ABOUT | BERRIED ALIVE MUSIC

Berried Alive clothing is bright and playful, and best exemplified by its ever-popular strawberry and crossbones design. It’s an upscale streetwear line reminiscent of Supreme, but it’s aligned closely with Charles and Kaylie’s sweetly warped minds.

The couple create together fluidly with each having input in songwriting, clothing design, and product lines. Charles produces, mixes, and masters Berried Alive’s music, freeing the brand and band’s budget up for clothing, immersive videos, and future offerings. Kaylie contributes lyrics, clothing designs, occasional basslines, and together they brainstorm marketing concepts.

The fantastical world of Berried Alive dates back to something of humble but fairytale-ish beginnings. Charles and Kaylie met in first grade, but didn’t start dating until high school. Early on in their relationship, Charles noticed Kaylie’s gift and aptitude for fashion as she had drawings of models and clothing designs strewn around her room.

At the time, Charles was a tech-metal guitar wizard playing in bands and touring, but he was evolving into a solitary artist, moving away from the drama and the grind of being in a rock band. The musical entity known as Berried Alive was something of a side project named after a suggestion by Kaylie. “It was a sort of a play and pun on all the dark names in the metal community at the time,” she recalls. The pair’s aesthetics eventually merged, and the couple sought to develop a unique merchandise line that went beyond band tees. This became Berried Alive’s clothing line.

To date, Berried Alive has become a self-sustaining business propelled by the marketing savvy of two individuals who had a vision and the hard work to pursue it. All of their success has been based on instincts and following their artistic vision. “We consider it a major achievement to be able to fulfill our dreams without having to go the traditional route of having a record label and touring,” Kaylie says. Adds Charles: “It’s so meaningful we can do this together, and so special it’s become a full-time job. We’re very grateful.”

Berried Alive is a carefully curated world of adventurous music and multi-sensory goodies including, most recently, a beer partnership. In marketing speak, the company is a whimsical and colorful lifestyle brand with an ever-expanding menu of commercial offerings. But the founding duo—husband and wife, Charles Caswell and Kaylie Caswell—aren’t so calculated. For them, behind the genre-defying music, playful but upscale clothing, and clever marketing ideas is simply a freewheeling artistic dialogue.

“We are something you can listen to, something you can wear, and, now, something you can taste,” Charles says with a good-natured laugh. “We want to offer something creative for all senses,” Kaylie adds.

Berried Alive’s artistic continuum began in 2012 as a music venture. Since then, the project has prolifically released records and singles. To date, the Berried Alive catalog spans 6 studio albums, each paired with an instrumental compendium, and over 30 singles. The music is best described as EDM-pop with elements of trap, hard rock, metal, hip-hop, and avant-garde. The band’s fearless and infectious songs, dazzling musicianship, and theatrical flair have attracted 9.5 million YouTube views and over 120,000 Spotify listeners. Berried Alive songs have also attracted fan-shares by such notable modern icons as Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates, and Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee.

Select flavor samples from the band’s recently-released album, The Mixgrape, include “Strawberry Serenity,” “Heavy Blanket,” “Blood Orange,” and “Starfishman.” The track, “Strawberry Serenity,” is an EDM-pop swirl with ethereal musicality, delicate vocals, ribbons of dexterous melodic guitar lines, and reflective lyrics from Kaylie. The haunting, “Heavy Blanket,” is a genre-smashing patchwork that threads together eerie atmospheric passages, infectious electro-pop, and chunks of brutal metal. The playful but pointed, “Blood Orange,” is coated in electronic griminess and features solo guitar passages that are as jaw-dropping as they are gorgeously lyrical. The frisky, “Starfishman,” is lighthearted lyrically and buoyed by an infectious hip-hop production aesthetic.