By Ed Symkus

Rick Berlin is about to triple dip in the area of major achievements. April 19 marks the release of the Nickel & Dime Band album WTF!?, it is the date of their performance at Brighton Music Hall, and it also marks Berlin’s 80th birthday.

It would be tough to find a story or profile on Rick Berlin that didn’t mention the multiple musical accomplishments of the Jamaica Plain-based singer-composer-pianist. Or at least list the bands he’s fronted over the last half-century. So, for the sake of brevity, let’s just say he started out – in 1973 – with Orchestra Luna, and he’s currently with The Nickel & Dime Band. The self-penned music — that he belts out (or croons) and that his bands play — runs from straight-ahead rock to tender ballads to Broadway-style show tunes to avant-garde classical. The man is a fireball of creativity and, okay, what the hell, a few of his other bands have been: Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rick Berlin THE MOVIE, Rome Is Burning, and The Shelley Winters Project.

Berlin is in the news today because he’s about to triple dip in the area of major achievements. April 19 marks the release of the Nickel & Dime Band album WTF!? and it is the date of their performance at Brighton Music Hall. It also marks one other occasion of importance: Rick Berlin’s 80th birthday. The loquacious Berlin recently sat down with me over lunch to chat about the music in his life.

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The Arts Fuse: When did you first start playing/performing music?

Rick Berlin: I was an inveterate hippie, and I was hitchhiking all over the country, and didn’t really have any place to live. Occasionally there would be a piano sitting around, and I just improvised. It really began when I was an undergrad at Yale. I would drop acid and go to the tower, lock the door, and have all of these filmic visions that I would accompany. Later on, I moved into a house in New Haven that was filled with artists. We got an upright piano from a church. I put tacks on the hammers because it would make a terrible piano sound cool – like a harpsichord. There was a clarinetist and two songwriters in the house. To hear somebody play a song that they’d written, in front of me, blew my mind. So, I started writing. That was when I wrote “Little Sam.”

AF: You’ve written a lot of songs since then. Is it true that you’ve never learned to read music?

Berlin: That’s true. I could sing in choirs and glee clubs by following the notes going up and down, but I don’t know what the changes are. I was trained to do other things – draw and write. But I feel that music is almost a miracle to me. I trust it because I don’t know what I’m doing. But the band always figures it out.

AF: Has songwriting become any easier for you over the years?

Berlin: I’ve probably written about a thousand songs. I’m used to the ebb and the flow. If nothing’s coming, I don’t get upset about it. And then there’s a whole burst. And then there’s nothing. But all I really need is an idea, and there is the song.

AF: What happens when you finish writing a song, then present it to Nickel & Dime?

Berlin: When I write songs, I picture the band I’ve got. This version has been together for about three years. They’re all really strong musicians who have great instantaneous ideas. Sometimes I write songs that I know they wouldn’t go near. But they translate my demos into something that becomes what they are. With previous iterations of Nickel & Dime, they’d learn the songs in a day. For these guys, it was more let’s discover what these songs are, because it took almost four months to learn the 12 songs on the record. We sort of evolved those songs, then we got in the studio, and [producer] Brian Charles took it further. He got great performances out of everyone.

AF: I’m going to name a few songs on the new album that really stood out for me, and I’d like to get your immediate thoughts. I’ll start with “When I Run Out of Words,” because it made me laugh.

Berlin: Laughter is good for your health. I’d heard an Iggy Pop song that had a refrain with nonsense syllables. So, I wanted to write one. I’m a word whore, and I thought it would be kind of a hippie singalong idea. I think when you’re at the beginning of a relationship, you overtalk, hoping that you can defuse any doubt across the table. And that’s usually a mistake, so I liked that about the song.

AF: “I’m a Nobody” is one of your best guitar-driven rockers. It’s also a little creepy.

Berlin: “I’m a Nobody” just popped out of my head. It’s sort of the Steve Bannon thing – the person behind the curtain. Also, in a one-on-one situation, I can have a really great interactive conversation. If there are three or more people, I recede. I just watch. I think most creative people are watching all the time. And what they observe, winds up somewhere. And I like the wah-wah sort of guitar solo.

AF: “Livin’ the Dream” would have fit right in with the ’60s psychedelic scene and the ’70s art rock scene. And, rare for you in a song, it’s kind of political.

Berlin: When I write a rock song, it can often echo the ’70s and ’80s. I like the message in that one because it’s head in the sand versus eyes open. It’s vaguely political, but not really.

AF: I love the fact that “You Take Chances” features only your voice and horns, and I think it’s one of your best vocals.

Berlin: I had that song as a piano demo, but for years I’d always heard it as a brass quartet … and me. I got everyone together, and we did it. And we decided to make it sound like it’s an old 78. So, we did that scratchy thing. I think it sounds honest, yet at the same time it’s kind of a cartoon, with a Betty Boop sort of vibe.

AF: What’s the plan for the Brighton Music Hall show?

Berlin: The opening band is [percussion and vocal ensemble] SheBoom. It’s eight women who are between 65 and 85. They’re fabulous. I also reached out to all my friends in the biz and asked them if they want to do a song or two. They’ll be playing their own songs. If they opt to play one of mine, that’s fine, but I want them to play their own music. Then, some of us will do “Hunger Strikes.” When we finish that song, one of the emcees will introduce me, and I’ll play “Rock ’n Roll Romance” on the piano, with three back-up singers, and Matt from my band on saxophone. Then, we’ll dovetail right into the first Nickel & Dime song.

AF: I can’t leave out the fact that you’ll be doing this show on your 80th birthday. What’s it like being on the stage these days?

Berlin: I love the whole thing. I love rehearsing and writing and recording. I love getting to the gig and figuring it out, if it’s a new place. I love seeing new faces. I don’t like the sight of somebody my age over-performing, so I try to avoid that (laughs). But I’m not sure what that would look like.

The new Nickel & Dime Band album WTF!? is available on Bandcamp. The band performs at Brighton Music Hall on April 19 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $29.

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Ed Symkus is a Boston native and Emerson College graduate. He went to Woodstock, interviewed Chick Corea, Julie Andrews, Joyce Carol Oates, and Al Gore, and has visited the Outer Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands, Anglesey, Mykonos, Nantucket, the Azores, Catalina, Kangaroo Island, Capri, and the Isle of Wight with his wife Lisa.