Lovers was an indie musical group founded in Athens, Georgia[1] and later based in Portland, Oregon.
[2][3] Originally a singer-songwriter project, Lovers later became an electropop trio consisting of Carolyn "Cubby" Berk, Kerby Ferris, and Emily Kingan.
[10][11] As Berk started performing locally,[12] she struggled with stage fright and has credited advice from Vic Chestnutt with helping her overcome it.
[14][15][4] Compared to Lovers' debut, the music on The Gutter and the Garden (2004) had a somewhat more optimistic tone,[16] with Portland Mercury calling it "slightly less spirit crushing" and The Stranger noting "a peppering of conditional optimism".
"[20] Lovers next album, Sleep with Heat (2007), was called Berk's "first consistently solid set of songs" and features musicians from Phosphorescent and Parker and Lily.
[1][5] Ultimately, Berk decided to move forward with the latter version of Lovers, which featured Kerby Ferris on keyboards/synths and Emily Kingan on percussion.
[31][32][33] To support the album, Lovers embarked on a national tour and recorded a live session at KEXP-FM, including 4 songs from Dark Light.
They posted a statement on Facebook arguing that "MWMF responds not to external, but internal pressure, and we believe that ultimately, the women who attend the festival are the ones who will decide it's [sic] future.
[45] Soon after recording for Dark Light was finished, Berk began writing songs for Lovers' seventh album, A Friend in the World.
[15][47][48] Released in September 2013, the album's title comes from the band's experiences touring and meeting fans in various places throughout the world.
[7][58] One reviewer wrote: "Lovers is a delightful case of an acoustic artist who took the trip to Electro-land and lived to tell the tale.
[7][10][60][61][50] Once Lovers became a trio, Berk would write songs on the acoustic guitar and collaborate with Kingan and Ferris to turn them into electropop.
Berk has cited Sinéad O'Connor, Jay-Z, Bon Iver, Kathleen Hanna, Frank Ocean, Conor Oberst, and others as influences.
[63][53][29] Sleep with Heat (2007) includes a song called "An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail", a phrase used by the Gay liberation movement[64] and Rita Mae Brown.
[68][60][69] They have been called "three dykes"[5][70] and "loud and proud queercore"[68][63] and have cited queer musicians including those involved with the Riot grrrl movement as influences.
[56][29][53] They were covered in queer publications including The Advocate, Curve, Bay Windows, AfterEllen, qPDX.com, and Dallas Voice.
"[45] Once called "indie darlings" and "an underground band with digital global reach", Lovers never had mainstream success.