Dave Berkham explains how change — both personal and cultural — inspired the psych-rock group’s latest record, Changes

Dave Berkham looks like he took a wrong turn at Woodstock.

With a Beatles-esque haircut and a pair of dark mutton chops that you may not have seen otherwise this side of the century, Berkham — guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter for The Reverberations — was planted at the edge of a southeast Portland coffee shop. In vibrant contrast to the sleek shop’s monochromatic walls, he wore a floral-patterned button-up shirt and an orange and yellow flower necklace.

For the sounds they make, Berkham and the boys are definitely striking the right visual chord.

But Berkham insists this aesthetic is more than a stage wardrobe. “That’s just kinda what we wear in our everyday lives anyway,” he laughed. “In a way, image is kind of important. It’s fun to just get up and play, but when you’re putting on a show you want it to be full-on: We are this. This is our band.”

His image, and a conversation about old versus new, are set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing city. Portland, named fifth in fastest growing U.S. metro areas in 2018, has gone from neighborhood dives to skyrise condo complexes in a few short decades.

This makes The Reverberations a band from the past in a city throttling toward the future. Berkham grew up around Mt. Tabor and went to high school in West Linn, playing in and forming bands along the way, including The Cry! and Midnight Callers. For him, change has been constant as a source of inspiration — particularly on The Reverberation’s full-length February release, Changes.

“That’s a theme of the album. We decided to call it Changes because not only did our sound change from the first album, and our other singles, but the city was changing. People were going through personal changes,” Berkham said. “The world is adapting to all the weird shit happening right now. It’s just a statement: We’re all changing.”

The band recorded the album with their friend Pat Kearns in a mobile studio set up in a Joshua Tree Airbnb in 2017. “Basically we lived in the studio,” Berkham said. “We’d wake up and say, ‘Pat’s coming over in 45 minutes, let’s get the coffee going and tune up our guitars.’” In five days there, they laid out most of the album. Kearns mixed it and it was released and distributed by Swedish label Beluga Records.

But change was a theme for the band before this album. Formed in 2014, The Reverberations found its footing on Nuggets Nights — benefit shows featuring ’60s garage rock tributes. Paying homage to the decade was the foundation of the group. But it became a fine line to walk as the band began to shape into an entity separate from the bygone era.

“There was a review of the new album and it read, ‘They ripped a Beatles song off — but in a good way!’” Berkham said. “It’s tough, because you want to be original but you also want to keep it in the vein that you’re comfortable with.”

The idea of how far a band can go in “drawing inspiration” from other groups isn’t a new debate, but it has stayed fresh — i.e. Pitchfork’s now-infamous review of a 2018 Greta Van Fleet album, which opens with “Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves.” Before that, Zeppelin was being accused of ripping off peers and older blues tunes. The gist: nothing is sacred in music.

“When we first started I wanted it to be really authentic, but then I realized we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere that way,” Berkham said. “I wanted it to be like a bunch of teenagers who learned ‘Louie Louie’ and that’s all they learned — but then everything else started to come out of it. We’ve evolved.”

Berkham went on to say that, although the common thread was a foundation of ’60s rock, the band found that each of them had a different perspective on what parts of that era were most valuable and what came after that was worth drawing from. Part of the diversity in musical roots comes from the rainbow age range in The Reverberations. Cam Mazzia and Berkham are in their late 20s. John Jenne and Ian Bixby are in their early 40s. Bob Fountain, the final piece of the five-piece to join on, is in his mid-50s. “We’ve all just been playing music forever,” said Berkham. “Our influences all come from different places.”

For some perspective: Fountain was in a band named The Crawling Walls which released an album in 1985 — before either Berkham or Mazzia was born. This convergence of backgrounds, like five dudes from different eras who met via time machine in 1967, has crafted a chemistry that Berkham thinks gives them a wider appeal.

“All ages seem to like it, so we’re doing something right,” he said.

The band has found appeal on a different axis as well, striking up fanbases in a number of European countries. “For some reason, they just appreciate [psych-rock] a whole lot more over in Europe. It’s that kind of tight-knit scene,” he said.

“We’ll get reviews in Spanish all the time, but the Portland Mercury will never write anything about us here,” Berkham laughed. “It’s weird — it’s cool, but it’s also kind of weird. Because here, it’s completely different. You’re just another guy.”

In Portland, Berkham works at a Trader Joe’s to pay the bills. In Spain, he might fill up a venue on the band’s name recognition. But, for now, the band hasn’t been able to tour across the sea.

“We’re hoping to make that a priority in the end of this year or early next year,” he said. “We know that someday we’ll get over there, and there will be people that are excited to see us play. That’s one thing to look forward to.”

In the meantime, the band is taking a breather following the album release and a tour of the western states. The group has lives to keep on track, including Berkham planning his October wedding. Despite taking a break from writing songs about change, it seems that Berkham and The Reverberations can’t stave it off in Portland, music or their own lives.

In a coffee shop on a much different-looking Hawthorne Boulevard than Berkham grew up around, he scratched his vintage chops and shrugged.

“Everything has to evolve,” he said. “I’m not against change.”

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