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‘I’ve always written about introverted, melancholy and difficult subjects…’

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Picture by Abbey Raymonde

When it comes to the best debut albums of 2025 so far, Tripla by the Miki Berenyi Trio (AKA MB3) – out now on Bella Union – is certainly up there. 

Fronted by the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, MB3, which also features KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop on guitar (Moose) and bassist Oliver Cherer (Gilroy Mere, Aircooled), have made a dynamic and arresting record that draws on Berenyi’s and McKillop’s shoegaze and dream-pop past, but also adds electronica and dance music into the mix.

First single and album opener, the pulsing and shimmering 8th Deadly Sin, is an eco-protest song tackling issues including plastic pollution; the gorgeous and reflective Kinch is melancholy and cinematic; the sad yet sublime and gliding Vertigo – written about Berenyi experiencing depression triggered by the menopause – channels the ’90s electro-pop of the Pet Shop Boys and Dubstar; Gango is powered by a throbbing bassline and has shades of Massive Attack, while epic and atmospheric album closer, Ubique, has a soaring string arrangement by Bella Union labelmate, Fiona Brice. 

MB3 emerged from the ashes of Piroshka, which Berenyi and McKillop formed in 2017 with drummer, Justin Welch (ex-Elastica), and bassist, Mick Conroy, (Modern English). 

When Conroy broke his arm during the tour that followed Piroshka’s second album, Love Drips And Gathers, in stepped Cherer, who was Welch’s bandmate in Aircooled and had recorded as a solo artist, under aliases such as Dollboy and Gilroy Mere.

With Conroy moving to America, and Welch swamped by session work and live duties for The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Pretenders, Piroshka was put on ice, before the new trio – Berenyi, McKillop and Cherer – came together to play a handful of Lush songs whilst promoting Berenyi’s hugely-acclaimed memoir Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success.

A bout of songwriting sessions followed, with the trio incorporating drum machines behind Berenyi’s and McKillop’s guitars and Cherer’s bass, which led to the addition of more electronic sounds.

After support tours with Gang of Four and The Wedding Present, plus headline shows, MB3 recorded their debut album at Cherer’s home studio in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, and Berenyi’s and McKillop’s rehearsal room in North London. 

The album’s title, Tripla, takes its name from the Hungarian word for ‘triple’ – Berenyi’s father was born in Hungary – and reflects the three-way collaboration of the band’s songwriting. Tripla features nine songs – by sheer chance, each member initiated three tracks each: Gango, Hurricane and Kinch (Berenyi); 8th Deadly Sin, A Different Girl and Manu (McKillop), and Vertigo, Big I Am and Ubique (Cherer).

Say It With Garage Flowers spoke to MB3 to find out why they’re keen to avoid being seen as a heritage act, how they’re writing more reflective songs as they get older, and why playing gigs is the main impetus of the band.

“It’s interesting that this is the most electronic music I’ve been involved with, but it’s actually the most live and road-tested album I’ve ever done,” says Berenyi.

Q&A

How does it feel to be releasing a debut album so far into your respective careers?

Oliver Cherer: That’s an interesting idea… Realistically, for me it doesn’t feel like a debut album, but you’re right, technically, it is… I’ve made a lot of records over the years, but it’s definitely the start of something – it feels good. I think we’re all fiercely proud of it – it’s not just another record…

Miki Berenyi: Ollie releases a debut album every five years or so – he’s well used to it….

It’s a great album, and it’s a lot more electronic than I was expecting it to be… It’s a bold and surprising record, isn’t it?

Oliver Cherer: I hope so – to hear that assessment of it is music to my ears… That’s not quite a pun, but you know what I’m saying… Once we got started, for me, it was important that it surprised people. I think we’re all keen to avoid the whole ‘heritage act’ thing… Maybe that’s snobbery… I don’t know… but if the record is coming over as surprising, new and entering strange territory, then, brilliant – I think that’s where you always want to be.

Did the record, like the band, come together quite organically, rather than being deliberately thought out?

Miki Berenyi: Yeah – the band really started because of us playing a handful of Lush songs for events around my book. But there was no point in us trying to create what Lush songs were like originally, so we played around with some backing tracks and Moose wrote some new parts – we weren’t slavishly reproducing the songs.

