The Restless Dreams of Youth is Tamar Berk’s first solo record. Her music has been compared to that of Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield. You could also compare her sound to that of Gretchen’s Wheel.

Beautiful, thoughtful Indie Pop that sometimes jumps up to dance.

Sweet Sweet Music spoke to Tamar about how The Restless Dreams of Youth came about.

What was the moment you knew you were on to something?

I was in my little basement home studio in Chicago and I sat down and wrote and recorded a demo of Shadow Clues. I liked the song and felt that it had some cool imagery and was different from many of the songs I tend to write. I felt that it tapped into something very honest and that’s when I thought that maybe I could put together a solo album.

How did this record come together?

Once I decided that at some point I would be putting something out, it was a matter of writing the other songs, finding the demos that I wanted to rework, and starting recording them by myself in my studio. After I felt like I had a collection of songs that told the story I wanted, I found some incredible musicians in San Diego and we started rehearsing the songs to be ready to record in the studio.

But then Covid happened and I had to rethink the whole thing.

So I went back to my demos and reworked them so they had click-tracks and called my friend Matt Walker to play drums on the album. Matt has played with Morrissey, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, and many more and he’s also a composer himself so I knew he would breathe some new life into the songs. He was living in Chicago so we worked over the wire.  

The meaning of success has changed over the years. What would success look like for the new record?

I don’t know if the meaning of success has changed for everyone, but for me it has. I will always want people to love my music, play my music and share my music, and today, I can find my audience and my audience will find me.  That feels like success to me. 

How great is the urge to stay creative?  To keep writing songs and lyrics?

I’ve been writing songs since I was a teen so that urge never goes away. And I think for many when you put something out that you’re proud of, you end up inspiring yourself and feeling more confident in your abilities.