BERLIN – Still Taking Your Breath Away
Words by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Thursday 29th December 2022
Ruffling Feathers and Stalking Comedians with Terri Nunn
It might seem like the 80s are back with a vengeance, but for BERLIN’s Terri Nunn, they never went away. Coming to Australia for their first headlining tour since 1985, Terri sat down with SENSE to talk Sex, MARILYN MANSON, Take My Breath Away, feminism and stalking Bill Burr…
With shows like Stranger Things, there has been a lot of renewed interest in the 80s lately. Do you think this is a case of “everything that’s old is new again”? I’ve noticed, particularly fashion-wise, we’ve circled back around to the early 2000s.
You know, people have been saying that to me [laughs] since the 2000s … “Wow, the 80s are really happening!” They don’t seem to go away. I feel, at least, for us, that because we make electronic music, that’s what’s happening now. It’s not that different, you know? I mean, Billie Eilish, I just took my daughter, she’s 18, to see Billie Eilish. I love Billie Eilish, and so does she, and that music? It’s all electronic! I mean, the only difference is, she’s got sub-bass. We didn’t have sub-bass in the 80s, but we do now, and so I think that’s a reason why kids today … why the 80s doesn’t go away, because the kids today are listening to music that’s very similar, you know? [Laughs] The music is the same. There’s a lot of electronic stuff going on, in every genre, so that’s really lucky for us. We’re celebrating 45 years this year, BERLIN.
That’s nuts, isn’t it?
[Laughs] I know!
You released one of your most famous songs, Sex (I’m A), in 1983, I believe. What do you remember of the reactions to that? Because I feel like that would have ruffled many, many feathers.
Yeah, and it seems like it would be a bad thing, because it was banned in so many places, but it turned out to be great, because the fact that people were up in arms about it … Really, I wrote it about my boyfriend at the time, and our relationship; we were just getting in a rut sexually, and it was like, “Let’s try some stuff! Let’s mix it up! How about you’re this and I’m that and we play some roles here?” And he was like, “You know, Terri, I’m not a pirate. I’m not a burglar. I’m just a guy. I’m just a guy, and I like guy things, and that’s it.” So I wrote the chorus like, okay, he’s just, “I’m a man, I’m a man, I’m a man, I’m a man,” that’s all he says, and I’m like, “I’m a goddess! I’m a hooker! I’m a blue movie! I’m a bitch!” So that was the idea behind the song. I knew nobody had really written anything like that before, so it might ruffle some feathers. [Laughs] I remember, we were playing this arena … It was our biggest show yet. 9000 people. And it was in San Diego, California, and this priest … he created this commercial, and he’s sitting there with his priest stuff on, and he said, “These are the devil’s children! And they are coming for your kids! And you should never, ever, ever allow your children to go to this show! And if you are thinking of going to this show, do not, because they are evil!” Dude, that show sold out in an hour after that was on. It was so fast, that we were like, “Can we get this guy to do commercials everywhere we play? Please! Let’s just get him to do it!” Honestly, I mean, yes, it seems awful, but it creates this conversation. Like, okay, why shouldn’t we see this band? Well now we want to see this band. What are they doing? So yeah, I have noticed that controversy can be a good thing.
It happens every single generation. I’m an ’85 model, so for me, it was MARILYN MANSON’s Antichrist Superstar in 1996.
God, it was great, wasn’t it?
It was amazing!
Dude, that guy … One of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life was MARILYN MANSON. He played with HOLE, so Courtney Love opened for him, and he came onstage, and this was a show where he only played maybe five songs, and he fell off the stage and broke his … this is when he had to cancel his tour, and we saw it happen, and just those few songs was the best show I’ve ever seen in my life … Every song was a different fucking … “Woah!” This whole visual extravaganza of stuff that he came up with, it was, wow … He’s great. He is.
I feel like a song like Sex … Obviously it ruffled feathers and whatnot. Do you think it would’ve raised as much outrage if it was sung from a male perspective?
Not at all. [Laughs] No!
“Ugh! Women having sex! Nooo!”
Yeah! I mean, if a guy sang it, they’d be like, “Yeah, cool dude! Yeah, you’re making it!” But when it’s a girl? “You’re a slut! There’s something wrong with you!” Yeah. It’s getting better, you know? I think women are allowed to say more, more and more. It’s a lot better than it used to be. How is it in Australia? I know there used to be a lot more chauvinism. Is there still?
