Kevin Bronson on July 14th, 2022

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The Berries are the solo vehicle of singer-songwriter-guitarist Matt Berry, who’s played in feedback ’n’ fuzz-loving bands such as Oakland’s Happy Diving and Seattle’s Big Bite. The Los Angeles-based artist takes a more laid-back, disaffected approach as the Berries, who have released two albums, 2018’s “Start All Over Again” and 2019’s “Berryland.”

The Berries’ third album, “High Flying Man,” will be out Aug. 19 via Run for Cover Records. Made with live bandmates Danny Paul (drums), Emma Danner (backing vocals) and Lance Umble (bass), produced by Berry and Todd Berndt and mixed by Rob Schnapf, the album hums along on brisk, spacious guitars. As a writer, Berry yearns to fly above the malaise, the world’s and his own, yet resists anything overtly melancholic, mawkish or bitter (more like “mildly disappointed”).

Which is quite a feat on a long like the Berries’ latest single, “Down That Road Again” — think Tom Petty meets the Verve — in which Berry tells of going on a head-clearing drive only to spiral into self-pity. “‘Down That Road’ is about the most human experience one can feel: regret,” he says. “It’s about desiring to treat yourself with dignity but instead choosing self destruction.”

“Down That Road Again” follows the June release of “Prime,” an indie-rocker with a little more bite and with good reason. Here, he laments not the inevitably of aging but his generation’s resignation toward growing old.

Gary Canino directed the video for “Down That Road Again” — and it’s a road unto itself. You never know where you’ll find Berry, or what he will find in the middle of nowhere.

||| Watch: The videos for “Down That Road Again” and “Prime”