His heartache, for all to seeWhat do...

His heartache, for all to see

What do breakup songs become, as the heartbreak recedes in the rear-view mirror and time heals the wounds of the jilted?

Greg Laswell is finding out. It’s going on three years since the Long Beach-raised, San Diego-based singer-songwriter wrote the material for his sophomore album, “Through Toledo” (released in July on Vanguard). It’s a heartfelt dissection of the “sudden dissolution” of his five-year marriage.

“After a while, the songs take on a life of their own; they become different things to different people,” says Laswell, who brings his sweeping melodies to the Hotel Cafe every Wednesday this month. “And to me, they become songs of what I was then and am not now.”

That place, like the new batch of songs he has in the works, is “a little bit less tortured,” he says, acknowledging his new music leans toward the observational, a quality well-suited to the storytelling in his amiable live shows.

Not that “Through Toledo” framed him as a sad sack, even as he came to the realization that his ex-wife would be among the listeners. “I feel like I was writing private notes in class and was caught by the teacher and she’s reading them aloud,” he says.

Now Laswell is gaining traction beyond the album with his cover of the Cyndi Lauper hit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which appeared on the season premiere of MTV’s “The Hills.” “It’s funny,” Laswell says, “I played the song live, and the next day my manager called me and said, ‘The next time you rehearse that song, just hit record.’ ”

Finding where he truly belongs

To truly discover his place, the artist known as Berko (born Jake Bercovici) had to leave home. “I had to get out of L.A. and see the rest of the world, so I went on a seven-year musical mission,” he says of his time in Boston and New York, playing as a sideman and exploring hip-hop and drum-and-bass. “Then I came back to L.A., and all of a sudden pop made all the sense in the world.”

A few years later, the 30-year-old multi-instrumentalist is signed to Columbia Records imprint 3E, with a debut album, “Hidden City,” ready for a summer release. It’s full of tricky rhythms and sneaky memories, nodding not just to one of Berko’s heroes, Donald Fagen, but also to artists such as Elvis Costello, XTC and Beck.

He clearly has a lot in his arsenal. “My process is throw everything out there, even the most far-out fusion-jazz 13/11 time signature stuff, and start subtracting,” he says. “You filter all the crazy stuff and you come back to what works.”

Berko credits producer Eric Valentine for his savvy in translating the musician’s demos into a cohesive album. “When I write songs, I just make them all sound like an orchestra,” Berko says. “It was just a free-for-all. But Eric is the most unbelievable combination of left and right brain I’ve ever seen.”

Berko has only recently embarked on the daunting task of mounting his music live. The band he has assembled is playing the Monday night residency this month at Spaceland.

Fast

forward

* Touts: Singer-songwriter Amy Raasch celebrates the release of “Love or Inertia” with a show tonight at the Hotel Cafe.... As some of the up-and-coming acts visit the U.S. for the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, their tours swing through L.A. Included: Swedish chanteuse El Perro del Mar (Tuesday at the Rec Center in Echo Park and Wednesday at the Hotel Cafe), British boy genius Get Cape Wear Cape Fly (Tuesday at the Echo) and electro-pop trio Fujiya & Miyagi (Wednesday at Spaceland).... Other great stuff: Earlimart on Friday at the Getty; a reunited Sebadoh on Friday at the Troubadour and Saturday at Spaceland; and Boston’s Bon Savants (with Menomena) on Saturday at the Echo.... KROQ-FM DJ Rodney Bingenheimer is not only getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he’s also being celebrated in concert -- the Donnas, Redd Kross, the Nymphs and Channel 3 rock for Rodney at the Fonda Theatre on Friday.

-- Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Download Greg Laswell’s cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”: www.mgmnt.com/downloads/greglaswell/girls.mp3

* Download a three-song EP by Berko: www.sonymusic.com/artists/Berko/ep/thanks.html