It's hard for me to say, because Australia is such a vastly multicultural place that I can only – Christ, I sound like a university student right now – but I can only speak about it from … my own little area. I would say, in terms of what I see in the arts scene and going out to gigs and stuff, I think it’s great for women. I think women can do a lot more. I can still remember my earliest gigs, going to shows with women onstage and every thirty seconds some guy would be yelling “Show us your tits!” That was ten, fifteen years ago. You probably put up with a lot of that shit. I don’t see that these days. I think it’s been pretty aggressively … if you did that at a gig these days, you would get seriously dealt with … How do you think things have changed for women since the 80s when you were coming up?
Oh god! [Laughs]
Big question!
A lot! A lot! It’s just gotten freer, you know, to be ourselves, and to tell the truth from a woman’s standpoint, whether a guy thinks we should have that standpoint or not. It has gotten much freer. I did not personally have the MeToo experiences that other people had. I had men look down on me, especially in music, because it’s a male-dominated field, obviously. So yeah, they were like, "Who are you?" That said, it was easier in a way, because we stood out as a band in the beginning, like, “Oh, it’s got a girl singer! Alright, well, let’s check it out!” They would listen just to see if it had anything because it was different than what they were used to, so it was an advantage. I’ve always been a strong woman. I have very strong parents, who taught me self-esteem and to value myself and to take care of myself and to stand up for myself. Men may have tried things like that in the business, but I didn’t take the bait, and I didn’t do it … I’m not going to say that were wanting it, but it’s also a situation where, you know, I just didn’t have a guy in a position of power going, “Alright, you do this, or you’re not going to eat,” you know? It just didn’t come up for me. I know that it has happened. That’s one of the reasons MeToo happened, because a guy like Harvey Weinstein, who’s your boss, is saying to you, “Suck my dick, or you don’t have a job tomorrow.” I never was in that position, so, [I’m] lucky.
I wanted to ask your opinion on this … You were saying that having a female singer gave you a point of difference back in the early days. I have noticed recently that there has been a lot of pushback against the phrase “female-fronted” when it comes to rock bands and stuff like that … In certain circles, if you use the phrase “female-fronted” you’ll have something thrown at you. I wanted to have your opinion on that. What do you think about it?
I have no problem with saying “female-fronted.” I’m proud of being female, and I’m fronting it, you know? It gets to me a little bit … I have difficulty with the “We should all be treated the same! If I don’t want to be a girl I get to be called a “them”.” I don’t know. It just gets so convoluted. I can completely understand that it’s possible to be born into a body that I don’t feel comfortable in. That’s not my situation. So “female-fronted”? Fine with me. To me it’s an advantage. I want to hear it.
There’s no getting away from it – how would you describe life after Take My Breath Away? Because you guys got an Academy Award for that, I understand.
Yeah, and a Golden Globe, and number one around the world. We hadn’t had any of that, you know? We’d had a top ten hit at that point with No More Words, but nothing like Take My Breath Away. It was just another world. It both expanded our world, and continues to expand our world now … that song, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, but it also imploded us, because we were already … tired, actually. It’s nobody’s fault, but we had been working solid, writing and touring and recording and writing and touring and recording … It just never stopped, and nobody was saying “stop”, and it’s nobody’s fault. It’s the business – they just want to keep it going. I think if we had just taken a break, we would’ve been fine, we would’ve stayed together, but because that song came along, and my partner, John Crawford, had not written it. He was trying so hard to write songs that people would like, and he told me this later, “In waltzes Giorgio Moroder with this song that he plops on the table, and it’s one of twelve that he’s had hits with, in that year, and here you go, and it’s not even a song that we wrote, and now I feel that I’m shit and I can’t write, and the company wants to take this band away from me now, and have us do songs that other people wrote, and I’m losing my band.” That’s where he was. And I can understand that now, of course, but he wasn’t telling me that then. He was just putting on his guy front and being mad all the time, and so I’m mad at him for being mad, because we have a song that people love, and I love singing it, and I love Giorgio Moroder, and the band seems to like it … except him. So we were like, [screams] freaking out all the time, and we finally had to leave.
I went back through your Instagram and saw your very happy face next to my favourite comedian in the world, Bill Burr. You met him in an airport. Who was more happy to see who?
I stalked him! I saw him walk in, and I’m in the car, and I literally left my makeup back in the car, I was so excited. I was like, “I have to meet him!” I ran out of the car and ran in, and lost him! I had to check in, and I’m literally walking through every single terminal … “He’s got to be here, he’s got to be here.” … I found him! I went up to him and I said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this …” I sounded like everybody who comes up to me! “I have to meet you. Hello! You’re amazing!” And he said, “Thank you!” He said, “You look familiar.” I said, “I don’t know, maybe you know the band BERLIN?” And literally the moment I said that, this policeman came up to us and said, “You’re Terri Nunn! Can I have a picture!” And he gives his camera to Bill Burr! [Laughs]
BERLIN tour Australia in January.