In 1982, Berlin became one of the first electronic music acts to make waves within the United States. Led by vocalist Terri Nunn, the synth-rock group went on to score some big hits in the 80s with "The Metro" and especially “Take My Breath Away," which won an Academy Award as part of the soundtrack to Top Gun. Nunn still looks great at 52 (Seriously. Great.) and Berlin's still releasing records; the group's latest, Animal, is ultra-modern, combining elements of electronic dance music and industrial into the group's sound. In anticipation of her upcoming free show in Oregon, Nunn talked about her new record, fitness, and what makes a good show.
So you’re a cat person.
Yeah, I’m more of a cat person than a dog person. Dogs are nice, but yeah we have cats. My daughter wanted cats, so we have two cats now.
I hear that a lot from touring musicians because cats don’t require too much upkeep.
Yeah, that’s true.
Have you ever been to Toledo before?
I don’t know.
Now that’s interesting. How does that work?
I don’t know. I’ve crisscrossed the country so many times; it’s hard to remember every time I’ve been somewhere. There has to be a personal element in a city to remember being in it. And I don’t remember a personal element in Toledo, so I may have been there, but I’m not sure.
If you’ve been here and we haven’t done that, then my city has failed Berlin.
[laughs]
I listened to your new album, and It sounds super modern, which is not what I expected. Where did that decision come from?
I’ve loved electronic music my whole life obviously because we kind of introduced it into America. We started as a band in 1979, but the first album of music that we did came out in 1982. So, that was the beginning of it for me and I love all the different aspects of it and I love how it’s formed into all the different kinds of music. It’s gone to ambient, it’s gone to industrial, it’s gone to trance music, there’s just so many different versions of it and EDM (electronic dance music) really exploded for me, in my life, because I got a job doing a radio show here in LA – a dream of mine my whole life. It happened for two years starting in 2012 and they wanted me to be the electronic radio show, within their program. So I listened to everything that was electronic and EDM kept standing out to me as amazing, just one of the greatest forms of electronic music that I’d heard in a long time. What I also noticed about it is they’re using sounds that Berlin started with. They’re also using sounds I’ve never heard before. So, that combination is how I got the direction for the album. I thought, ok Berlin isn’t going to sound all that weird in the EDM world because I heard a TR 808 drum machine in Trent Reznor’s new song “Everything” – it starts with a TR 808 drum machine, that was our whole first album, that’s all we could afford was a TR 808 drum machine, so that was our drums. It’s still going today, even though everybody has so much access to a lot of different types of sound, they’re still using stuff that we did. It’s really cool. It’s just a great morphing to a sound that I really could see Berlin doing.
In 2008 Kanye West did a record where the gimmick was he did the whole record with an 808 drum machine. That piece of equipment and that sound in particular has really come to define EDM and hip hop right now, I think. What is it about that device, what’s the appeal of it?
I have no idea. We just love that sound. We love it. We can have anything we want and we keep going back to that. It feels good. When rock started in the late 50s and through the 60s and 70s mostly, why did we always love the guitar? There was always a guitar solo in every song. I don’t know, we just love it. We love the sound of guitar and that hasn’t gone away, though guitar solos have – thank god. If I never hear another guitar solo in my whole life, I would be ok. I hope Carlton isn’t going to read this, he is in my band and plays guitar. And I love it! But, yeah, there are just certain sounds that just turn people on.
I love guitar solos! We’ve come to an impasse. You and I have come to a divergence and I don’t know what to do with that. So, I’m just going to ignore it completely.
[laughs] I think some people are meant to do it. I think Dave Gilmore, if he came to my house to do guitar solos, I would marry him and have his children. But some people are not and it was like, well you got to do that. So, a lot of people did and to me not really getting it, but it’s ok. We don’t have to agree on everything.
No we don’t. I think there is a point and there is something to be said for people who are just good at an instrument for the sake… not even good, technically proficient. People who are just technically proficient at an instrument for it’s own sake. That does in fact bother me. I think when you started Berlin, that was two years after the Sex Pistols became a thing. So I think there was sort of an idea at that time that maybe we’ve taken solos a little too far. But that was also the same year that Van Halen’s “Eruption” came out, so maybe not.
Yeah, you’re talking about one of the greatest guitar players of all time, so I’m with you there. But not everyone is the greatest guitar player of all time and just because they can play guitar doesn’t mean they should be doing guitar solos.
