Berkley's New Album Captures Life in Pueblo

"When you're from Pueblo, you can't really stop thinking of yourself as from Pueblo," says musician Andy Jones, who releases music under the moniker Berkley.

Jones's childhood in Pueblo shaped his sense of self, his career and his life. It has infused every aspect of his musical being, from the name Berkley (inspired by Pueblo's Brooklyn Avenue, the site of his childhood home) to his upcoming LP, Pueblo, which he created to capture his memories of the mid-sized southern Colorado city.

Jones lived in Pueblo from his birth in 1985 until 2010, when he left to attend the University of Colorado Denver. At age twelve he'd begun to fiddle with a sticker-covered Washburn BT-2 electric guitar, teaching himself basic chords from crinkled, dog-eared transcription books and guitar magazines. He admits with candid humor that he even started playing "really bad solo sets" at Wireworks Coffeehouse in Pueblo, a gig that introduced him to the first band he would join — a local metalcore act called Of Winds and Faint Echoes.

That band opened his world, introducing him to a genre brimming with passionate creativity and boundless envelope-pushing. Jones dove into the world of skramz — emo and post-hardcore music — and enthusiastically began his career as an experimental DIY musician, hopping between punk and metal bands and occasionally touring out of state. In 2008 he co-founded a band called Color West, with members split between Los Angeles and Pueblo.

But Jones says his "values didn't mix" with those bandmates: "I was not keen on being in a band with a guy from Los Angeles whose parents were super rich. There's a work ethic that dictates your life if you're from Pueblo, definitely."

The band's ties, already strained by distance, quickly snapped. Other projects Jones was working on fell through, and he watched the music career he'd spent years building come to an abrupt, graceless halt.

"I kind of fell out of love with music for three years," he says. "I didn't pick up a guitar, and was pursuing other things in my life and not doing music at all. But I started getting really restless." His decision to attend CU Denver in 2010 was out of a deep commitment to his music; more than anything, he wanted to force himself to play again.

He didn't stay for the full course, but the few months of work he did with music entertainment and industry professor Paul Musso was enough to get him back in the saddle. "I started writing again. I wrote a really bad album, but it was basically like starting over," he says. "I felt like I was back in Pueblo, writing for the first time."

Jones moved to Denton, Texas, in 2011 to be with his wife as she pursued her Ph.D. He continued to refine his writing skills, but it was a hard reset, filled with frustrating moments of self-doubt. Ultimately, though, that refresh was what he needed to discover his voice. He began writing Pueblo in 2018, recording the tracks with local Denton musicians who eventually became Berkley's "Little Band." He even created his own record label, Big Secret Records, to release the album, giving it a little more hype than other self-produced pieces.

He's been gradually releasing singles off of Pueblo since 2020, and despite his move from Texas to Portland in 2021, his persistent work has never faltered. Denverites can see for themselves when the Skylark Lounge welcomes Berkley & His Little Band on Sunday, September 3.

Jones has found a way to blend all the genres he's ever loved into one fluid, smooth sound, combining the simplicity of acoustic guitar with modern touches of electronic elements. His intricate, open sound and light vocals transport listeners back to the prime emo days of the early 2000s. After all, Pueblo drips with nostalgia: Jones's love for his hometown, combined with his memories of the long-ago days of his childhood, is palpable in every syllable. Every track on the LP is a fragment of his memory, from "Oldies," the single inspired by the city's iconic radio station, KDZA 107.9, to "Fiesta Day," a nod to the annual Fiesta Day at Pueblo's Colorado State Fair.

And although the single titled "Dark Energy" seems out of place compared to the light, summer-esque flashbacks of the other tracks, Jones says it's the ribbon that ties the album together. It's about his worry over loved ones during COVID, but it also encapsulates his longing to let go of the baggage of the past.

"So many of the songs are about revisiting these memories and these feelings so that I can let them go. All of the things that I'm remembering, I keep with me because they were kind of a bummer, like losing friends. It's just growing up, right?" he adds. "It's not necessarily the town that did this to me. It's just that I experienced these things growing up, and I happened to be in Pueblo. There is some uniqueness to that. Growing up in Pueblo is a unique experience, which I think is true of any town. But that was my experience."

Berkley & His Little Band, 7 p.m. Sunday, September 3, Skylark Lounge, 140 South Broadway. Tickets are $10.