Terri Nunn still finds happiness with Berlin

Nunn still finding happiness leading Berlin

By Jim Dail

When people think of ‘80s bands, several images come to mind. It may be the
look of hard rockers with long hair and tight spandex pants or the stylish,
preppy look of new wave bands.
When it comes to the latter group, it may surprise some music aficionados to
learn that one new wave band actually has an Oscar.
Berlin, who plays tomorrow night at the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine
Festival, won an academy award for its chart-topping smash, “Take My Breath
Away,” from the movie “Top Gun.” That song, coupled by MTV and radio
standouts such as “No More Words,” “Masquerade” and “Sex (I’m a…)” have made
Berlin one of the true success stories of the period.
That success continues to this day.
"People still go to concerts to see us, and kids go because their parents
did,“ said Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn. “And the electroclash movement is
big now, and we were one of the originals.”
Talking to Nunn, it’s clear she likes things a lot better these days.
"I have more freedom of control and creativity," she said. "When we started
I thought I would have creative control but then you start having 50
different people coming in with their opinions. Now it‘s just us."
That freedom has given Nunn the chance to not only enjoy her career but her
life as well.
"Now we make enough on the band and live shows that I don’t need an album on
top of the charts,” she said. "I absolutely love it. I run the business and
don’t have to stay out on the road more than I want to. Now I can have my
career and a life. It’s pretty tough to have a real relationship when you
are always gone."
While Nunn certainly enjoys her life and the band, it’s clear that she is
bothered by some segments of the modern music industry.
"Now things aren’t right with the business because now it’s all
pay-to-play,” she said, referring to bands paying money to perform concerts
rather than a venue paying the band or sharing ticket proceeds. “We played
in a time it wasn’t like that because if we had to do that we’d never have
made it. We didn’t have money we were broke. We had to spend money on
rehearsal time and equipment and cloths. We were living hand to mouth. After
the first album we finally got to the point where we could get our own
apartments. If we had to shell out money in order to play our music that
wouldn’t have worked.”
Nunn also believes that’s one reason why music may be struggling with
creativity,
"Now it’s whose got the money, and it saps creativity and judgment,” Nunn
said, “Now they just care who has the money to pay for it, not who has the
most talent or is original.”
For their latest release, “4Play,“ the band veered slightly from its normal
formula.
“On the last record, we wrote the music and words and put down the tracks,”
Nunn said. “This time I brought in someone else to help us. I said ‘How
would you put it together.’ I thought it was a good thing. I really like to
collaborate with other people.”
For Nunn, while the studio work is important, being on stage is clearly her
favorite part of the business.
“I love being on stage because I’m not a studio person,” she said. “I don’t
find a lot of fun in going over a drum pattern for three hours. It’s the
work that gets me to the stage so we can play.”
However, that doesn’t mean the same type of effort doesn’t go into
recording.
“People buy the record because it’s the best we have,“ she said. ‘They don’t
want us to leave a lot of mistakes in. That’s why I’d never just record it
live in the studio as is, without it being polished.”
For Nunn, her career has been a tribute to her perseverance.
“For so many years I didn’t think I was great, but I hung in and with work I
have done it long enough to be able to be happy with what I can do,“ she
said. “In the early days I was in Boston and Ric Ocasek was there and I
asked him what is it like to have a record [“The Cars”] on the charts in Top
100 for years. He said ‘It’s nothing when you look at Pink Floyd’s “Dark
Side of the Moon.’”
Nunn acknowledges that she questioned how good her work was in the early
days, and if he would like to go back and change things on songs.
“You know he said ‘I don’t ever expect to stay happy with an album because
you wouldn’t make it the same a year later,’” she said. “He freed me for the
constant voice in my head that questioned me. Its important to just keep
doing and do it as good as you can at that moment.”