Miki Berenyi: UKNY Q&A

Miki Berenyi's critically-acclaimed memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, was finally published in the States this year via Mango Publishing, following its universally acclaimed UK release in 2022 on Nine Eight Books.

The London-born musician and writer came to prominence in the late '80s and '90s as, along with her bandmate Emma Anderson, as a singer, songwriter and guitarist in Lush, a dream-pop band that straddled the dueling scenes of shoegaze and Britpop. The group's buzzy American popularity also won them a prime Lollapalooza tour slot in 1992 — the only female-fronted band — with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and others. But following the tragic September 1996 suicide of drummer Chris Aclund, a frayed and grieving Lush fell apart. While a brief reunion in 2015-16 excited Lush fans, it revealed irreparable fissures for the band itself.

But Berenyi, who had changed career paths entirely by becoming an editor following Lush's demise in the late '90s, didn't want to step away from music again. She formed Piroshka with her longtime partner Moose McKillop, Modern English's Michael Conroy, and former Elastica drummer Justin Welch (who had joined the Lush reunion). That band released two albums on Bella Union — 2019's Brickbat and 2021's Love Drips and Gathers. In 2024, Berenyi released a new single, "Vertigo," as the Miki Berenyi Trio (MB3) which has toured extensively this year in the UK, Europe, and North America — and they have their sights on a debut album.

However, it's Berenyi's decision to write Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success that has thrown open another door. That debut landed Berenyi on "best-of" and "book of the year" lists for Rough Trade, Rolling Stone UK, Mojo, the Sunday Times and other publications. Most satisfying of all, it gave Berenyi, a thoughtful and adroit writer, the chance to tell her powerful, sometimes heartbreaking, but always ferociously fascinating story.

Following MB3's New York show at Webster Hall in June, Berenyi came up to FUV for our conversation, touching on her complicated childhood, her experiences in Lush and the music industry of the '90s, the evolution of her memoir, and the future of the Miki Berenyi Trio. She also chose a handful of songs from Lush and Piroshka too.

[Recorded: 6/10/24; Engineered by Kathryn Scherman and Simone Yañez; produced by Kara Manning. Songs have been edited for the archive.]