Classical crossover band Blake opens Festival

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4: As Blake singer Humphrey Berney chatted with the Bermuda Sun on his cellphone he happened to be strolling past one of his old stomping grounds — Buckingham Palace.

But on this occasion he wasn’t popping in to perform for the Queen of England — he was just “on his way into town”.

Berney is the newest member of the easy-on-the-eye, classically-trained British boy band Blake — the opening act for the Bermuda Festival for the Performing Arts.

“I always think as I go past the palace — that’s quite cool,” he laughs. “I’m not going in today sadly — I’m just a passerby.”

Bridging the gap between pop and opera, Blake is a favourite of Prince William and Kate Middleton who Blake’s baritone Jules Knight studied with at St Andrew’s University while tenor Ollie Barnes is good friends with both Prince Harry and Prince William.

They were invited to perform twice at the Palace which sparked rumours that they were to play at Royal wedding of William and Kate.

Formed through social networking via Facebook and Twitter in 2007, the band was an instant hit landing a $1 million five-album record deal with Universal Records within just days.

Their first album, titled Blake, won them a Gold Disc and hit number one in the UK Classical Charts and number 18 in the UK charts before earning them the Classical Brit-Award Album of the Year in 2008.

They have since been spending their time touring internationally at some of the most prestigious venues in the world and are soon to release their fourth album All Of Me.

Everything was going perfectly for the band until 2009 when Universal backed out of their contract after just the second album And So It Goes.

They didn’t let it get them down — instead they formed their own record label Blake Records and brought out their third album Together.

It was then that Berney joined the band after the departure of Dominic Tighe just weeks ahead of their first tour together.

“I had been working with Blake’s first producer Nick Patrick and that coincided with a message I saw on Twitter,”

Berney explained. “It was a bizarre circumstance that led me to Blake and since then it has been a fantastic journey.”

Their fourth album has just been recorded and is due for release in the States in June.

It is a complete departure from their previous three albums as it is made up entirely of original material written by various songwriters including Diane Warren.

Their first three albums included covers of classical favourites such as Ave Maria and Nessun Dorma as well as more popular tunes like U2’s With Or Without You and Simon and Garfunkle’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. But Berney is reticent to use the label covers.

“I supposed they are covers but here are four voices; we do everything in harmony and use everything from live bands to symphony orchestras — so they are covers like no one will hear anywhere else.

“Sometimes you get a bit of flack for doing that but being in our genre — the classical crossover — that’s what we do.

“We take great music that we know people love and put our own twist and influence on it.”

“We are changing our sound for the fourth album to a certain degree,” adds Berney. “Most of the songs on the new album are original.

“It’s fantastic to have Diane Warren writing on the album. She is the first of the celebrity songwriters — people know her and respect her in the States and its nice to be able to say someone like that is listening to our
music.

“She writes very well for harmony; her songs are very melodic and that makes our job easier.

“It’s been challenging because it is a new sound it is not classical — it is very much a vocal harmony album influenced by groups like the Beach Boys, Boyz 2 Men, the BeeGees and Take That.

“There are certain soundscapes where everyone sings rather than just having a lead singer and others behind.

“We’ll see how the fans take it because they love what we do at the moment — harmony pop.”

Their performance at the Fairmont Southampton Resort will be their first performance of 2012. “It’s a cool way to kick off the New Year,” says Berney.

The band has had exceptionally busy year of touring playing some 80 concerts world wide as well as private parties across Europe.

Berney says the band can’t wait to visit Bermuda.

“When Bermuda came up it was a no brainer — we were all over it.

“We have travelled a lot of the world as a band but none of us have ever been to Bermuda.

“I have a few friends who either lived there or their parents still live there so we have heard a lot about it can can’t wait to get there to see what everyone’s raving about.

“I had some school friends who always used to go back to Bermuda for the holidays and always came back to school with a crashing tan and looked very healthy.

“I was always very impressed with their lifestyle. We would all go back to school looking very white and pasty. It will be nice to come and live it for a week.”

Berney says they will likely perform some of their new songs and certainly all the favourites from their last three albums.

“There will be something for everyone. We’ll do some of the great classics — we do a unique version of Nessun Dorma.

“We’ll do some other upbeat stuff like Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and probably Broken Home by Les Mis.

“Then we will do some other beautiful songs set to film music by people like Ennio Morricone — the great Italian composer.

“We try in our concerts to take you on a musical and emotional journey from big rousing classical pieces to much more intimate moving pieces.

“Then we will also do our favourite thing which is to sing a cappela — just our the four voices in harmony because when it comes down to it that is what we are — that’s what we enjoy most.”

Look out for the Bermuda Sun’s upcoming interviews with the stars of the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts during January and February.