NYC Punk Rock N’ Roll Artist LORNE BEHRMAN Releases “Harlem River Serenade” Single/Video Ahead of Debut Album Out This Friday
DT: SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
FM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/ANDREA FAULK/SRO PR
LORNE BEHRMAN
MOVES ON FROM A BUSTED-UP ROMANCE WITH
“HARLEM RIVER SERENADE”
THIRD SINGLE AND VIDEO FROM THE
NYC PUNK ROCK N’ ROLL SINGER-SONGWRITER-GUITARIST’S
DEBUT SOLO ALBUM ‘A LITTLE MIDNIGHT’
OUT THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
AND READ A Q&A BELOW
“Harlem River Serenade” Cover Art
(Download)
“Harlem River Serenade” is the third single/video from LORNE BEHRMAN’s solo debut album A LITTLE MIDNIGHT out this Friday, September 16 on Spaghetty Town Records. Look for the NYC punk rock n’ roll singer-songwriter-guitarist to celebrate the album’s release that night with a show at Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side. LORNE will hit the stage with a 7-piece band featuring two backup singers at 9:30pm.
“Harlem River Serenade” is a slice of dirty and catchy rock n’ roll scrapped off of the streets of the Bowery, merged with imagery-rich lyrics about moving on from a busted-up romance. Today, LORNE has shared the David J Barron-directed video that was filmed at various locations in NYC including Arlene’s Grocery. Watch the video HERE. The “Harlem River Serenade” single/video was premiered yesterday (September 13) by New Noise.
Below is a Q&A with LORNE, who previously played in The Dimestore Haloes, L.E.S. Stitches, The Dead Tricks and most recently The Sweet Things, about the “Harlem River Serenade” single/video. View the song’s credits + lyrics here.
The 10-song A LITTLE MIDNIGHT is a series of New York City vignettes haunted by shadows but guided by light. The words here are literate and lacerating, recalling the street poetics of Lou Reed, Richard Hell, and Television. The songs feature stark and fluid guitar playing in the spirit of The Stooges’ James Williamson, Johnny Thunders, and Lou Reed. It follows LORNE’s acclaimed 2021 four-song EP When I Hit The Floor, which prompted the esteemed Jesse Malin to note: “Real blood and guts rock and roll that bleeds with soul and redemption.”
A LITTLE MIDNIGHT’s raw but polished production aesthetic is courtesy of producer Matt Chiaravalle (Warren Zevon, Joe Bonamassa, Spacehog). A Little Midnight was mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Joe Lambert. Wyldlife bassist Spencer Alexander designed the album artwork, and it is a subtly playful homage to the cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedoes.
“This album is about struggling to be reborn,” LORNE shares. “Wanting to run back to the arms of toxic people or the patterns of self-destruction. It’s about clawing your way to a new existence while acknowledging all the causalities, and all you’re letting go. You glimpse a new life, but you don’t feel it yet.”
“Harlem River Serenade” comes on the heels of the album’s first two singles/ videos, the most recent of which was “I Hope The Sun Doesn’t Catch Us.” MXDWN noted that “…[the video] gives viewers an incredible sight of Behrman strumming his guitar with fantastic talent and singing about hoping that the sun doesn’t catch us, as we follow a man and woman on the streets of New York trying to get away from the sun that is blaring down on them.” “I Hope The Sun Doesn’t Catch Us” was preceded by the single/video for “A Little Midnight.” Glide raved about how the song “features a blackened riff howl of punk bands like The Damned and The Gun Club mixed with pop sensibilities of The Replacements. When Behrman sings “A little midnight/ it’s alright/A little midnight/does you right,” listeners get a gracious sense of rock and roll escapism at its most pure form.”
Read LORNE’s bio here.
Q&A with LORNE BEHRMAN ABOUT THE SINGLE/VIDEO
“HARLEM RIVER SERENADE”
—Can you describe your mindset when writing the song and being very honest about a busted-up romance with these vivid lyrics?
