London Records ©
Pete Gooding Management Ltd
pete@petegoodingmanagement.com
kellie@petegoodingmanagement.com

Pacific State are the pitch-perfect combination of singer and songwriter Berri Farley and writer/producer Simon Marlin. 

The duo’s debut release ‘Coming Home’ is the first blossoming of this new musical relationship, and has been instantly snapped up by London Records. The song will also feature on the 20th anniversary edition of Café Mambo’s influential, critically-acclaimed compilations. 

‘Coming Home’ is an irresistible collision of dusty soul, the horns from Glenn Campbell’s ever-classic Wichita Lineman, and Farley’s powerful soul vocals. It’s one big, life-affirming record that’s odds-on favourite to soundtrack the summer, and which sounds like the closing minutes of the best day ever – or the opening moments of the best night on earth. 

The pair met after Marlin sent out a demo of a song he’d been working on. He knew it was gold but hadn’t found the right singer. When Farley heard it, the words and melodies came instantly, as if someone had sent them along with the music. They headed down to Marlin & Reich's West London studio bunker and the results blew them both away. The music has cemented a musical partnership full of Motown soul and Rudimental spark that channels the best of their individual musical and life experiences. Now they’re ready to share the music with the world. 

Berri Farley grew up in deepest south east London, listening to her parents’ Northern Soul records. A few eventful years later she took herself out of the rat-race to develop her music, living with her folks on a sleepy Balearic island. 

The experience gave her time to hone her skills as a writer and singer. She began singing in local jazz and blues bars and on the mainland in Barcelona. Performing classic songs by greats like Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald – and a stripped-down version of ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ – gave her the confidence to flex her lush, multi-toned voice and to experiment, writing lyrics on the spot. She’d bank the good phrases, go home to her parents’ house, and turn them into gorgeous, resonant songs and melodies that mined the always-honest sweet spot between happy and sad.

The one-time b-boy and man behind Shapeshifters has spent the decade since their hits ‘Lola’s Theme’ 'Back to Basics' & 'Incredible' making music that straddled the cult and the popular, DJing across the world playing influential Ibiza spots like Pacha and Café Mambo. His long-term technical partner and fellow Shapeshifter Max Reich is on hand to help out with Pacific State production whilst Marlin and Farley write the songs and perform them live on stage. 

They’ve now got an album’s worth of material, ranging from the instantly-memorable single to their summer festival dead cert ‘A Little Louder’. The music spans a range of tempos and styles but it’s all joined together by a love of classic songs, of soul and funk, and of music that moves you – in both senses of the word: ‘the bastard child of Adele and Massive Attack’. 

And the band name? It references the eponymous classic rave track from 808 State but it also encompasses the American music the pair love, from Crosby, Stills and Nash to Sly and the Family Stone: “It’s 808 folk,” says Marlin with a grin. 

Welcome Pacific State, here to take you through the summer and beyond. 



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