Miki Berenyi Trio share new single and video "Big I Am" from upcoming album "Tripla" out 4th April via Bella Union || Announce more UK live dates including London Moth Club show in May
Miki Berenyi Trio release their much-anticipated debut album Tripla on 4th April via Bella Union. Following the success of the singles “Vertigo” and “8th Deadly Sin”, today the band share compelling and addictive new track “Big I Am”. Lacing turbulent rhythms with crunchy guitars and electronic beats, the song skewers the macho aggression unleashed by social media types such as Andrew Tate: “Throws his weight around, living a lie / Empty victory, stereotype, cliché masculine.” The accompanying video was filmed at the Consortium Museum (Contemporary Art Centre) in Dijon, France, in one of the Isabella Ducrot “Profusione” exhibition rooms, by director Sébastien Faits-Divers. Click HERE to watch.
Commenting on “Big I Am” Miki Berenyi says: “I've witnessed 50+ years of the trends in masculinity and frankly, nothing much changes – as ever, there are good men and there are shit men, and there are boys who can be misguided but easily mature into the best of their sex. But this latest incarnation of ‘winning’ the sex war is a laughably infantile and wilfully regressive new low.”
Additionally, Miki Berenyi Trio have announced news of further UK and EU shows in April and May including a performance at London’s Moth Club. All live dates are listed below.
Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer – a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognisable faces of the ‘90s - but the songwriting is entirely a three-way collaboration, as the album title describes: acknowledging the mother tongue of Miki’s father, Tripla is Hungarian for ‘triple’.
Already earning acclaim for the project from Stereogum, Under The Radar, Clash, The Line Of Best Fit and Louder Than War, Tripla is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop and Oliver Cherer. The album’s richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognisable vocal, overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world.
Miki and Moose, who came of age during the era of shoegaze and Britpop in Lush and the equally beloved Moose respectively, arrived here from Piroshka, which the couple formed in 2017 with drummer Justin Welch (ex-Elastica) and bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English). When Mick broke his arm during the tour that followed Piroshka’s second album Love Drips And Gathers, in stepped Oliver, Justin’s bandmate in Aircooled and an eclectic, roving solo artist, under aliases such as Dollboy and Gilroy Mere.
With Mick moving to America, and Justin busy with session work and live duties for The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Pretenders, Piroshka was put on ice, before the Miki-Moose-Oliver trio came together to play a handful of Lush songs whilst promoting her hugely acclaimed memoir “Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success”. A bout of songwriting sessions followed. “Nothing was planned,” Oliver recalls. “It was more of an organic process.”
Likewise, the gleaming, gliding MB3 sound. Minus a drummer, the trio incorporated drum machines behind Moose and Miki’s guitars and Oliver’s bass, which led to the addition of more electronic components.
Tripla is completed by a superb mix by Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns On The Lake) and beautiful artwork by Chris Bigg – who designed the sleeves for Piroshka and contributed to all of Lush’s sleeves – incorporating photography from Martin Andersen. But for all the album’s heightened and sophisticated sound, MB3 have gone back to basics, not only recording at home but driving a car packed with their gear, loading in and out of venues themselves.
“There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Miki. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route – we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”
Miki Berenyi Trio live dates:
Friday 4th April – London - Rough Trade East
Saturday 5th April - Liverpool - Rough Trade
Sunday 6th April - Bristol - Rough Trade
Sunday 27th April – Arlon, Belgium – L’Entrepot
Monday 28th April – Colmar, France – Le Grillen
Tuesday 29th April – Paris, France – FGO Barbara
Wednesday 30th April – Lille, France – L’Aeronef
Thursday 1st May – Haarlem, Netherlands – Patronaat
Saturday 3rd May – Liege, Belgium – Reflektor
Friday 9th May – London – Moth Club
Saturday 10th May – Norwich – Voodoo Daddy
Sunday 11th May – Brighton – DUST
Sunday 18th May – Reading – The Facebar
Thursday 2nd May – Cambridge – The Portland Arms
Saturday 24th May – Leeds – Lending Rooms
Saturday 31st May – Edinburgh – Sneaky Petes
Sunday 1st June – Newcastle – The Cluny
Saturday 5 July – Cheshire – Pop at the Lock
Tripla artwork and tracklist:
1. 8th Deadly Sin
2. Kinch
3. Vertigo
4. Gango
5. A Different Girl
6. Big I Am
7. Hurricane
8. Manu
9. Ubique