So, when it came to doing the [new] songs, which were kind of written to play live… the album was a long way off, so it was more that we were being offered gigs, and we needed some songs to fill the set.

I think there might have some eggshell treading at the beginning, with Ollie saying: ‘Should I be contributing in a way that’s more like Lush or more like Moose, blah blah blah?’ but, it was more like, ‘No – let’s just do whatever takes our mood…’

So, it was quite organic, and although it started from that Lush thing, that wasn’t really a consideration… It was more that the Lush thing was trying to fit in with what we already wanted to do.

The first single, which is also the first song on the album, 8th Deadly Sin, is a big tune – dream-pop meets electronica and dance music. Lyrically, it deals with eco issues, including plastic pollution. Where did that song come from?

‘Moose’ McKillop: It’s probably the most overtly comprehensible song, if you know what I mean. It’s not heavy-handed – it’s got a reasonably light touch, but, yeah, it came from wanting to write about that. Musically, because we set out with just the three of us doing this, although you might think there are limitations with just three people in a band, by doing a lot of programming and using a bit of a electronica, in a weird way it opens things up. We know that the three of us can go on stage and go hell for leather. We’re all playing live, singing, jumping about and getting sweaty, but, behind us, there’s more than just a drum machine… It’s the kind of thing that you could expand as a live band, but if we wanted to do that we’d need a drummer, a keyboard player and a backing singer…

‘Although you might think there are limitations with just three people in a band, by doing a lot of programming and using a bit of a electronica, in a weird way it opens things up. We know that the three of us can go on stage and go hell for leather’

Oliver Cherer: That’s true, but I think that particular song has some stuff that a drummer couldn’t do – it’s got electronic dance music elements to it, which happened from a session in the studio where Moose and I sat together and he was referencing various pieces of music, and I said, ‘Oh – I get what you’re doing…’ So, we got a drum loop, we put a filter on the snare, and we got a Juno [synth]… We were specifically referencing dance music with that one, but it’s totally modulated by the fact that it’s got Moose’s ambient guitars all over it and Miki’s singing… So, it’s not dance music – it’s something else – some natural hybrid.

‘Moose’ McKillop: That’s a good way of putting it.

Do you write together as well as each bringing different songs to the table?

Oliver Cherer: Yes.

Miki Berenyi: The individual songs are all quite different – I think Moose’s songs, in particular, will be [already] worked out in terms of the structure and the meat of it, but Ollie will add a bassline, or I’ll add backing vocals… Moose will work out all the guitar sounds and focus on how that part of it will work – he has an overall view of what he wants to hear. Whereas a track like Big I Am started with Ollie doing the backing track and I added a vocal and wrote a vocal melody. I’ve been quite collaborative on Ollie’s songs, but a song like Kinch, I just wrote it… It’s that classic thing –  you could sing it on an acoustic guitar, but Ollie brought the big sound to it and he and Moose transformed it… I’d run out of ideas with it (laughs).

Kinch is one of the more reflective and nostalgic moments on the album…

Miki Berenyi: I think there’s quite a lot of reflectiveness on the album lyrically, but the music is quite up because the songs were envisaged to play live.

Do you find you’re writing more reflective songs the older you get?

‘Moose’ McKillop: When you’re in your twenties, you’re writing songs about crushes and unrequited love, but you sound like a bit of a weirdo if you’re doing that at 62!

Some of the lyrics on the album, like Big I Am and Gango, deal with the pressures and issues caused by social media, including misogyny and anxiety…

‘When you’re in your twenties, you’re writing songs about crushes and unrequited love, but you sound like a bit of a weirdo if you’re doing that at 62!’

Miki Berenyi: You can feel a bit self-conscious and naff about writing about things like that, because they seem a bit desperate… Look at some 57-year-old trying to be relevant… but I think what’s overlooked is that it affects everyone – it’s not just a young person’s thing. Mental health and anxiety – all those things that are highly reported as happening to young people have an effect on our generation as well. To be honest, I’ve always kind of written about introverted, melancholy and difficult subjects, and I think it’s interesting to do that from the perspective of a person who’s a lot older. There is a nostalgia about looking back at your younger self and thinking, ‘I still haven’t worked all this fucking shit out!’

