Boy & Bear
Boy & Bear are back with their third album Limit Of Love which is a ripper and with an Australian tour booked for January it is shaping up to be a massive few months for the band as they tour the UK and Europe before heading home. Tim Hart from the band talked to Across The Ocean about making the album and how proud as punch they are about the end result.
Walk The Line is an awesome first taster from the album hey?
Thanks mate, appreciated!
Has that been the challenge to maintain the momentum from Harlequin’s Dream?
I don’t think it is necessarily a challenge for us, it has been exciting and we love writing records together, we love playing live and we got a chance to do the record quite live which we could challenge ourselves in that sense. It was still a whole lot of fun, I think it must be naivety or something but we don’t tend to think too much about the result but just work as hard as we can to try and write the best music that we can, then cross our fingers and release it.
Each album seems to be a step up but how does the creative process work for the band?
It kinds of shifts and at times we go away or go away together, maybe down the south coast and hire a house basically hanging out and being creative in that space and writing songs together. That was a bit of new thing on this record, usually in the past Dave our singer would bring bare bones of a song, a sketch or an idea then we would work on it from there. Usually it is quite collaborative and we’ll work on it together or we’ll go away and work on some things. That’s how we like to work because there is a pretty healthy respect between the boys and we really enjoy working together.
Do you guys argue particularly when there is a sticking point?
I’ll call it a healthy discussion! It isn’t too bad and everyone is really passionate about the music so there is always back and forth on which direction which should go with a song. I think that’s what generates the result in the end for us. If we didn’t have that or if there is one person’s ideas generating the end result I think it would be a very narrow spectrum. I think we end up with getting a broad result by working collaboratively.
It is good that you have been able to create something new, that isn’t drastically new that will piss of the fans?
The Boy & Bear in this album is just us being continually influenced by the music that we love and that shifts. I think that the one constant is that we listen to classic music and what I would consider to be classic music such The Stones, Beatles, The Who, The Clash, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young and when you listen to a whole of classic music you can’t help but be influenced by it but at the same time you have your own identity and character. Even with Walk The Wire it’s looking to eighties tunes like Joy Division where you’re influenced by slightly different sounds but maintaining the same sort of mode of operation as a band. I’m really stoked that’s what you think because we’re setting out to be creative but it’s never nice when you pips people off and they don’t really like the sound anymore which isolates people. One of the things we like the most is getting out to play live and if we’re playing music that people think is shit then they’re not going to want to come and see us again.
Do you think some artists try too hard to be different?
People do attempt to be different and try to make a statement by shifting but we’ve shifted sounds and it’s like I said because it’s more about what we’re interested in at the moment and the things we were listening to that influenced us. There’s no doubt you have to stay true to yourself as a person and as an artist. That’s what we always try to do and that is the basis of our music.
Did the recording process throw up the usual sorts of challenges or was it fairly cruisy?
The recording process on this album was amazing and one of the best experiences of my life if not the best, my girlfriend would hate me for saying that. Working with Ethan Johns, he is like a hero of mine working with the likes of Kings Of Leon, Laura Marling, Ryan Adams, this guy knows what he is doing and has this sensibility. He loves the sound to be captured live and us getting the chance to play these songs live in the room, all together, at the same time to tape, maybe the one thing we wanted more of in our recordings is that live energy and I think he was able to capture that. The usual challenges of recording to be honest, I don’t know if I’m looking back on it with rose coloured glasses but it wasn’t, it demanded a higher level of performance but it was the perfect time for it as we had just come off the road doing a whole bunch of shows last year. We had done a lot of playing so it was the perfect time to challenge ourselves in that sense. We just loved it!
Ethan sounds like he had a significant role in altering the trajectory of this album?
Absolutely, when you listen to classic albums, sorry to keep harping on about it, like Van Morrison or Neil Young records you try to figure out so much about it. Neil Young is singing out of tune, the guitar might be slightly out of tune or time, the question is what do I love about it? What it comes down to for most people is that they like to hear the humanity in it and the authenticity. These days, and I’m not taking a shot at this, but some records are made to perfect using computers so that it is perfectly in time and vocals are made to perfectly in tune but I reckon you lose a bit of soul. There is a certain style of music that suits those elements and that’s not my thing or Boy & Bear’s thing. We moved a little closer to making a record that was totally us. Harlequin Dream and Moonfire have definitely been that as well but I think a few years on this one was really special to us.
Have the songs evolved much from the demo stage?
Yeah absolutely, we were still writing lyrics in the studio and shifting parts. That was quite an organic process. If you sit there at the start of the record and think about how is all of this going to get done and that there is a mountain of work in front of you and it will never get done, but it does. Even a track like a Thousand Faces, the lyrics and chorus weren’t written until about a half an hour before we recorded the song. We had been working on it for a long time and just fell in to place and the spontaneity we were able to capture was a pretty incredible feeling.
The art work and design for the vinyl looks great doesn’t it?
It is cool hey! It was great and this time we worked with some great art guys who got a hold of my brother Jon and went through a whole bunch of his photos and they came up with a theme from that. They have done such an amazing job and I feel that I can say this because I didn’t do any of the work but I really love the artwork. It is cool and nice to see Johnny’s photos being used in that sense. If I was a punter it is the kind of thing I would want to go out and great, I buy records and probably spend too much money on that kind of thing.
And the video clip! Did the band have a strong role in the development of it?
The producers came to us with the idea and we really liked it because it is a bit tongue and cheek but a bit of a lighter feel. It is something that we haven’t done on a video before and it was a hell of a lot of fun to make. Those sorts of things I feel can be quite arduous and I don’t really like doing videos but we had done a video with these guys before and it was a lot of fun. I’m pretty stoked with it to and it is a bit of a piss take and the people that enjoy that love it and some are a bit confused.
Does it make it hard knowing that you have to invest in things like film clips as another means of promotion?
It all boils down to us being creative and we love being part of creative endeavours. Is it worth making records anymore? There would be people saying that it is not and that is not how we work as a band and we like having the whole package. It is nice to have a video out and to have the artwork done nice. Financially it may not be worth doing vinyl any more but we love that, it is a piece of art that you can collect and love. I guess that has always based our decision making in Boy & Bear and videos is the same thing.
Heading out on a summer tour, was it a strategy to let the album resonate with fans before heading around the country?
I think it was more the timing of it. We have to be over in the UK and Europe, The States and Canada then we wanted to have Christmas with our family because the first opportunity to make it work was the end of January. I think it works well because summer festivals are around New Year so you need to pick your timing. That seemed like the best time when the rooms were available and we didn’t want to go straight off the back of UK and Europe because we wanted to prepare something special for the Australian crowd.
Is there any insight to the set list? Any chance of playing all your albums in their entirety??
It is going to be interesting but I think if we played for three or four hours we might lose a few people but it will be a combo of all the albums. That’s what we’re doing at the moment rehearsing all the new stuff and getting it up and it is exciting where we go from here.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
