Guitarist K.J. “Moose” McKillop mills about in their kitchen as singer and guitarist Miki Berenyi Zooms in for our afternoon British Standard Time interview. He finds something to eat then exits the frame, passing an island adorned with yellow flowers.
It’s Sep. 25. Berenyi, McKillop and bassist Oliver Cherer will begin their final North America tour as Miki Berenyi Trio (MB3) on Oct. 8.
Berenyi described touring abroad in a 2008 interview as “like going on holiday with your mates, but even more fun because it’s free.” For independent bands, however, having to shoulder more and more of the associated financial risks has made touring abroad no longer feasible. To this point, Berenyi had to borrow tens of thousands of pounds against her mortgage to afford this final skip across the pond.
The band’s release of surprise single “Doldrum Days” on Sep. 22 came in part from having to play the music business game to mitigate some of these risks.
“A track and some visuals to go with it, that’s the price to actually get anyone to write about you going on tour,” Berenyi said in our interview.
The track sounds like it could have been on their critically acclaimed debut album “Tripla.” However, Berenyi states that “they recorded it in the summer,” long after “Tripla’s” April 4 release.
In “Doldrum Days,” Omnichord arpeggios intertwine with other synths and guitars to create a lush soundscape, propelled forward by sequenced drums and Berenyi’s playful vocals. Like “Tripla,” it strikes a balance between the organic elements fans might expect and fresh synthetic elements.
Also like “Tripla,” its lyrics balance lamentation and hope. Penned by Cherer, they use the analogy of standing in a river to ruminate on the random and liminal qualities of life. Berenyi echoes these sentiments when describing how she interprets the lyrics.
“It feels to me like it evokes a natural landscape of some sort of river delta in Britain, kind of slightly out there in the elements,” Berenyi said. “It’s a bit like how you get pulled along, back and forth with the tide, and you’re just kind of subsumed.”
However, listeners can find solace in how many have faced and will face this push and pull: “Once again and it turns, oh it turns / How it turns and returns evermore / In and out adding in, silently.”
The question then arises of whether this issue is being complicated for future generations. Berenyi argues that much is the same, though the speed at which news travels today makes things seem worse.
“All sorts of people, even people who aren’t intending to do harm, throw out these theories, and you don’t even know what’s actually happened yet,” Berenyi said. “There is no time for the dust to settle before the next thing comes at you.”
However, she emphasizes that, though climate change is complicating things and will destroy the world if not properly addressed, she has faith the next generation will figure things out — like countless generations before them.
“I do have children, I’d quite like them to not fry and starve,” Berenyi said. “So I think clearly, there are things that need to be done. But, it was ever thus and people struggle, and I have some faith in human nature that it somehow gets through every dark time.”
Throughout her career, she’s never shied from voicing her opinion on political affairs like these. Many emerging musicians carry this torch, but some are punished for doing so.
When asked about this and the case of Mo Chara, Berenyi addresses it like she did the earlier question on the state of the world in general: things might be bad, but they’ve been bad before. She recounts the scrutiny she would face when visiting the Cold War-era U.S. as a teenager — much less as an influential entertainer.
“My mother lived in America from when I was 12 years old, and my God, coming into America — because my father was Hungarian, I used to go to Hungary — and the questioning I would get every time I came into the country… This wasn’t even as a band, this was when I was 13,” Berenyi said. “America was very paranoid about communism at that time — that was the hot button issue — and any whiff of going behind the Iron Curtain was treated like you’re some sort of dissident who’s going to perform some terrorist act.”
In the U.K., she argues things are a bit better currently than they are in the U.S., though some say otherwise. Bands like these may miss out on airtime, but they can’t be prevented from playing.
“People might not get on the telly or something, but no one’s going to stop them playing gigs if they want to scream and shout about whatever issues they want to scream and shout about,” Berenyi said. “It’s a f*****g gig, who gives a s**t? A bunch of young people enjoying themselves and letting off steam.”
The interview then moved to MB3’s own gigs and their final North America tour. As mentioned, much of this tour being their last stemmed from the mounting financial risk of touring abroad.
Labels, even independent ones like her old band Lush’s label 4AD, used to front the extensive costs of touring abroad. However, musicians are now responsible for them, forcing them towards riskier alternative means.
“I’m about 20 grand in debt at the moment, it will probably go to about 30, 35,” Berenyi said. “That’s before we’ve even stepped into America. To find the funds to do that, I’ve had to take it out of my mortgage.”
This means that independent, working-class musicians won’t get to test whether touring abroad is as much fun for them as it is for Berenyi. Additionally, fans will miss out on exciting new bands.
Berenyi then expands upon what this means for her specifically: saying goodbye to a continent of fans she loves.
“I’ve gone to America most of my life,” Berenyi said. “I love touring there, it’s great. The audiences are great. They are different to anywhere else in the world. It really is special, and I wish I could keep coming. But that barrier has become insurmountable now.”
The tour’s final stop will be in L.A., at the Roxy on Oct. 28. Berenyi closes the interview on the special significance L.A. has for her.
“I do have a soft spot for it, and my mom only just left,” Berenyi said. “She’d been living there since the 80s, but she’s just gone back to live in Japan. Even that tie is cut now. So I’m going to really try and enjoy myself, because this may be the last time I even go to L.A.”
Fans can buy tickets to that show and other dates here.
June Min is the 2025-2026 Arts & Entertainment Editor. He can be reached at junehm@uci.edu.
Edited by Corinna Chin and Joshua Gonzales.
