(This article first appeared in a 2021 edition of Retrofied magazine.)
By Steve Spears
Few bands have experienced as many new beginnings as Berlin.
The band formed in Southern California in the late ’70s and experienced several mercurial moments in the ’80s – early MTV success, performing in front of a never-ending sea of fans at the 1983 US Festival and topping the charts with “Take My Breath Away.” Their “Pleasure Victim” and “Love Life” albums were packed with powerful punches like “Metro,” “Masquerade” and “No More Words.”
For the band’s core members – singer Terri Nunn, keyboardist David Diamond and bassist/songwriter John Crawford – it seemed their commitment and sacrifices (including Terri’s gamble to abandon her acting career) were paying off.
But in 1987, personal grievances over musical direction and the disappointing reception of the 1986 album “Count Three and Pray” converged to split the band up. Terri would later gain legal rights to continue touring as “Berlin Featuring Terri Nunn” but the foundation of the group was gone – or so it seemed.
In the early 2000s, VH1’s “Bands Reunited” show corralled the band’s original members for a one-off performance, providing a glimmer of hope to fans that a permanent reunion was possible. It would take another decade and a half to reach that “new beginning” when David and John returned to the band full-time in 2017. Two new albums – “Transcendance” and “Strings Attached” – were released. Hard feelings were set aside, the creativity was flowing again and new music was coming out. Nothing could stop them now, right?
Fast forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered the music business. Again, Berlin is ready to begin again. I recently met with Terri, John and David via Zoom to talk about life off the road, their new music and what it feels like to be together again.
Steve: It must be satisfying to hear all the positive buzz about the new album “Strings Attached.” (“Strings Attached” is a collection of Berlin’s hits through the years, re-recorded along with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. It was released at the end of November 2020.)
Terri: “I’m really happy about this orchestral album … Literally it’s the avalanche of press and response on this that has blindsided me. I guess they just love hearing this music big. It’s so majestic and powerful yet tender.”
Whose idea was it to redo your hits with an orchestra?
Terri: “It was a company called August Day in the UK. They had already done this orchestral approach with Rick Springfield and Cutting Crew and A Flock of Seagulls, and they approached us at the end of 2018 and I was all over it.”
John, is it odd or strange hearing your music transformed by a group of 30 musicians?
John: “No, not at all. There was just this beautiful lushness to it that both Terri and David were really good at accomplishing. So it just became a new version of that to me. Our music is written around melody and harmony rather than an R&B sort of rhythm thing. It’s not like adding an orchestra to James Brown or something like that.”
David: “To be honest with you at the beginning of the thing, I was extremely skeptical because I played violas in school and such. And I thought like my approach to synthesizers in Berlin has always been borrowing from how orchestras do stuff anyway. My favorite parts were where they went completely out in left field and really let themselves be an orchestra and treat the music like an orchestra.”
Do you want to incorporate the ideas of this album into live performances?
David: “I feel like people get the recordings on the “Strings Attached” record, when eventually we can go play live again, they’re going to see some new live versions of what we’re doing that now accounts for that. The record enabled us to rethink some of the stuff we were doing live. I was really appreciative of that.”
Speaking of live performances, your annual shows on The 80s Cruise – which I’ve seen in person every year – have been legendary. Especially when you invite people from the audience to join you onstage for “Dancing with Berlin.”
David: “I can tell you the only times in my life that I have ever been molested have been onstage during ‘Dancing with Berlin… “
Terri: “And loved every minute of it!”
David: “Honestly, I think they have respect to keep a distance from Terri that they just do not have with the guys.”
Terri: “Oh no! I’ve had butt grabs for sure. But that’s it.”
How badly did 2020 and the pandemic throw a wrench into your plans? Life to me feels like it’s been on never-ending pause since we returned to Florida off The 80s Cruise back in March.
David: “When I think of 2020, what I’m probably most thankful for – other than the fact that we’re all well – is that we got to do that cruise within 10 minutes of the world falling apart. We still had an awesome time that week. The flip side of that is we had amazing shows scheduled in 2020 that were canceled.”
Terri: “I’m interested in the idea of us doing a smaller tour within major cities, with the orchestras in those cities. I don’t know, because at this point, all of the venues are closed and we don’t know when they’re reopening. … I just feel it’s like a survival mode, you know?”
David: “This should be a creative time. This should be a time that we take advantage of all the time that we’ve got. I look at the COVID thing like this is just one of the many disruptors that happen throughout history. You know, it’s like the advent of the synthesizer was a disruptor in music that made our band possible.”
John, you were the final piece in the puzzle, returning again to reunite the band’s core members. What was it like stepping on stage again?
John: “I think at first there was a level of just not feeling comfortable because of who I was at the time. At the time I was still like a businessman owning a business. I had to come to a place where I got comfortable realizing that I was kind of acting a little bit – enjoying the idea of kind of being in a play rather than being the guy who took himself so seriously back in the ’80s. Now I just go on stage and I play the rock star for the time I’m on the stage. Before and after I’m nothing like that, it doesn’t suit me anymore. So I just enjoy wearing the costume and as David and I like to say, throwing the poses.
Terri: “It’s not a fantasy to me. When I’m on stage, I’m communicating to people because to me, music is communication. That’s all it is. And it’s a fun communication. It’s a passionate communication. That’s more intense, you know? And it’s fun.”
David: “It’s very different now than it was 35 years ago when going onstage was life or death at every show. Now I don’t really change. I love it because it’s fun to play. And I love being with John and Terri and the rest of our band and our crew.”
Terri: “I can’t even believe how fast years go by. I don’t like it. That’s one thing I don’t like about getting older – time goes back faster. I don’t want to have to go faster. I’m enjoying life more. Now I want it to go slower.”
What has changed that makes everyone feel so much more comfortable?
David: “Back in the day, we had people around us who were telling us how we were supposed to be, and for me, that contributed to the nervousness and the discomfort, because in some cases I was being asked to be something I wasn’t naturally … Now, I don’t feel like I have to negotiate when I go onstage. There’s not as much of a separation between the audience and the band as there used to be 35 years ago. I kind of feel like we’re all in this together. They’re just having fun and they’re remembering things from their lives. I just kind of feel the same way.”
Terri: “We’ve all grown and we don’t have the fears and the same ego problems that we had before. And that’s one great thing about aging is, you know, when you have kids and you have failures and you have evolved in your life, things actually get better.
So you’re happy where you are now.
Terri: “I would never go back to my 20s. That was fun, but this is way better. I’m not scared all the time. David was right – when we were in our 20s, every show was do or die. The way we make music now, I wish we were there then, but we weren’t, and it took time to get there. And now we’re there. And I really appreciate this time. I’m gonna make music with them now, because this is great.”