PHONY

[SUMMER'S COLD] starts out as a breezy indie rock song, before reaching an explosive, punky climax, and it's a promising taste of this LP." - Brooklyn Vegan

PHONY—the moniker of Los Angeles-based Neil Berthier—today announced his new album AT SOME POINT YOU STOP will be released on July 29th, 2022, via the band’s own PHONY INDUSTRIES label in partnership with Joyful Noise Recordings / Secretly Distribution. A preview of the album’s lush, muscular sonics also arrives today in lead single “SUMMER’S COLD,” which packs a polished but crushing punch. “A lot of this record is about the idea of memory being fleeting, yet also being a defining pillar in all walks of life,” explains Berthier, who grapples with the loss of his father to dementia on this release. “I had the riff for this song for years. There’s an old guitar in my mom's house that’s never in tune and I’ll just pick it up when I’m visiting to see what comes out. Somehow I always get something from it. It feels magic. This song was really how I tried to deal with my father's passing as well as the other tumult the world was dealing with for the past few years.”

Its accompanying Anna Langston-directed video, filmed across NYC and premiering today at Brooklyn Vegan, juxtaposes the song’s weighty themes with a bit of levity: “The video is about a lonely gorilla who finds joy when he meets someone like himself,” she explains. “We were hoping to find humor by contrasting the absurdity with moments that feel super real and close-to-home for 20-somethings in New York. I tried to inject familiar locations and 'relatable' dating moments. Of course, the familiarity is also what gives this story its heart. New York is for lovers, and this gorilla is in us all.” 

PHONY recently announced he’ll support Joyce Manor on their summer U.S. tour starting at Denver’s Ogden Theater on August 3rd and including a Brooklyn Steel show on August 12th (Prince Daddy and the Hyena will join Berthier as PHONY's touring band on this run); a full itinerary is listed below. 

After losing his father, moving from Boston to Los Angeles, joining Joyce Manor as an auxiliary guitarist/backing vocalist, and acclimating to the synergy of the zen-yet-rowdy Southern California lifestyle, things were simultaneously devastating and thrilling as Berthier worked on the songs that would become his third solo album, AT SOME POINT YOU STOP. The stark contrast of these monumental life changes prompted him to dig deeper than ever in his music, creating his most vulnerable and compelling work to date. “It’s called PHONY as an oxymoron. I want this to be the most personal, wearing my heart on my sleeve shit that I can possibly come up with,” he says. 

His first album recorded in a proper studio, AT SOME POINT YOU STOP results from a new artistic process for Berthier. He enlisted producer Chaz Sexton (an audio engineer who’s worked with artists like Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Slipknot) to work with him at Hollywood’s EastWest Studios—the recording home of iconic albums like The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Sonically, this album’s enthralling power is its ability to spin disparate sounds into a seamless whole. Across AT SOME POINT YOU STOP, fuzzed-out anthems fit for rolling the windows down and taking a long summer drive bleed into heavy, reflective moments—mirroring two turbulent years where feelings of immense grief often clashed with serene and newly invigorating surroundings.

Embracing coastal change was a risky move, but after encouragement from close friend turned alt rock up-and-comer/TikTok superstar Petey (who sings on the track “KALEIDOSCOPE”), Berthier packed his bags, headed to California, and never looked back. Since then, he’s been recruited to play shows as a musician in some of the most exciting bands in Southern California (slowcore darlings Milly, Petey, Joyce Manor). When asked how playing in so many prolific acts shapes his solo work, he’s quick to say that it doesn’t, really. However, the talent of a workhorse musician courses through AT SOME POINT YOU STOP, proving his individual chops are nuanced enough to keep up with a full fledged touring outfit.

Berthier has spent a good chunk of the past decade perfecting his role as a commanding frontman, and on AT SOME POINT YOU STOP, he’s found his place. With its dynamic sonics, impassioned lyricism, and massive hooks, AT SOME POINT YOU STOP sees PHONY arrive as an artist to watch in the year to come as he continues to push himself and the rock genre further.