UNIFORM

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MICHAEL BERDAN BY MARIKA ZORZI

This album is my attempt to take For the first time, Berdan made a an honest look in the mirror and conscious decision to include lyrics, see just how often I’ve been the which focus on the static state of an architect of my own misery,” says antihero as he mulls over his life in

Uniform singer Michael Berdan. the interim between major events, Over the past decade, Berdan and boiled literature and the characters bandmate Ben Greenberg have of Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, bulldozed a path to the forefront and Dashiell Hammet’s books were of the underground. Now, with a major inspiration for Shame. Mike Sharp on drums, Uniform are just existing in the world. The hardready to fight their inner demons “I feel like a lot of the themes of the with the new album Shame, out via record can be traced to things PhilSacred Bones. ip Marlowe [a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler] has amines for a long time, and during in the world. I want for my work to be

“Shame, as the title would indicate, said or mused over,” Berdan says. is a bit of a self-indictment,” Ber- “The line, ‘You talk too damn much dan explains. “Like most people, I and too damn much of it is about have a way of blaming others for you’ played through my head a few all of my problems, or feeling like times while processing my thoughts a victim of circumstance. This way to put to songs. All of those characof thinking has caused me a great ters revel in their suffering and what deal of pain over the years. It isn’t they think of as justified anger, and about how fucked up the world is this record is very much a catalog of insomuch as how my actions and suffering and what I’ve thought of attitudes have made the world as justified anger. The real, common around me more fucked up. If I can thread is that so much of the pain accept the pain and darkness in in these stories is self-made, based my heart for what they are; I have around frustration at the inabilisomething to work with.” ty to control the free will of others.

“IF I CAN ACCEPT THE PAIN AND DARKNESS IN MY HEART FOR

WHAT THEY ARE: I HAVE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH.” This record was built with empathy “We wanted this record to be an actoward the anti-hero, but also a de- curate portrait of where we are as sire for that person to deal with their a band at this very moment,” Berown shit.” dan says. “I’d like to think that we’ve developed a great deal through When it came time to pen Shame, the years of nonstop touring and Berdan decided to set about the task recording. It’s a hazard to say that of writing everything down, without this is a more ‘mature’ record than holding himself in any longer. we’ve made before, but whatev“I lived on whiskey and amphet- we’ve made before.” that period I oscillated between With this fourth album, Uniform conbarking out edgelord garbage tinue their path into darkness. But, and general self-pity,” he confesses. unlike the other albums, throughout “Getting clean meant getting serious Shame it is possible to see a small, about my life and the role that I play faint light at the end of the tunnel. er. It’s a more mature record than self-analytical, and I want for those “Even if humanity wipes itself from who can relate to it to hopefully feel the face of the earth, the planet will less alone. I’ve gone from a desire to heal, and life will go on,” Berdan push everyone away to a yearning says. “Hopefully, it doesn’t come to connect with others. These senti- to that. We’re a constantly evolving ments very much feel like two sides species, at times symbiotic or parato the same proverbial coin.” sitic. I feel that anyone who chooses a life of dignity and kindness has Since their inception in 2013, Uni- already won. If you want to see the form have grown up a lot as a light in this fucked up world, try livband. Following Perfect World ing for the moment. Try to fill the (2015) and Wake in Fright (2017), moment with just a little bit of love, the group’s third offering, The Long compassion, and empathy. I promWalk (2018), represented a critical ise you will not be disappointed with high-water mark. the result.”�� �� ��