Miki Berenyi is a songwriter, singer and guitarist who first rose to prominence with Lush. Lush, whose classic line up was made up of Miki, songwriter and guitarist Emma Anderson, bassist Phil King, and drummer Chris Acland, released some of the most beautiful and engaging music of the shoegaze era across three studio albums Spooky (1992), Split (1994) and Lovelife (1996), plus the mini album Scar (1989) and a handful of classic singles and Eps, collected on the compilation Gala (1990), all released by the iconic 4AD label. The band split up in 1998 following the tragic loss of Acland. Berenyi spent some time away from music, but Lush briefly reformed in 2016, and Berenyi formed Piroshka in 2018, a quartet who released two underrated albums on ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde’s record label Bella Union. Berenyi’s memoirs, Fingers Crossed, came out in 2022, and won numerous accolades for its honest depiction of Berenyi’s troubled childhood and her time in Lush. Now, Berenyi is back making music with her new band, the Miki Berenyi Trio, which comprises herself, her partner Kevin “Moose” McKillip from shoegaze pioneers Moose, and guitarist Oliver Cherer. They have released a single, an EP of covers of Lush songs, and now have a debut album coming out on Bella Union on the 4th of April, which they will be taking on tour this summer. Berenyi was kind enough to speak to OUTSIDELEFT about her music, her writing, and her career in indie music.
OUTSIDELEFT: The Miki Berenyi Trio’s debut album Tripla is coming out late this year. Would you be able to tell us a bit about it?
MIKI BERENYI: Which narrative do I pick? Okay, the sort of genesis of it is that the band formed basically because I did the book. And then I was doing book talks, and they want you to play a couple of songs, which I won't do on my own. So, it was the three of us playing a handful of Lush songs. And then it just snowballed a bit, because Simon Raymonde, who's at Bella Union, said, oh, you should record those songs, because they sound really good. And then we just got offered a few gigs. And thought, Okay, well, if we're going to do this, we need to have some new songs. So it kind of started from there, really. And then the other facet is that, having gone through Piroshka, which was great fun, but we were sort of still following that model of, record an album, publicize it, then go and play some gigs. The problem with that is that these days, that means you play five gigs and then that's it. It's all over. Everyone's forgotten about it, and you have to move on to the next thing. And playing gigs is one of my favorite bits. So this time around, we were like, well, let's just play gigs and then we'll worry about the album later. So it's a bit old school. It's kind of back to where I started in music, where lots of bands just played, and you went to see them, whether they had an album out or not. The point was just to go and see them. So it's not like that's what we were planning to do, but that's the way it's kind of worked out. And it feels a bit more like it's for us, rather than for some schedule that is what you're expected to do.
OL: Did the process of writing the book and thinking about the early days of Lush make you want to go back on the road and start playing gigs again?
MB: Not really. The book was like a whole separate thing. The book was its own headache! I got asked to do that, and then I had to try and fucking figure out a way to do it. No, not necessarily. Maybe it's just made me associate with it now that I'm actually doing MB3, because it makes me think, that is more like what that industry was like right at the beginning. I think really the key to the MB 3 thing was that it was like, you do sort of sit there and go, what's your favorite bit? Yes, I love making records, and it's lovely to have them out, but playing live is a really key part of being in a band for me. And it was very, very difficult with Piroshka because there were a lot of members, it was very cumbersome. And now that there's just a three piece and the drummer is a fucking box that fits in the glove compartment, that actually means that we can afford to just rent a car and pile in and go and play a gig. I just wanted that back in my life, because I'm 57 so fuck knows how much longer I can carry on doing this realistically, hoiking gear around and what have you. We just wanted a bit of a last hurrah. But in terms of the actual writing of the record, because we were playing the gigs, it wasn't like we all convened in the studio and thought, right, let's write the album. Each of these songs came out piecemeal to fit into the set as we were going along. So there was never a massively overarching thought or idea behind it. It was more about what was practically achievable live. And there's an element of wanting to have songs that can work in a set, not too many slow songs, not too many long songs. You want to balance them out. And we've got three songwriters, so I'm not the only person writing songs. That makes it a lot quicker as well.
OL: Between the book Fingers Crossed coming out in 2022 and the 4AD Lush vinyl remasters in 2023, do you feel that there’s been a reassessment of Lush’s work? They frequently got such a hard time in the press…
MB: We did get quite pilloried in the press, but then lots of people did. I mean, that was just the press. That was just the way they were. They could clearly get mileage out of denigrating you. It sold copies. I think that's thing I didn't realize at the time. I took it quite personally, but now I look back at it, and they just did it to everyone. It's not nice to be on the receiving end. I think it's a bit like most things. Looking back at the 90s from this perspective, everybody likes to think that we now live in these really progressive times. That's a separate debate! But the thing about that is that you then look back to a previous era, and need to show how fucking awful it was and how appalling people were. Which helps to reframe your current narrative. And there's a certain romance to an overlooked band. I mean, look at Slowdive. They had an absolute hammering at the time. And I think sometimes people quite like that, that they're the first generation to embrace them and properly value them.
OL: How do you feel about the term ‘shoegaze’ now, with Lush being one of the original bands to get that label? It’s been embraced so much by the next generation….