Maybe this is my “I Will Survive” song? Before I met my wife, I went through a painful breakup. It felt so sudden and so cold, and I spent so much of my time obsessing about it. I would be on the train to pick up my daughter and feel impulses to reach out to this person. Everything outside the window felt like metaphorical magical thinking. I would try to find some sign that things would have a fairytale ending. The lyric, “Looking out/to factories as planters/green reaching through bricks/No hope there/we’re shattered/like broken bottles on train tracks,” for me, meant that an old factory outside the window was a metaphor for the relationship and maybe the green—the plants and such—reclaiming it were showing me a sign that there was some hope after all.
Suffice to say, there is a good ending, here. I endured the pain, did a lot of self-improvement stuff (read a lot about co-dependence and radical acceptance), and took a year off dating. My first date back was with the most loving and badass person ever, my wife. That other person reached to me once more, and I decided to move on. The message here is when you decide not to be involved with people who don’t know your worth the Universe sends you better people.
—This marks your sixth video overall + third for the upcoming album. It was shot at, and around, your recent gig at the Arlene’s Grocery venue on the Lower East Side. What did you feel was important for director David J Baron to portray in the video?
When I decided to pursue a solo career, I was unconfident, I was hurting, and I was angry. My heart was closed off—I felt like it was me against people, and I had something to prove. I don’t feel that way anymore. I have a solo band I love, I’m so proud of this album, and there are so many kind people who have helped me and believed in me along the way.
I wanted David to capture this joy I feel, and he’s such a creative and intuitive person. There is a vibe around this solo project—I’m so blessed to have this—and I just hoped it would naturally come through. We had one show booked, and that meant one chance to get this video right. As something of a new artist, you don’t know how a show will be: will we play okay? will people come? So many unknowns! I decided to just let go and believe in the music, and my honest intention to connect with people. The night went magically. It was packed, people danced to songs they hadn’t heard before, and I just felt so happy. It felt like a rebirth for me—like I fought through a lot of darkness and came out the other side.
—Perhaps you can talk about the thrill of being onstage and in such an intimate venue?
When I was in my early 20s, I remember seeing a band play that I loved. They were headlining at Coney Island High, and I said, “aren’t you guys excited?” The singer said, “not really.” He was in his mid-20s and already so jaded! I vowed that night I would never be that way. I started playing in punk clubs and bars when I was 19, and I’ve never lost the excitement that I had before my first show. I’ve hit some cool career highpoints, and I have had to start over many, many times—it’s humbling—but I always get back up and bounce back. Playing small clubs packed with people who get what you do is just electric. That feeling of “we’re in this together” outside of what’s massively popular feels like you’re part of this little in-the-know family. Like here’s a place you belong—there’s nothing like it.
—The video definitely embodies “NYC.” As a New York-based artist, what are your feelings about the city these days since cities are always in a state of flux? What do you see when you look around?
Like a lot of people, I’ve seen many rock n’ roll civilizations decimated by commerce—luxury high rise buildings ousting nightclubs. But I’ve also seen musicians just find new clubs and build new communities. You can’t live in the past—it’s not good for the soul or good for music. Years ago, there were CBGBs, The Great Gildersleeves, and Max’s Kansas City; then Coney Island High and The Continental; and now there is Bowery Electric, Baby’s Allright, Arlene’s Grocery, and so many great clubs deep in Brooklyn. The music is there, the people are there, and the bands are playing loud and fast. I just keep going. New York is still open, and rock n’ roll still feels vital here.
The track listing for A LITTLE MIDNIGHT is:
01 – Love Stumbles By
02 – Harlem River Serenade
03 – I Can Burn You Down
04 – Monday Morning
05 – Well, I Can’t Hold You
06 – A Little Midnight
07 – You Wont Live In This Past
08 – I Hope The Sun Doesn’t Catch Us
09 – Black Cars
10 – Further On Down The Road
‘A Little Midnight’ Album Cover
(Download)
Lorne Behrman; Photo credit: Katherine Ward
(Download)
SRO Press Releases + Assets:
https://sropr.com/portfolio/lorne-behrman/
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Credit: Anna Azarov
Credit: Khishigsuren
Punk Rock & Painbrushes Crew Group Photo (Photo Credit: Sara Rose Wright)
(L-R: Chloe Weinberg, Jay Weinberg, Emily Nielsen)
YES at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester/U.K. on June 17, 2022