One of my favourite songs on the album is Gango, which takes its name from the band Gang of Four, whom you supported on tour. It has a big, heavy, driving bassline and weird synths, juxtaposed with Miki’s ethereal vocals. It reminds me of Massive Attack…

Miki Berenyi: After we toured with Gang of Four – they were amazing – I was quite taken with songs that start with drums and disparate parts that you don’t know where they’re coming from, but then they get resolved. It’s quite a basic thing…. there’s a lot of that in dance music but seeing it visually on stage was really compelling. Both me and Ollie had our own versions of songs inspired by it  – he came up with Ubique, which has a mallet sound at the beginning and you don’t really know where the off-beat or the on-beat is, and I came up with Gango, which is….

Oliver Cherer: Mental.

Miki Berenyi: It is quite mental… The beauty of writing on Logic [software] is that you can move shit around without actually having to learn how to play it.

Oliver Cherer: I’d like to point out, though, that when you first presented it to me, I thought the bassline was quite complicated and I hoped I could manage it. I worked it out but then you said to me: ‘Can you play the same thing later in the song but one beat later?’ It’s quite complicated, but, actually, I don’t think it sounds anywhere as near as complicated as the construction of it, which is quite impressive.

 

Hurricane is less of an electronic track – it’s slightly more rock…

Oliver Cherer: There’s probably as much electronica on it as anything, though, but it does have a slightly different feel…

Miki Berenyi: It started out as a good garage-y song to put into the live set, but when it came to the album it didn’t really work, so Ollie went crazy with it to see what he could do to it…

Oliver Cherer: It’s like a remix, I suppose…

Miki Berenyi: It is.

Ubique is the perfect track to end the album with – it has strings arranged by Fiona Brice, which gives it a cinematic and epic feel…

Oliver Cherer: Every time we play it live, I find myself grinning. I’m very proud of it – it’s one of my favourites.

You’ve got some live dates coming up. Do you still enjoy touring?

Miki Berenyi: Completely – that’s the point of MB3. With Piroshka it was very difficult to get that band on the road and make it work because there were a lot of people and it was quite a cumbersome unit.  The actual genesis of doing the whole MB3 thing was, ‘God – we can just actually play gigs…’

We were playing gigs for two years – we didn’t have a record out, and we had nothing to promote. We had one fucking T-shirt that we knocked up! Wanting to play was the impetus, and that’s the main impetus of the band. It’s interesting that it’s the most electronic music I’ve been involved with – it’s got that whole studio feel – but it’s actually the most live and road-tested album I’ve ever done.

‘Moose’ McKillop: For the past year, we’ve been able to play pretty much the whole album live – we can perform all nine songs on the album. If you came to see us, you might’ve recognised a couple of the Lush songs or a Piroshka one, but this time it will be different because the album is out and people will turn up, hopefully, and they will have got used to the songs. It will be a slightly different vibe at the gigs.

I like the fact that the album is only nine songs – it’s punchy and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Far too many new albums these days are too long…

Oliver Cherer: I agree. The most useful tool for anybody making anything is savage editing. I’ll stand by that forever. You will always achieve a better result and you won’t regret it.

How are you feeling about 2025 and what lies ahead for the rest of the year? We’re living in turbulent times…

‘Moose’ McKillop: A lot of the year is scheduled and mapped out, so we kind of know what we’ll be doing at certain times, but, when it comes to the bigger picture, I’m fucking terrified! I’m scared to look at the news sometimes. I find it anxiety-inducing, depressing and sickening. Sorry to end on a downer… We’re going to have a nice year playing our music, travelling and going to festivals, but, bloody hell, once you open your eyes and look around, you don’t want to get out of bed!

Miki Berenyi: I do find that bad times are quite good for music, though. Look at Thatcher…

Oliver Cherer: True. Oh, God, yes – remember what Thatcher did for British music. It was brilliant!

