Bren Berry - In Hopes Our Stars Align

RELEASED JANUARY 31

The announcement is accompanied by the new album mix of Winter Song, available now on streaming services , and a new full colour version of the original black & white video produced and filmed by Sofft Productions in The Liberties and Vicar St. [links]

Winter Song is a timeless, reflective love song that sparkles and resonates with this magical time of the year, and it is fitting that this album announcement be accompanied by the song that started it all.  Berry followed it up with a yearlong song cycle of big-hearted singles - Hairpin Bends, Beautiful Losers, Come Alive, and Turn On Your Radio – all of which lit up Irish airwaves with glistening choruses, addictive riffs, and a rare contemplative soulfulness.

In Oct 2020, Berry oversaw the release of a remastered vinyl edition of his band Revelino’ s self-titled 1994 debut album which stirred much excitement and went straight to No 1 in the Irish Indie Charts. Enthused by this enduring love for Revelino's music, guitarist/backing vocalist Bren Berry did something he hadn't done in a very long time, dusting off his guitars and slowly beginning to channel his reflections into intimate songs.

"Songwriting has always been an elusive mystery to me and I could never find my own singing voice. I was reading Bob Dylan’s Chronicles on his 80th birthday, and decided that, rather than murdering one of his songs, I would honour the occasion by trying to finally crack the songwriting code. Something told me to drop the register of my voice, and everything just clicked into place for me. I found my voice in every sense of the word and wrote my first complete song - Black Satellite - which is a tribute to Dylan and New York and the great times my wife and I have had in that city including spending our honeymoon there in the Chelsea Hotel. I quickly followed it up with Bullet Proof and wrote around twenty songs over the following eighteen months."

"Winter Song started life as a tribute to The Velvet Underground and blossomed into a tender love song for my wife and a love letter to The Iveagh Buildings where my mother was from. I had so many amazing times there when I was younger, and this connection adds resonance to my relationship with Vicar St and The Liberties. I have no doubt that being surrounded by so many amazing musicians and so many great people in the music industry has rubbed off on me and resulted in a magical osmosis of some kind that has led to this creative breakthrough for me.”

The twelve songs on “In Hope Our Stars Align” cover personal reflections on family and friendship, home, Dublin, resilience, music and creativity, and address some of the social and political crises that we are living through in these troubled times. Knives (Heavy Metal Rain) is the next single from the album and it is a ferocious number with attitude about the power of activism and the accelerating climate crisis and will be released in early January. “When I set out to make this record, I wanted it to reflect different aspects of my record collection" explains Bren. “I think of the twelve songs as being a collection of love letters and protest songs which are layered with hope and an intentional sense of positivity. The album title is taken from the song Fire Drill and is inspired by Seamus Heaney’s lines “hope and history rhyme” and “hope for a great sea-change” from The Cure At Troy.”

The album was produced by Berry and Gavin Glass in Orphan Studios and mixed and mastered by Daniel James Goodwin in The Isokon, New York and Virginia. “I am extremely grateful to Gavin and Daniel who raised the bar so high and helped to make this record sound so great. Gavin also added so much of his musical brilliance along with a host of other amazing musicians including Binzer Brennan, Marc McCausland, Ciaran Tallon, Gavin Fox, Joe Doyle, Simon Farrell, Ciaran Byrne, Yvonne Tiernan, Rachel Grace, Danny Anderson and Martin McCann. Cormac Curran also arranged stunning strings for four of my songs which were performed by the wonderful Orphan Quartet. I still can’t believe I’ve made a record after all this time away from making music. I gave it everything and I am so grateful to everyone who has been there for me along the way.”

Track listing:

1/ Come Alive 

2/ Beautiful Losers

3/ Knives (Heavy Metal Rain)

4/ This City

5/ Bullet Proof

6/ Winter Song

7/ Turn On Your Radio

8/ Neon Lights

9/ Fire Drill 

10/ Hairpin Bends

11/ We Have It All

12/ Black Satellite