Singled Out: Tamar Berk's Good Impression

Tamar Berk just released her new single and video entitled "Good Impression" from her new album "Good Times For A Change", and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

I was about halfway through writing my new album "Good Times for a Change" when I was struck by the fact that I didn't have a fun, lighthearted danceable song on the album. And I really wanted to! So I just randomly picked a tempo of 140 bpm, and just sort of threw together a basic upbeat pop-rock drum beat. I picked up my guitar, and kinda randomly started chugging on the Eb power chord, and I liked the energy and vibe that it was giving me!

So I continued chugging on that chord and suddenly, I started singing this melody with the first words that came out of my subconscious mind. In this case, I was chugging along on that Eb and just sang "I'm gonna make a good impression on you." Suddenly, I started laughing out loud because there is a running joke in my family about the fact that I make the worst first impression on people! To give you a little backstory on why my family would say that...it's something I always thought, but it seems to have been confirmed when I decided to leave my teaching job after my father passed away in 2022. I thought, "No problem, I'll just get a part time job for a bit until I figure out what I want to do."

So I interviewed at a bunch of different places....I mean all of these were minimum wage jobs...and I was literally offered NONE of them. Everytime I came home after the interview I thought it went really well, but then like clockwork a few days later, I would get that email that stated that they went with another candidate. I started to think about the fact that I probably just gave the worst first impression because clearly I could do any of those jobs!

It's not actually the first time I heard that I don't give the best first impression. Some of my friends have told me that they didn't know what to think of me at first, and my hairdresser actually said that my intensity could be misconstrued as antagonistic! All I can say is that I'm seriously the nicest, most loyal and hardest working person you're gonna meet...so I guess it's your loss TRADER JOES! Haha!

So to get back to the song itself....once I decided on the theme, the song came together very quickly! It probably only took me an hour to actually write all the lyrics and the structure! As far as producing the song....I really wanted it to have a sort of 80s power pop energy, so I didn't want to add too much layering. I wanted it to be sparse but not too sparse! I have this Nord Stage 2 Keyboard with a bunch of synth sounds, so I picked one that has a little bite and added a fun repetitive arpeggio that would be catchy and instantly give you that 80s feel. I also wanted to get to the chorus faster and made a conscious effort to create a chorus that had different lyrics everytime. I usually don't do that! I actually think this might be the first song I ever wrote that does not repeat itself in the chorus. In the second verse, I tried another new thing which is to make the harmony become the main melody and I really loved the effect of that. But the thing that took the song over the top for me was when my guitar player Chris Marsteller added this amazing lead guitar on the song. When he sent the song back to me I was jumping for joy because I knew he understood exactly what I was going for! The final touch was sending the track to my drummer Matt Walker so he could replace the fake drums with real ones. Most of my songs don't come together as easily as this one, but I knew it was exactly what I wanted when I started dancing around my studio!

Making the track number one really set the tone for the album. There are some serious songs on the album but having this one as number one allowed the listener to get to know all sides of me...even the fun, silly side.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here

Singled Out: Tamar Berk's If u know, u know

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