Summer has been no bummer for Minnesota-based artist Ber. She’s enjoyed a blockbuster year so far that has seen her recognized by her favorite NHL team; play festivals in the U.K., which holds a special significance for her; to hearing her recorded music in a public place for the first time.

Come September, Ber will break another boundary: playing in a music festival in the United States, and it just happens to be the inaugural music festival hosted by the North Loop neighborhood in Minneapolis. Ber stopped at The Current to talk to Jill Riley all about it. Listen to the conversation using the audio player above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current. So there's a new festival in Minneapolis coming this September, and it's called North by North Loop. And it's described as "a one-of-a-kind concert that celebrates the North Loop, music, and the artists who create the soundscape of our city," and it's happening Sunday, September 10. And I've got the full lineup here. But before you hear the entire lineup for the day for North by North Loop, I've got one of the artists performing at the festival in the studio with me. She's a Minnesota-based singer-songwriter, originally from Bemidji. She's known for songs like "Boys Who Kiss You In Their Car." Songs like "Meant To Be" and "Superspreader," which, back in June, that song went to number one on The Current's Chart Show. It's Ber. Hi, how are you?

Ber: Hi. It's great to be here.

Jill Riley: Happy sad girl summer.

Ber: Oh my gosh, you're speaking my language. Happy sad girl summer!

Jill Riley: Yes. How's summer treating you?

Ber: It's actually been less of a sad girl summer. I'm having a great time! We've been loving the weather. I've traveled quite a bit, been on lots of like festival lineups over in the U.K. So it's been really tiring, but like super fulfilling and having a really good, good couple months so far. I'm excited for August.

Jill Riley: Well, yeah. I mean, it's just like, I know that this time of year, it's like, "Oh, there's only so much of summer left." But let's not look at it that way. We just have to embrace the time, because we still have plenty of summer left. And then we'll be eating things on a stick. Because that's what we do.

Ber: I think like that Minnesota summer, too. I'm excited for August because I get to be here for it.

Jill Riley: Yes.

Ber: And I feel like I've missed out on some of it already. So I'm just really like, there's nothing quite like a Minnesota August in my opinion.

Jill Riley: Yeah, for sure. I just have to say you're such a delight to follow on social media.

Ber: Oh, you're so sweet! Stop!

Jill Riley: You are! On Instagram! So if you don't follow Ber on Instagram, heythereitsber, I want another follow-up here because I've been following this Minnesota Wild story. And now I need to know how something went. So you had posted — I mean, this was a while back, probably the springtime — you had posted from a Minnesota Wild game at the Xcel, which...

Ber: I am a huge Wild fan. Go Wild!

Jill Riley: So you love hockey. So one of your songs was playing at the game. So it was "Boys Who Kiss You In Their Car". And then the Minnesota Wild reached out. So can you kind of take us through this story here?

Ber: Yeah, that's, I mean, it was insane. I have been to a lot of the games this year. I was really embracing for the first time, now that I live in St. Paul, it just like felt right to, you know, head down to the Xcel and actually go to a lot of these games. But there was one, like, in particular where I had brought someone who works on my team, I like brought them with me to this game. And we had really cool seats just down in like the bowl, and randomly, absolutely randomly, during like, we were waiting for the puck to drop just during another play. And "Boys Who Kiss You In Their Car" came on for, in the entire like arena. And it was the first time I'd ever heard my music in public before. I think this is like really wild; I for the last two years, I've had people send me like videos on Instagram or on Snapchat, friends to complete strangers around the world say like, "Oh, 'Meant To Be' is playing in this cafe in the Philippines," or like, "Oh, I was in a mall and I heard this song" or "Oh, like this was playing on a Delta flight," like really random occasions. But I've never personally experienced anything like that, so it's just been like this running joke for me. And the first time it ever happened was at this Wild game, and I completely, like, went bananas. I really, I sort of just was screaming, and it was really surreal. And my teammate, like, started filming it. And I posted my reaction, of course, because it was the best moment of my life.

Jill Riley: Yeah!

Ber: It went a little viral and the team ended up seeing it, so somebody like reached out to me and was like, "Hey, the Stanley Cup playoffs are coming up; like, would you be down to, we do this concert series like acoustic during the first intermission. Would you be down to just come play this song in the arena?"

Jill Riley: And the answer was yes...?

Ber: "Absolutely, I want to do that!"

Jill Riley: Wow.

Ber: So it just like, it triggered this like, big domino effect of all of these really fun things that I was doing then with the Wild, and they were crazy enough to gift me like a personalized jersey. And it says Ber on the back. And then because my EP is titled Halfway, the number on the back is 0.5.

Jill Riley: Oh, clever! 

Ber: They've been so considerate and just like, really lovely with me. So I've had a very Minnesota Wild winter at this point.

Jill Riley: Did they then invite you to play hockey?

Ber: Yes! So the day I went to, like at the Stanley Cup playoffs, Andrew, who is the tour manager for the Wild comes up to me and he's like, "Hey, I'm organizing this big celebrity hockey event and Cory Wong and O.A.R. are going to come and like play and have two big celebrity teams and I want you to play." And I like looked at him like a deer in headlights and was like, "You know, I don't, I don't play hockey." I can skate, I own skates, but I like, I've never played hockey before in my life. And he was like, "That's gonna be the whole point. Like, everyone there, none of them will be hockey players, they're all gonna be just like people who've never skated, and it's gonna be really fun." And so I said, "Oh, okay, that sounds cool. Sure." And I was really nervous for it, up until the entire thing. But I showed up on the day, and it was all hockey players. It was all these people that have like, they're professional athletes that just don't play for, like, the Wild!

