David Berkeley

His parents gave him the middle name Berkeley—which he later picked as his stage name—after having been graduate students at the University of California-Berkeley in the early 1970s before they moved to New Jersey.

David started showing a passion for singing while still in nursery school, having attended a musical school.

Because of this he had his first experience of singing on stage at the age of three or four.

Also when he was four, the woman taking care of him was an Avon saleswoman; she would bring him with her while going door to door, and he would sing to her potential customers.

In an interview he credits receiving cookies and applause for singing "that song about the Titanic sinking" (likely "The Titanic") as an early experience of positive feedback.

His parents helped him nurture his passion for music by taking him to several Broadway shows, and was usually selected as the leading vocalist in high school musicals.

Initially he played tuba, and did not start to play guitar until the age of 15 when he would perform songs by Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Grateful Dead "mostly to get girls".

He graduated from Harvard with degrees in literature and philosophy.

During his time there he used to busk in Harvard Square; in the same period he started writing songs "to win (his) girlfriend back".

David Berkeley lived in Alaska, where he contributed to the Let's Go Alaska travel guide; Idaho, where he was a river-rafting guide; Santa Fe, where he worked for Outside magazine; Santa Cruz; Brooklyn (New York City), teaching creative writing in a public school in an impoverished area; Atlanta and Tralonca, a small village in Corsica, while his wife worked on her PhD in anthropology.

While living in Santa Fe, David Berkeley managed a local band.

This, in his own words, got him "excited about the music business".

It was only after this band broke up that he decided to record his own music.

He decided to become a full-time musician while he was teaching in Brooklyn, as having a double career was taking its toll on his voice and his private life.

He presently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Sarah and sons Jackson and Noah.

David Berkeley (born David Berkeley Friedland, September 22, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter.

David Berkeley was born David Berkeley Friedland in September, 1976.

He has released four studio albums, one live album and has published a book, all of them self-produced under the Straw Man label, in a recording career that began in 2002.

Berkeley accompanies his singing on acoustic guitar, solo or with supporting instruments; his music has been described as acoustic, indie and Americana.

He is also known for collaborating with trance music artists on remixes of his own songs and on original material.

After growing up in his native New Jersey and graduating from Harvard he has lived in several areas of the United States working as a tour guide, a travel writer and a teacher among other employments.

After the starting of his career as a professional musician he moved first to Atlanta and then to Tralonca, a small village in Corsica.

He now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The places he lived in are a strong inspiration for his songwriting, as are the people in his family (his parents, his wife and his two children).

His debut came in 2002 with the mostly acoustic The Confluence, in which David Berkeley already displayed the characteristic traits that still identify his style: elaborated lyrics about personal topics, complex song construction, varying chord patterns.

In 2004, Berkeley released his second album, After the Wrecking Ships, in which he made use of more electric instruments but still without abandoning the genre that he defines "acoustic/indie/alt/folk/whatever-you-want-to-add-here".

It sold over 10,000 copies.

This album includes "Fire Sign", written for an episode (Wannabe) of the second season of CBS-TV's Without a Trace and produced by Will Robertson.

Although there are sources saying that the same song has also been used in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode A Thousand Days on Earth, this appears not to be true.

David Berkeley claims that this is the only live album ever released to be recorded at the now-closed New York club however, in 2004, Bree Sharp had released an album also recorded at the club, entitled Live at Fez.

In 2005, David Berkeley released Live from Fez, the testimony of a live event held on February 22 of the same year, one of the last concerts held at the popular Lower Manhattan club.

Along with the CD is a DVD including four songs recorded in the same occasion.

This live release displays not only David Berkeley's heartfelt musical style, but also his sense of humor in the intermissions between songs.

2006 saw David Berkeley working at the Engine Studios in Chicago to record his third studio album, Strange Light, that would not be released until 2009.

This delay allowed his fans and some reviewers to compare it – tongue-in-cheek – with Guns N' Roses's Chinese Democracy.

When released, the album was enriched by the production of Brian Deck (Counting Crows, Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter).

Its style has been judged affirming and intriguing even though downtrodden and melancholic.

In late 2009, David Berkeley announced on his website and through his mailing list that he was working on a new album called Some Kind of Cure, mostly written while living in Corsica where, in his own words, he had the chance to listen to whatever surrounded him and take in the silence around.

As has been done more or less successfully in the past by other bands or artists (among which Marillion, Public Enemy and Jill Sobule ), David Berkeley asked for his fans' contribution for the production of the record; the experiment was successful.

The album was released on January 25, 2011, and is accompanied by a book written by Berkeley himself and entitled 140 Goats & a Guitar, telling the stories behind the inspiration for each song in the album.