also gathered enthusiastic reviews and more comparisons to established artists, such as Wilco and Ryan Adams, and was chosen as the best album of 2004 by established Rolling Stone critic Rob O'Connor. Even the renowned and influential New York Times critic Jon Pareles showed his high appreciation for this album. The Pittsburgh Pulp defined David Berkeley one of the best examples in the resurgence of folk rock, praising the American taste of his songs along with his melodic and melancholy voice. The already mentioned Rob O'Connor, on Harp Magazine, noticed a superficial resemblance to the quieter side of Eddie Vedder paired with wanderlust and bravado, in the finest troubadour tradition. In the same year he was also officially recognized by ASCAP as one of the most important emerging songwriters in the United States.

In 2003, David Berkeley showcased at the popular South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where he returned in 2004 and 2011. He also toured the United States and supported such artists as Ben Folds, Rhett Miller and Ed Harcourt.

He has released four studio albums, one live album and has published a book, all of them self-produced under the Straw Man label, in a recording career that began in 2002.

His debut came in 2002 with the mostly acoustic The Confluence, in which David Berkeley already displayed the characteristic traits that still identify his style: elaborated lyrics about personal topics, complex song construction, varying chord patterns.

David Berkeley, (born David Berkeley Friedland on 22 September 1976 in New Jersey), is an American singer and songwriter.

David Berkeley was born David Berkeley Friedland in September, 1976. His parents gave him the middle name Berkeley—which he later picked as his stage name—after having been graduate students at the University of California-Berkeley in the early 1970s before they moved to New Jersey.

Strange Light was also welcomed warmly by the critics adding to the list of artists David Berkeley has been compared to such influential names as James Taylor, Damien Rice, David Gray, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, Elliott Smith and Five for Fighting. This is the album, in some critics' opinion, that could give Berkeley "the big break". According to another critic, David Berkeley now is above comparisons and could be mentioned in the company (and could fit in the same period, the 1970s) of most of the artists he has been compared to. The passion and diversity of his lyrics and the poignancy of his music has also been widely praised, as has the emotional depth of his works. The originality and complexity of his arrangements have been positively highlighted.