Johnny Berlin is a young Belgian band with a fresh sound in which you can hear echos of genres like new wave, pop and post-rock.
Their new and first full album, Find What You Love And Let It Kill You, will be released in late May on the label Kinky Star and will be distributed by Bang!.
The origin of the band’s name lies with the legendary figure Johannes “Johnny” Renner.
Johannes “Johnny” Renner was born in the late 19th century in the outskirts of Berlin. Fleeing the economic crisis of the 1920s, he rambled through Europe for many years, eventually making a name for himself in Belgium in the late 1930s. He was one of the first to open a bordello on the Chaussée d’Amour (The Highway of Love) between Liege and Saint-Trond. He built a personal empire opening houses in Brussels (1947), Antwerp (1949) and Amsterdam (1955). He died a rich man in 1965, leaving two wives and four children.
In the year 2005, brothers Paul and Laurens Renner met Roberto Beck in their nocturnal wanderings. Johnny Berlin became a band that embraces post-punk and new wave, adores electronica, flirts with post-rock and blends these genres and lifestyles into a fresh mix. About a year later, guitarist Tom S. Downing and bassist Pete Arrows joined in.
In the mean time, a first EP, I am Johnny Berlin, appeared. The alternative Flemish press embraced this debut and brought the band to the stage in Flanders, Wallonia and Holland. Johnny Berlin made the playlist of a variety of radio stations such as FM Brussel and Urgent.
Afterwards, Johnny Berlin began to work intensively on their first full album, Find What You Love And Let It Kill You. The band has grown and matured in every aspect. The unrestrained aggressiveness has grown more contemplative without being robbed of its energy.
The new release is a layered entity that deals with themes such as alienation, boredom and life in a society which pretends to strive for individualism but is stuck in collectivity, conformity and social institution.
Confusion and doubt are a recurring theme throughout the album. This is voiced in the song Dirty Tackles by the Renner brothers: “Maybe we don’t deserve it / ’cause we’re not worth it” (meant more as a question than as a confirmation). The eternal wisdom that one should first change oneself before being able to change one’s environment, is put into question: maybe you should first change the world before you are allowed to change yourself.
Johnny Berlin has faced some setbacks and one can hear that throughout the album. A bittersweet half-reconciliation with their faith will surely not be the dead end, but rather the start of their artistic ambitions. If you want me to forgive you / well, I’ll give you for; these words from track Four are no lamentation but rather a hopeful hymn.
