Berg and I

Berg and I

Z Berg

The seventh track on Get Z to a Nunnery, “Berg and I” is based on the short philosophical story Borges and I by writer Jorge Luis Borges. The song follows a similar narrative to the story, with both focusing on the idea of the artist having two distinct ‘selves’: the inner private self and the persona taken on when interacting with the world, particularly when creating art.

In a 2020 interview, Z Berg explained:

“Berg and I” is based on a Borges short story called Borges and I. It’s a beautiful and super psychedelic short story that you should look up if you haven’t read it. […] It’s kind of an examination of the self as ‘self’ and the self as ‘other’, particularly as an artist and as the version of yourself that you create as the artist, and what he likes and who he is, and then this other sort of shadow person that follows you. But it’s also about getting fucking blackout wasted all the time and doing terrible things and being like, “Did I actually do this? Does this count? Am I a terrible person? Who exactly am I?”.