Enter Loren Berí’s writerly whimsy mixed with Sea Glass’ adorning production in “Sonneteer.” The lush orchestral pop single is co-written and produced with (fellow New Yorker) Sea Glass, the project of producer Jake Muskat. “Living in prose / For the glam and the grit,” sings Berí in his characteristic tenor—“A page in your hand / A wink in your wit.” It’s a tale of a writer’s trials and travails—and trying to get out of a rut (“Life is a band / You’d like to quit”).
Deft storytelling is bolstered by a twinkling kaleidoscope of vocals atop Sea Glass’ playful guitars and keys, strings by Jared Saltiel, and percussion by Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms For Peace). “Sonneteer” is from Sea Glass’ album A Walk Through the Woods.
“The opening lines came while I was walking: “We painted rings around our eyes so now we’re paying for it / They stole your manuscript we meant to burn though they adore it”. It gave me this sense of two characters who’ve run themselves ragged in pursuit of their art, and got famous for it accidentally—fame was not even a thing they wanted,” says Berí.
“The later lines “In Sunday clothes / Phoning in the skit / Life is a band you’d like to quit” speak to the characters being far along on their path of being artists, but now they’re uninspired, they’re just ‘phoning it in.’ The skit being, whatever artist they’d set out to be when they were younger—and underneath the “living in prose” and “glam and the grit” they’re sussing out how to keep being an artist while being miserable or uninspired, wanting to quit the band called life.”
“I set out to write an uplifting soundscape that nods back to my golden days of indie pop,” says Sea Glass. “From the start it felt like I was climbing a mountain, and that the right sound was a tangible peak. What started as a simple climbing chord structure unfolded to include a multitrack guitar based symphony. When Loren shared his melody and lyrics I knew we were on the same page. This was a song that needed to have its own world and characters.”
“The addition of Jared Saltiel’s beautiful string arrangements, and the harpsichord melody by the end, provided the crescendo I’d set out to reach when I began.”
What do you think of “Sonneteer”?
