Kevin Bronson on June 7th, 2022

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PHONY is the solo project of singer-songwriter-guitarist Neil Berthier, who moved to L.A. from Boston at the suggestion of fellow free spirit Petey and has seemingly barely had time to enjoy the weather since.

While juggling gigs playing guitar for artists such as Joyce Manor, Milly and Petey, Berthier is prepping his third PHONY album in three years. “At Some Point You Stop,” out July 29 as the first album he’s made in a real recording studio, offers a formidable stew of fuzzy rock, fizzy pop and fearless experimentation. Considered separately, some of the tracks don’t even sound like they’re from the same artist, let alone on the same album, but there’s a strong emotional thread even when Berthier lets his imagination run wild (see “L.A.’s Music”).

After all, he says, “It’s called PHONY as an oxymoron. I want this to be the most personal, wearing-my-heart-on-my-sleeve shit that I can possibly come up with.”

Forward to “Summer’s Cold,” the beefy single released Monday. “A lot of this record is about the idea of memory being fleeting, yet also being a defining pillar in all walks of life,” Berthier says. “I had the riff for this song for years. There’s an old guitar in my mom’s house that’s never in tune and I’ll just pick it up when I’m visiting to see what comes out. Somehow I always get something from it. It feels magic. This song was really how I tried to deal with my father passing, as well as the other tumult the world was dealing with for the past few years.”

Director Anna Langston’s video, though, takes a winking, humorous tack. “The video is about a lonely gorilla who finds joy when he meets someone like himself,” she says. “In practical terms, it’s two dudes in gorilla suits. It’s a schlocky ’80s trope, which I thought lent itself well to a lo-fi approach. We were hoping to find humor by contrasting the absurdity with moments that feel super real and close-to-home for twentysomethings in New York. I tried to inject familiar locations and ‘relatable’ dating moments. Of course, the familiarity is also what gives this story its heart. New York is for lovers, and this gorilla is in us all.”

The album was made in part at L.A.’s EastWest Studios with engineer Chaz Sexton. Petey appears on one track, and Julia Steiner of Ratboys on another.

||| Watch: The video for “Summer’s Cold”