1. David Berkeley was born on David Berkeley Friedland, September 22,1976 and is an American singer and songwriter.
33 Facts About David Berkeley
1. 2.
David Berkeley has released eight studio albums, one live album and has published two books, all of them self-produced under the Straw Man label, in a recording career that began in 2002.
3.
David Berkeley is known for collaborating with trance music artists on remixes of his own songs and on original material.
4.
David Berkeley was born David Berkeley Friedland in September, 1976.
5.
David Berkeley started showing a passion for singing while still in nursery school, having attended a musical school.
6.
David Berkeley's parents helped him nurture his passion for music by taking him to several Broadway shows, and was usually selected as the leading vocalist in high school musicals.
7.
David Berkeley graduated from Harvard with degrees in literature and philosophy.
8.
David Berkeley lived in Alaska, where he contributed to the Let's Go Alaska travel guide; Idaho, where he was a river-rafting guide; Santa Fe, where he worked for Outside magazine; Santa Cruz; Brooklyn, teaching creative writing in a public school in an impoverished area; Atlanta and Tralonca, a small village in Corsica, while his wife worked on her PhD in anthropology.
9.
David Berkeley decided to become a full-time musician while he was teaching in Brooklyn, as having a double career was taking its toll on his voice and his private life.
10.
David Berkeley's 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.
11.
In 2005, David Berkeley released Live from Fez, the testimony of a live event held on February 22 of the same year, one of the last concerts held at the popular Lower Manhattan club.
12.
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.
13.
David Berkeley released in 2013 Fire in My Head, recorded in only a few weeks with the help and the production of Jono Manson and accompanied by Jordan Katz and Bill Titus.
14.
David Berkeley recorded a song for Ciao My Shining Star, a tribute album to Mark Mulcahy that features contributions from Mark Mulcahy's favourite musicians.
15.
The album was released on September 29,2009, and David Berkeley's contribution has been widely appreciated.
16.
David Berkeley took part in the benefit live concert that followed that album, held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
17.
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.
18.
David Berkeley made clear that such tales are not to be considered synopses of the songs, but simple aids to better understand them.
19.
David Berkeley admitted to be inspired by hip hop artist Brother Ali and indie rockers The Hold Steady.
20.
David Berkeley insists that most of his inspiration derives from poetry, passages of prose, people, the outdoors, art and most form of visual images.
21.
David Berkeley admits to have at least once chosen the topic of a song because a friend pressured him into it.
22.
David Berkeley has a penchant for using geography-related references as song titles.
23.
In 2003, David Berkeley showcased at the popular South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where he returned in 2004 and 2011.
24.
David Berkeley toured the United States and supported such artists as Ben Folds, Rhett Miller and Ed Harcourt.
25.
In early 2007, David Berkeley toured the United Kingdom for the first time, alongside Ben Parker.
26.
David Berkeley returned to the UK at the end of the same year with Common Rotation.
27.
David Berkeley has appeared on Ira Glass's This American Life.
28.
David Berkeley mentioned this experience as the proudest moment of his career so far.
29.
Besides the artists already mentioned, David Berkeley has toured with Billy Bragg, Don McLean, Nickel Creek, Rufus Wainwright, Ray Lamontagne, Howie Day, Gary Jules, Dido, Vienna Teng, Joseph Arthur, Hem, Mason Jennings and Ben Lee.
30.
In July 2009, David Berkeley, then living in Atlanta, announced the formation of the "ATL Collective" featuring himself, Micah Dalton and Samantha Murphy.
31.
David Berkeley's delivery has been defined delicate and tasteful, sober but not cheap, sweet and sour, his songs are considered rich in texture and poetic, and his voice confident and reassured.
32.
The song Red, included in this album, has been criticized by the people of Cleveland for depicting their town in a negative way; the only time he sang the song in Ohio, David Berkeley changed the reference in the lyrics to Pittsburgh.
33.
Strange Light was 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.