#berckleman

Published in Beat Magazine, September 2012 

It’s morning on a grey Berlin day and Simon Berckleman, aka ‘Berkfinger’ from now disbanded indie darlings Philadelphia Grand Jury, is in high spirits. For one, he just received an original '70s drumset from Japan in the mail courtesy of eBay (at a very good price), and is gearing up to head back to Australia to debut his new project, Feelings to home crowds. With first single, One In A Million already notching high rotation since its release, Feelings is the result of 18 months producing, writing and recording, various artistic collaborations, and newfound creative freedom.

After the shock split from his former band, Berckleman relocated to Germany with 300kg of home studio equipment upon the recommendation of the then Philly Jays drummer Suzie, and shortly after, splurged on a recording studio. For Simon, the move to Berlin was key in the creation of Feelings. Reviving an old collaboration in the form of Dan Williams; original member of the Philly Jays, and now drummer of Art Vs. Science, the timing felt right for their musical friendship to flourish yet again. “I don’t think it’s like when we’ve been jamming we’ve been writing songs just like we used to – Dan’s definitely gone on a bit of an electro trip. I think that has meant that it actually felt really fresh, it didn’t feel like a blast from the past at all, it feels like a new thing.” But however fresh, Feelings’ new material sounds like it could easily fit onto a B-side of a Philly Jays EP. “It all just sounds like me”, Berckleman agrees. “One In A Million and all the songs I’m working on, they still sound like me. I was always cynical that it sounded really different from Philly Jays because to me, I instil that in the songs”.

With two thirds of the original band back making music together, it seemed it was a case of being all a bit too much for Berckleman and former co-frontman Joel Beeson, to hold the latest variation of Philadelphia Grand Jury together for a second album. “With the Philly Jays, it wasn’t necessarily a creative thing, it was just where everyone was at in their lives. Just practicality – it wasn’t like ‘I can’t work with you musically’, it was ‘I can’t work with you as a human being.’ Most of that was to do with me, I think. I pissed Joel off a lot”, Berckleman admits. “That was the main thing and then that then started to affect our writing because when you’ve been in close quarters with someone for three or four years and you know them intimately, you’ve driven each other up the wall in various ways, and then you get in a room to try and make an album, and then you realise the other album actually went pretty well and our new album better be good too or else we’re screwed – that’s when it became hard to write music”.

But the latest incarnation of Berckleman and Williams wasn’t initially as appealing for some, despite the all-star line-up which also includes David Rennick from Dappled Cities on guitar. “People weren’t interested in Feelings. They were like, ‘No we want Philadelphia Grand Jury. Can’t it just be exactly like that, or can’t you get the band back together or can’t you take the band name?’ And I was like, no way am I taking the band name without the other guy that was the key member of the band! All the music industry kind of stuff has changed for this project because the other people couldn’t get used a new thing. And that was surprising and really upsetting at first, because  I wrote a new album that I was really excited by and I was like ‘let’s put it out, let’s do stuff’, and they were  like, ‘yeah, I don’t know if it’s any good’. So I felt like it was all falling upon deaf ears. Now it’s on high rotation on triple j, so I don’t see what the problem was.” Berckleman recounts, “It was like when we started the first band, we got no offers from labels; we had to really twist our friend’s arm to become our manager and we started it all ourselves. And then by the time we were booking the second album, we had really good offers from every major label in Australia. But it’s just because they were like, ‘okay we can see that it works and it’s making money, we’ll get you on board’. And I feel like that’s been the same experience with starting this new band; no one wants to take a risk in the music business, no one wants to get behind you or champion anything. They will sit back and let you do the work, and if it’s working, then they’ll get involved.”

Even though fans have been much more open-minded to Feelings so far, Berckleman is still nervous about playing live to familiar crowds. “I’ll at least get a chance to show people my new thing because they’ll be interested based on what I used to do. I think I have one shot with everybody, and if I blow it then they’ll disown me.”

Written by Tegan Butler