Miki Berenyi Trio’s Tripla is out now on Bella Union. 

https://mikiberenyitrio.bandcamp.com/

https://mikistuff.com/

 

‘It’s about heading into the night to search for the person that you think you might’ve missed out on being… but what you find is some bruises in the morning…’

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Louis Eliot – picture: Chris Floyd

Nineties cinematic pop band Rialto are back with a brand-new album, Neon & Ghost Signs – their first record in 24 years.

Fronted by singer-songwriter, Louis Eliot, the group split up in 2002, but reformed in early 2023 and played a handful of comeback shows, including the Shiiine On Weekender indie festival in Minehead and a couple of London dates.

Following on from the success of those gigs, Rialto signed a deal with independent label, Fierce Panda Records, and are releasing their third album, which is the follow up to 2001’s Night On Earth, this month.

Neon & Ghost Signs sounds like a natural step on from its predecessor, which flirted with moody, Bowie-like electronica and Duran Duran-style ‘80s pop, as well as the dramatic, widescreen influences of John Barry and Ennio Morricone, which were all over Rialto’s 1998, self-titled debut album, but it also explores some new territory.

Comeback single and album opener, No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive, is a big statement of intent – over handclaps and a pounding disco groove, a lascivious Eliot is on the prowl in a nightclub, playing “the hound of London town, where the sheets are stained with gold.”

It’s like a darker, sleazier cousin of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor.

The song was partly inspired by Eliot leaving behind a long-term relationship to immerse himself once more in London nightlife – a theme that has always played a large part in the band’s music.

There’s an urgency and a celebratory feel to a lot of the songs on Neon & Ghost Signs – this is down to a near-death experience Eliot had six years ago, when he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery while on holiday in Spain.

“What you might think is if you have a very close to death experience you want to start looking after yourself,” he says. “I just went chasing full speed after my youth. I was just like, f*** it, I might not be here next week, so I’m just going to dive in!”

I Want You is a glitter-soaked, glam rock stomp, and there’s more epic disco on the shimmering, ABBA-flavoured, Taking The Edge Off Me, with its cascading piano and soaring strings.

The edgy and European-sounding, Put You On Hold, is John Barry-meets-the-Bee-Gees, while Cherry is delicious, futuristic robo-funk that struts the same catwalk as Bowie’s Fashion.

There are some reflective moments amidst all the dancefloor shenanigans. The album’s gorgeous title track, which is cocooned in warm, pulsing synths, is a bleary-eyed, comedown ballad that’s one of the best things Eliot has ever written – an ‘us against the world’ love song, like 1998’s The Underdogs.

Sandpaper Kisses is another relationship ballad, but it’s about love gone wrong:“Sandpaper kisses, stinging on your lips. The one you want to hold in your arms is slipping from your grip.”  

Eliot juxtaposes the barbed lyric with a charming and nostalgic tune that has echoes of ‘50s instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny, complete with a great, twangy guitar solo.

‘There are some reflective moments amidst all the dancefloor shenanigans. The album’s gorgeous title track, which is cocooned in warm, pulsing synths, is a bleary-eyed, comedown ballad that’s one of the best things Eliot has ever written’

The atmospheric and romantic ballad, Remembering To Forget, is so beautiful that Scott Walker could’ve sung it, while second single, the glam strut of Car That Never Comes, is another of Eliot’s songs about escaping and driving through the city under the cover of night – it can be parked alongside The Car That Took My Love Away, from 2000’s mini-album, Girl On A Train, and Drive from Night On Earth.

In an exclusive interview, Eliot speaks to Say It With Garage Flowers about writing the new album, and shares some of the influences and inspirations that shaped the songs on Neon & Ghost Signs.

“I genuinely think this album is the best one,” he tells us. “It’s a grown-up record but perhaps not a graceful one…”

Q&A

When we last spoke, in January 2024, after Rialto had reformed and played some comeback shows, which included some new songs, you said you were hoping to make a new album… Well, now it’s here and it’s being released by Fierce Panda Records…

Louis Eliot: Yeah – the new songs went down well live and Simon Williams from Fierce Panda was at some of the gigs, which was great… I was going to say he jumped on board, but he moved slowly but assuredly… (laughs). I immediately liked Fierce Panda – Simon and I got on, and he seemed to have the right attitude.