Jill Riley: I'd feel like, "Excuse me..."

Ber: I was like, "Hold on! I this was not what I was, like, sold." But everyone was so nice and so encouraging. And I like walked into the locker room, and it was just me and Joe Mauer. Joe Mauer was standing there.

Jill Riley: Hey, Joe, how's it going? How's retirement?

Ber: Literally! It just, it was like thing after thing. I was so starstruck and so like, the furthest out of my element that I've ever been, but to the point where it was so entertaining and overwhelming, and just like, I was on a roll of just saying "yes" to things that day. And it ended up being so fun. I got out on the ice, I played like three shifts. And everyone was on the bench like "Ber, you gotta get out there! You gotta go!" And like, at that point, my strategy was just to go and like, skate a figure eight around the entire rink.

Jill Riley: Just get out there and survive.

Ber: Just survive.

Jill Riley: Keep all your teeth.

Ber: Yeah. But there were some like really incredible women that all play on the U.S. team, too, and they like took me right under their wing, and like, showed me how to put on all of the hockey kit. And just like it, it was so overwhelming. But I have some of the craziest photos from that day. And we had so much fun. And that was followed by like these crazy concerts that were happening on either side of it, and the Yam Haus boys were involved. And it was good to have some, like familiar faces that I felt really comfortable with. But oh my gosh, I just I'm the biggest fan of the Wild, so it definitely was like a big tick off the bucket list.

Jill Riley: Yeah, that's awesome.

Ber: To do something like this.

Jill Riley: And for it to come kind of full circle like that.

Ber: I know. Like this just Won't stop happening. It was really fun.

Jill Riley: Well, I'm here with Ber, singer songwriter Ber. Now I understand that you just, you talked about some festivals over in the U.K. How was it?

Ber: Oh, my gosh, a dream. I love playing over in the U.K. I actually went to school there. I did my entire undergrad over there, so there's always some weird sort of feeling of like a homecoming whenever I go back. But I was very lucky to play like 10 festivals this summer. And one of the highlights was Barn On The Farm, this really cool festival that I came to just like fall in love with last year; I played there as well. But it's, it's on a farm in Gloucester, and it's very indie focused. And on the lineup, there's the surprise thing just called The Farm Band. And every year they randomly just select four people that are on the lineup and they say, "Hey, get in a room. Go and just like practice for two minutes and go in front of the entire festival and like perform your songs with each other." And it's such a cool experience because festivals don't always like allow you to interact with other artists in the same way that like that one did. So I was chosen to be a part of the Farm Band this year, which was fun. And I was there with my friends in Flyte, who they are an incredible, like folk duo that I just really love. And then Sigrid, who I was lucky enough to go on tour with this this last fall — that was really crazy, across North America. So it was like just it was me and a bunch of my friends in front of a few thousand people singing Neil Young. We had a great time. And the I feel like the festival environment over in the U.K. is just really cool. And everyone... I can't speak to festivals really in America, I've never been to any, which feels so wrong. But I just love the like the amount of sheer love for music that is in the air at these things. And it was, it's been a really cool summer for things like that.

Jill Riley: Yep. From, let's see: celebrity hockey team, to the Farm Band...

Ber: Yeah!

Jill Riley: ...and a great experience with playing festivals over in the U.K. Now you're back in Minnesota, and you have a festival coming up, this new festival North by North Loop. It's nice to see that you're going to be out playing. How does it feel to be back in Minnesota and you've got a gig lined up here?

Ber: Oh my gosh, I'm really excited. The last time I played in Minneapolis was the last day of my first-ever headline tour, and I was at Seventh Street, and it was just like, the most incredible, like we just had so much fun. I felt like it was family in the room.

But I think it'll be really cool to be back, and this festival is so exciting to me. I know it's brand new. So it's really fun to be a part of the like inaugural group of artists that get to come and just celebrate the culture in the North Loop. And the music scene in Minneapolis is unlike any other that I've ever seen in my entire life, so I just feel really excited every time I get the opportunity to like participate in it on that level, especially like the historic North Loop and like the way that that's been around for, or just nurtured that environment for like these music — I'm just really excited, like, to celebrate that. And I feel like it could be something that grows into something really cool in the future.

Jill Riley: Well, the lineup is looking really cool for this year. So all right, so you're part of the lineup. So we've got Ber, the North by North Loop Music Festival again, it's Sunday, September 10. It's all day. It's all day long, like 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The main stage, Lissie.

Ber: Ah, what a queen!

Jill Riley: I know! She's, I mean she does live in Iowa, but hey, Midwest, she comes up here all the time to play so we totally claim her as one of our own.

Ber: Oh, totally.

Jill Riley: So Lissie, Ber, Chastity Brown, Nur-D, that's always a fun party when Nur-D is on stage. And then there's a second stage as well: Honeybutter, Turn Turn Turn, and Mike Kota. So this is the lineup for North by North Loop, the music festival; more information and information for tickets, you just go to northbynorthloop.com. Well, Ber, thank you so much for stopping in. I wish we could hang out longer and talk, but we've got to get you back in here to do some more stuff with us. It's nice to have you back in Minnesota.

Ber: It feels good to be home.

Jill Riley: All right. Well, you take care and we'll we'll see you in September, all right?

Ber: Yeah, sounds good. I can't wait.

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current.

External Links

Ber on Instagram

North By North Loop Festival - official site