Light Of Love

Carolyn Berk isn't afraid to wear her own band's T-shirt to an interview. "We just screenprinted these," she says from the back patio at Holman's, stretching the white shirt at the bottom to straighten out the lavender typography. "NOBODY KNOWS I'M LOVERS," it reads. Part allusion to queer sloganeering and part mission statement, Berk—whose friends call her Cubby—is clearly amused by the phrase. "I just figure anyone who would want to wear this is OK by me," she says.

The design is fitting. Berk's band, Lovers, is having a coming-out party. Coming out as a "real band"—Emily Kingman and Kerby Ferris are now just as integral to Lovers' formula as she is, Berk says; coming out with a new album—one with the label and publicity support to get heard the way Lovers' excellent previous disc, I Am the West, did not; and yes, coming out as unapologetically queer, electro and proud.

"There are parts of the album that might be more didactic than what I'd like to do in the future," Berk says, mentioning the fist-pumping gay-rights anthem "Figure 8" as an example. "But I was like, 'I think the world needs this song.' So the world can have the song, and maybe whoever needs it will find it." That kind of call to action doesn't come naturally to Berk, who generally trades in more personal lyrics. "There's a lot of pressure to disempower yourself in this world," she says. "Especially if you're a tender-hearted person. So I'm telling myself as much as I'm telling anybody else."

To see her onstage today, either strumming and singing quietly or pumping a fist while chanting the chorus of "Figure 8," you'd never guess that Berk struggled with confidence. Even in her sparse, wandering early discs—when Lovers was just Berk and whoever was around at the time—there's a certainty behind her untrained voice and a courageous lyrical savvy that nods toward Patti Smith and Bob Dylan influences (drenched in stage lights, Berk can look a little like young Dylan).

Berk's mother died when she was 15, wreaking havoc on her self-esteem and her already complicated struggles with gender. Even in her college years in Athens, Ga., Berk had a hard time getting onstage. A chance encounter with one of her favorite songwriters, Vic Chesnutt, helped force the issue. Upon asking Chesnutt's advice, "He looked up at me and said, 'You just gotta do it,'" Berk says. "That just stuck with me. And now the more I do it, the more comfortable I feel."

Still, until she found Kingman and Ferris in 2008, Berk struggled to create—and especially record—the music she really wanted to make. "I think I probably had a lot of internalized sexism," she says. "I really have always played with men, and I think I didn't feel as powerful as I do now…I just wasn't ready to believe in myself for a long time. Now I've got some good help."

That belief shines through on Lovers' fifth album, Dark Light, which slows the buoyant synth-pop from I Am the West down to something more akin to the pace of Berk's early albums. The result is a grinding, almost dublike collection of chopped-and-screwed dance-floor cuts that range from playful (the sexy/sad "Don't You Want It" features Laurie Anderson-esque robot voices from Ferris and sharp Berk one-liners like "I been try'n'a see past the future/ Like some future from the past") to the haunting ("Shepherd of the Stray Hearts" may be Lovers' most touching love song to date).

With most songs clocking in at well over four minutes (and two of the album's strongest tracks running well over six), Dark Light doesn't trade in the instant-gratification pop gems that made I am the West a fast local favorite. But it's an immensely rewarding grower of a record—one where Berk stretches her lyrical legs while Kingman and Ferris master lots of new electronic toys. For Berk and Lovers, it's something bigger than that. "Everything we do is a complete collaboration—it's totally supportive," Berk says with the confidence she's been trying to find for years. "That's been so enormous for me. This is what I've been waiting for."

Lovers releases

on Thursday, Oct. 14, at Doug Fir. 9 pm. $7. 21+.

WWeek 2015