So, really, it was finishing off something that was already started. Some of the new songs were written since we spoke last year, but most of them were written in the last three or four years, and even further back. A couple of the songs had been knocking around for a while, but they felt like they fitted. There’s been a lifetime between this album and the last Rialto one, but what a luxury to have.

You told me you hadn’t originally set out to make a new Rialto album, but that the songs you were writing had more in common with Rialto than your solo work or the songs you’d done with your band, The Embers... So, was it a case that Rialto reformed by accident because the songs you’d written dictated it?

Louis Eliot: I’d say that’s true – it was a combination of different things coming together at the same time, and it just made absolute sense for it to be Rialto. I just felt that the songs were revisiting the same world but 20-odd years later, and I’ve got a slightly different perspective, and people have probably got a different perspective of me. A lot of it is about searching for thrills, isn’t it? But it’s also about heading out into the night to search for the person that you think you might’ve missed out on being… but what you find is some bruises in the morning…

A few years ago, you had a near-death experience in Spain and ended up in hospital, which made you re-evaluate your life. Some people decide to take it easy after a health scare, but it made you want to get back there and make the most of it while you still can, didn’t it?

Louis Eliot: There was definitely a feeling of that. It was quite a traumatic thing… It’s funny, but, after a few months, I felt pretty much like I’d recovered, and those clichés, like ‘life’s not a rehearsal,’ were resonating pretty deeply, so there were certain things in my life that I changed at that point. So, I dived in and I found myself back in the city at night, exploring and looking for something, although I’m not sure what…

The song Car That Never Comes is about hanging on for someone or something to carry you away. I think there are a few songs on the record that visit that feeling.

Car That Never Comes is the latest in a series of songs you’ve written about escaping at night by car… I’m thinking of Drive and The Car That Took My Love Away…

Louis Eliot: I need to come up with some new ideas… (laughs). I think the first imagery that I came up with for the song was the headlights going past the window… Songs find themselves as you write them – you’re often not sure what they’re about and then it starts becoming clear… That song is about hanging on for something to happen, although whether it does or not…

The phrase ‘waiting for a car that never comes’ could also mean that someone is no longer famous – the car that used to pick them up to take them somewhere glamorous isn’t coming anymore…

Louis Eliot: Absolutely. I think there’s a feeling of the inevitable in that song – you know the car isn’t coming, yet you still hang on for it. That’s the double-edged sword that goes with that hedonistic pursuit.

The album has some of the classic Rialto hallmarks we know and love – the title alone, Neon & Ghost Signs, is very Rialto – but you’ve also added in some other influences, like disco and glam rock.

The first single and opening song, No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive, doesn’t mess around – we’re plunged straight back into that seedy world of London nightlife that Rialto inhabit, but it sounds like the dark, sleazy cousin of Murder on the Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor…

Louis Eliot: I’m happy with that. I think that song came from when I was working on something for a friend, but I ended up using it for me. What can I say? I can definitely hear what you’re saying about Murder on the Dancefloor… I was thinking of ‘80s Leonard Cohen, but backed by Benny and Bjorn! I wanted a song that had that idea of knowing you’re on thin ice but you’re going to do a pirouette anyway! I hope it’s amusing – it’s not too dark and I hope people find some humour in it.

‘In a lot of ways, glam rock and disco are connected – they just wore different trousers…’

The album wouldn’t be a Rialto record if it didn’t have the things that people liked about Rialto from the past, but there wouldn’t have been a whole lot of point doing it if I hadn’t brought new things to it.