I think that’s absolutely right. Given how up-to-date the band’s sound is, I’m actually surprised that I haven’t heard it on mainstream radio. What are your thoughts on that?
I’m in total agreement with that. I’m just as surprised as you are. I don’t know, I’m not really sure what controls radio besides money. It’s a totally different animal, so to speak. But the great thing is people don’t just listen to radio anymore.
I understand you’re really into health and fitness—what’s up with that?
I vowed to live a long time because I also have a daughter now. I’m not a spring chicken anymore and I have a daughter who is nine and I want to live to see her get married and be a grandma some day. So I’ve got to keep it healthy. I am a vegan now, and I was a vegetarian for pretty much most of my life – from 19 on. The reason I am a vegan now is both of my parents died from cancer and I’m a likely candidate for it and I grew up my whole life thinking how do I avoid that bullet? It might be in my genes, I don’t know, no one seems to understand why people get cancer and then I read The China Study[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study] and that was the deciding factor for me to say ok, that’s it. They’ve found a cure to cancer and a cause of it and at least that one I don’t have to do. So, I’m a vegan now. That changed me there. And as far as keeping my job, I need to look good. Nobody wants to see a fat schlub on stage.
Well, you’re succeeding at that, let me tell you! I was a little surprised to see.
Thank you. Well, being a vegan helps with that because it cuts out 60% of fat in your diet right there. If you cut out animal fats, that’s most of it; you got to have some. That really helps, it slims me down that way. But also I just need to move, work out. I try to keep it fun with my man, he likes to workout too and he looks great. So yeah, we do that together. The other thing is just balance and being happy, my mom taught me that. Her health regimen had a lot to do with being happy because happy people look good. They look better than bummed out people, so she said follow your love and your passion in life and it will keep you vibrant. So that really helps.
So do you do yoga, Crossfit? People are doing insane workouts these days.
Yeah, cause you get bored doing the same thing, Right now, we’re doing P90X. We did the original P90X, which is like an hour each day and I did it every other day. Now they have P90X for 30 minutes. That’s really cool, it’s hectic, but it really works. It’s really a good workout. You do it in your house and find the space, get some weight and some mats and it works! I can’t do it, it’s hard, I do what I can and it still works. That’s the thing I’m doing right now and I really like it.
It’s intense. It’s so weird that we’ve found ourselves in this lifestyle that’s so sedentary. I don’t take lunch breaks, I go to the gym instead. I eat while I am working, because I hate the sedentary nature of modernity. You know what I’m talking about?
I totally do. I actually ruminate on that. It’s a tragedy for people because we’ve become what we wanted, but it’s killing us. We wanted life to become so easy that we could sit all the time and it’s become that way. We can pretty much sit for almost everything we need to do and it’s killing us. I notice that for myself; I sit most of the day and it’s not cool. My body starts to hurt. I sit on planes, I sit on buses, I sit in cars, I sit at my computer, I sit watching television. It’s not good. It’s too far.
You don’t sit while you record do you?
Not while I’m singing. That’s why I enjoy concerts. I like doing concerts and going to concerts because I dance. I love the music, I love my body, it feels good.
Do ever hurt your voice, while performing?
Oh yeah, sure. Especially in the beginning, I didn’t know what I was doing. They put us on a tour – the record labels want to get the gravy train rolling, so they put you on the road as hard as physically possible so they can keep the money coming in. I was doing 5-6 nights in a row and I came home a mess. I didn’t have a voice anymore.
That sounds awful.
Yeah, it was awful. I understand it’s a business and I’m not against record labels, but that’s just what they try to do. I was a kid, so I didn’t know how to put my foot down and say I can’t do this. And I didn’t until I f**** up my voice. So when I came back from that first tour, I started training with a teacher who changed my life, Ron Anderson. He’s worked with Bjork. He came from an opera background and taught me how to sing. He taught me how to take care of it and it changed everything.
What makes a good show for you? How do you know?
People who are willing to go with the music and are willing to party and just happy. That doesn’t always happen and that’s ok. I don’t blame the audience, if they just aren’t feeling it that night or they’re not getting it or they’re just not naturally outgoing. But that’s a great show to me, when we’re all just getting into the music and dancing and having fun and going into the crowd. People are at their best at concerts. I see the best in people. I feel the safest with people because they’re happy, they’ve got their girl, they have a bottle of beer, they’re having a good time and they paid their money. been afraid of people my whole life and doing concerts was the first time that I realized that people are good, that the majority of people have good hearts and wanted our band to do well and came to see us do well and to have a good time. They have good intentions and that’s what you see at a concert mostly. There are dicks and there are assholes; there’s assholes at everything, but it’s a very small minority.