MB: I mean, it's such a ridiculous title! it doesn't even make sense if you try and turn into a compliment! Labels. Bands never really understand labels. It's a word for journalists. And it's probably like an old fashioned way of looking at an algorithm. It's just a way of grouping a load of stuff together. And the band's always going to resist that, right? You're always going to have some band that is meant to be in the same umbrella as you, and you're going to sit there and go, Fuck them! We're nothing like them! When you're on the inside of it, it's really hard to tell. But I don't really mind it anymore. These days, it kind of works a bit in our favor, in that it's a genre that people grew quite fond of. Being part of that means that you get some sort of attention. I mean, at some point it will fall out of favor. We’re probably a relative tipping point by now, I would have thought, where people are going. urgh, not another fucking shoegaze band! Then you get the same cycle again.
'... all the funny stories are about the shit times, really, let’s face it. That's what makes it entertaining. I don't want to get too high minded about it, because it's that whole idea of the truth, everyone's truth is their own truth.'
OL: One of the compelling things about the book is how honest you are about all the ups and downs of being in a band – sure there are a lot of exciting things but there are also a whole bunch of crappy things as well. Was that part of what you were intending when you started writing it?
MB: Well, yeah, because that is the way that I would talk about it anyway. It's a really glib statement, but you end up creatively, whether you're writing or making music, you are doing it with an audience in mind that is actually a bit like you, right? So I don't want to read someone's glossy, PR-molded account of their band, because it's fucking boring. Not least because you know it isn't true. And also all the funny stories are about the shit times, really, let’s face it. That's what makes it entertaining. I don't want to get too high minded about it, because it's that whole idea of the truth, everyone's truth is their own truth. Emma and Phil would hugely disagree with my account of a lot of that book! That is absolutely understandable. But I just wanted to make it as real as possible, because I think that's the most interesting thing. If you read a novel or something. I suppose some people read novels and things for escapism. But I relish that immersion and the things that resonate, whether you're talking about the life of someone from a different fucking planet, or whatever. It's the humanness of it that is engaging.
OL: You’ve just been on tour, and you have more lined up for the summer. Are these going to be more gigs than the book talk with a few songs?
MB: I mean, they have been for a while. The last year of touring has just been just gigs. You are a little bit hamstrung in that everyone's got jobs and we're older, and there's also no money in it. You can't make a living out of being in a band. Or I certainly fucking can't! So it has to fit around all those other things. So there's a lot of gigs we're doing that are at the weekends, cause you have to be back at work on Monday!
OL: You've talked about how you’re in a band with three different songwriters. One of the great things about Lush is how well your and Emma’s songs complimented each other. Have you enjoyed that process working with Moose and Oliver as songwriting partners?
MB: Yeah, it's been great. With Lush, it was much more separate. So, the only times there was any kind of crossover was if I wrote the lyrics on one of Emma’s songs. We'd write ourselves separately, and that meant writing all the parts, bass guitar, ideas for drums. All of it was written by one person, and then you'd work with a producer to develop the sound. But it was quite rigid. Even if I was doing a vocal on one of Emma's songs, she’d want it in a very particular way, whereas with this that there's an awful lot more cross pollination. Ollie writes his own bass lines for a start, we kind of all muck in with the production and the keyboards and this and that. And I'll do backing vocals on Moose’s songs, or I'll write lyrics for Ollie's songs. So everyone piles in quite a lot. The songs always start off with one particular person, but then they're very much opened out. And a lot of that's also because we can't afford a producer, so we have to produce it ourselves. So you're chiming in with ideas and stuff. And I'll be honest, I kind of prefer it this way. Because, much as I loved being in Lush, there's a point you reach when you've written a song and you think, oh my god, now I've got to write a bloody second guitar part for Emma, and a bass part for Phil, and you end up kind of just getting a bit sick of the fucking song! You've done the bit that really captures you. And it would be great to have a bit of fucking help finishing it off. But that was never going to happen in Lush. So I kind of prefer it this way, if I'm honest.
OL: Yeah, much more room for collaboration…
MB: Yes. And not least because I'm just not good at all of those things. There were songs that I would write that start with a bass line and so fine, I've written that bass line. But even having it developed a bit by Ollie and a little bit of accent here, it makes the song a bit more of a living thing. Whereas I always felt with Lush it was like, once it's written, that's it, no one's going to change how it’s played at all!
OL: And do you feel that crosses over into the live performances with the Trio? Do you have much more space to spread out and try different things each night?
MB: I mean, I'm not a good enough musician to start fucking improvising all over the place! And also, there's a backing track, so you can’t stray too far. We probably don't really do that live, but we will do it between gigs and tours sometimes. There is a thing where we think, I don't know if that's working, and we'll try something different, and Moose will work on a different approach to the guitar. So they do develop, and that's what I quite like about playing live again as well. It's sort of weird, because it's the most electronic band I've ever been in. So you'd think there was less scope to do that, but it's actually worked out the opposite, that there's a lot more kind of movement within the songs. Which is why it was really nice to have played them for so long before we actually recorded them, because they have changed a long way from the way that they might have been first written.
OL: You have the gigs coming up this summer, after that, what do you have planned next?
MB: God, I don’t know! We'll do those gigs. We're going to go to Europe. We might go to America. I don't know. Going to America is so beset with difficulties, not least of which is the fact that Moose fucking hates flying, so even getting him on that plane will be like a miracle! But yeah. Everything that happens through this bad just kind of crops up and then gets discussed. I have absolutely no idea at this stage, beyond the summer, what happens.
OL: Thank you so much for speaking with us!
Essential Information
Miki Berenyi main image and MBTrio by Abbey Raymonde
The new lp Tripla (Bella Union) April 4th, available here
Miki Berenyi on Insta here