Louis Eliot

I think it feels like the natural successor to Night On Earth, even though it’s 24 years on.. You were exploring Bowie influences on that album, and the song Cherry on the new album has that feel – it reminds me of Fashion... It even has the ‘beep beep’ line in it…

Louis Eliot: I probably shouldn’t have done that, but it made me laugh. I shouldn’t laugh at my own jokes… I’d written this line: ‘you’re standing in the headlights, sleeping with the wrong types…’ When I was singing it, I found myself saying, ‘Beep, beep…’ It’s clearly a nod…

If you sit down with a record and try and rip it off, it’s never going to have any magic… In my head, I was actually doing something that was a bit Talking Heads when I was making that tune… Lyrically I was trying to do something that was impressionistic – like snatches of conversation at a party.  I was trying to paint a picture and put you in the scene, and, of course, there’s a Bowie influence, but I was thinking of Prince if he’d hung out with Bowie…

Put You On Hold has a disco feel, but a cinematic, European sound too…

Louis Eliot: I think you’re right – I agree.

It’s Barry Gibb meets John Barry…

Louis Eliot: (laughs): It’s John Barry-Gibb! That’s a good name for a band.

As well as disco, there’s some glam rock on the album: I Want You and Car That Never Comes…

Louis Eliot: Yeah. In a lot of ways, glam rock and disco are connected – they just wore different trousers… One followed the other really. I think there’s a spirit in both of them that crosses over. That glam shuffle is just a great groove, isn’t it?

One of my favourite songs on the album is the title track, Neon & Ghost Signs, which is a classic Rialto ballad – an ‘us against the world’ love song that’s set against the backdrop of a rain-soaked, nocturnal London. I think it’s one of the best songs you’ve ever written…

Louis Eliot: Thank you. It’s one of those songs that came quite easily. Ghost signs, as you know, are those faded advertising hoardings that you see on the side of buildings, so Neon & Ghost Signs is about looking forwards and backwards at the same time – it’s the thrill of the neon and the draw of the night ahead, but you’re carrying the past with you. I was trying to write a song that isn’t just about a fleeting love – it’s somehow about a bigger love that comes about the older you get. It’s when you realise you have a connection with people and it’s about your experiences with them, regardless of whether you’re in a relationship, or whether you’ve moved on… All of that stuff counts and should be respected. I guess it’s coming to terms with that and singing the praises of those connections you have with people – even if it’s just on a night out. And I don’t just mean a romantic connection – it can be platonic… It’s the stuff that counts.

It’s also quite possibly the first pop song to mention ‘Nytol…’

Louis Eliot: (Laughs). Yeah – I want a sponsorship deal from them.

Remembering To Forget is another great song on the new record – it’s a ballad that’s so beautiful Scott Walker could’ve sung it… It has a lush, romantic ‘60s feel and then you make it a Rialto song by singing about vapour trails in the city… That’s a nice contrast…

Louis Eliot: Thanks – I hadn’t thought about that. I’m happy with that. It’s quite a sad song but it also has a funny feeling about it – it has something…

Sandpaper Kisses is a highlight for me – it’s another ballad, and it has an atmospheric ‘50s sound, with twangy guitar. I could imagine Richard Hawley singing it…

Louis Eliot: I didn’t set out to write a ‘50s crooner ballad, but, of course, it’s got some of that, but it’s offset with a drum machine. I’m really glad you like that song because I was toying with putting it on the record or not, and I’m now glad I did because it’s gone down well. People have said it’s like Little Anthony & The Imperials or Patsy Cline.

So, are you pleased with the album? You should be… it’s great…

Louis Eliot:  I am. I genuinely think it’s the best one. I know bands always love the latest thing they’ve made, but I think it’s a good album and that age has helped me write a better record. I’ve had more experiences and I’m better at writing somehow. And why not? Leonard Cohen carried on writing great records…

It’s an unalloyed look at being middle-aged. It’s a grown-up record but perhaps not a graceful one.

It has its tongue in its cheek at times, and it’s also celebratory… It’s occasionally melancholy and reflective, but not self-pitying…

Louis Eliot: It’s like a mid-life crisis, but I like it! It’s not packed with obvious jokes but I hope people can sense that it’s not taking itself too seriously and neither am I. I think I do have a melancholic strain in my writing…

You’re playing some UK gigs this year, including some supporting Sleeper. Will you be going to discotheques after the shows?

Louis Eliot: Why ever not?

Neon & Ghost Signs is released on April 25 (Fierce Panda Records).

For Rialto live dates, visit www.rialtomusic.com