When you say you were afraid of people, could you expand on that for me? I find that interesting.
Yeah, I did too because it wasn’t until two years ago that I admitted it to myself. Maybe I was embarrassed about it my whole life, but I just couldn’t understand why I would go to parties and just be completely paralyzed. I wouldn’t be able to talk, I didn’t know what to say, I felt stupid. If there wasn’t music going on, something I could connect with people with, I felt completely lost and scared. It was a couple years ago that I was like oh I’m afraid of people, that’s what’s going on. This has been going on forever and it started with my dad because that was a really not fun relationship and he wasn’t there for us kids, he was an alcoholic and he was abusive and there was just a lot of shit going on at that time, when I was a kid. So, my decision was people are not good and not safe and they will hurt me. So, I need to stay as far away as possible and that’s what I did. But he is long gone and that situation has never happened again in my life. So it was a couple years ago that it hit me and that’s when I wrote “Nice to Meet You” on the new album, it’s about my fear of people.
What is that relationship between anxiety and creativity?
Well, I can tell you from the musician standpoint because that’s what I am and what I’ve worked with my whole life, I know that I’m not alone with social issues as a musician. Most musicians have social issues, I do know that because they’re different than other people. What I see is mostly men are in music and what I see is men get into music because they have social issues and want to get laid and they want to connect with people and music is a great way to do that. They’re not very good at conversations or connecting in the normal ways, most musicians are not. In fact, at parties here, where I’ve invited my own band and none of them call me back. I mean I’ve been working with them for how many years? And literally they don’t even let me know if they’re coming. I’ll finally call and say “Hey are you coming to my party or what? You know me, it’s Terry, we work together.” And they’ll say, “uhh, I don’t know.” That’s literally the answer It completely blows my husband away. He’s like, “what are these people? Are they really human? Do they talk? Do they make phone calls?” It’s a different breed of animal and I have to speak for myself. I too have had issues with social connection. I’m better than most of the guy musicians I know, but I still have a lot more than I see other people have. So that’s kind of how it is for this kind of artist.
It’s so interesting to me that you’re talking to me about the different breed because you’re a great interview.
I’m good at interviews because I had that radio show, so I interviewed people too. I love interviewing other people, then I don’t have to talk about myself , that’s easy. I could ask questions forever. It keeps me from talking about myself and that’s good.
And it’s a useful skill to have too.
It is. That helped me connect with people too because when I began interviewing, people love talking about themselves and they feel connected with me because I’m asking.
I have no idea what to expect from your show. I’m young, I’m 26, and I have no idea what the crowd demographic is going to be like. What am I walking into?
I don’t know the Toledo audience off the top of my head, I’m not sure what’s going to show up. But the show is a lot of dancing, a lot of visual content as well because I like that, there’s a lot of video content as well. It’s a show. I just want a show, you know? My mom told me when I was a little kid, she said, “ If you want to be a performer, you have to remember that people don’t go to see the girl next door. You have to bring something new and exciting to people.” I never forgot that. I want a show because that’s what I want to go see. That’s what we do our best to give.
What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen?
I’ve seen a lot of them. I love concerts. I love them. Here’s what came to mind immediately. When I was a kid, it hit me because of the drama that was going on with the band at the time, and it was Fleetwood Mac and they were in an arena. There was so much drama and they were screaming at each other on stage. They were singing the songs that they had all written, but they were screaming them at each other and it was so much fun to watch. It was fantastic because of course they were talented, but this was beyond that. This was like watching a soap opera on stage. It was great. Then the other one was Marilyn Manson. I’d never seen Marilyn Manson and both my man and I were jaws to the floor immediately. He came out on a cross that was made out of television sets that were set to white noise. It came up slowly with him on it and he is singing as it’s coming up. He finishes the song , strapped like Jesus on this thing and he stepped off of it and the entire thing blew up into flames. That was the first song. Then he got into these stilts for the second song and was walking around like a huge spider on the stage. This guy had such a performance ethic. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Love him or hate—not everybody loves Marilyn Manson music and I can see why—but wow, what a performer. That was a show worth seeing. It was unbelievable.
