Interview with Bears In Trees

Interview with Bears In Trees - discussing genre, meal deals and TikTok

I’ve recently been lucky enough to interview the indie-emo-folk-punk self-proclaimed ‘dirtbag boyband’ Bears In Trees, a band I came across on TikTok and was instantly enamoured by their lighthearted approach to their music. Consisting of Callum on vocals, ukulele and keys, Iain on vocals and bass, Nick on guitar and George on drums the band has a fairly unique blend of sounds. The first thing that comes to mind in terms of a descriptor is The Front Bottoms meets Frank Turner meets an acoustic version of The Wonder Years but it’s fairly difficult to pin them down too much. Having been together seriously for 4 years the band currently have 2 studio albums and a handful of EPs and singles - plenty material to dive into and enough to show a good range.

Any songs mentioned in the article will be included in a playlist attached at the bottom of the article alongside the band’s social media links.

Where did the name Bears in Trees come from?

“We were actually stuck without a name for a while and ended up googling ‘how to

name your band’. Google suggested using a band name generator, so we decided to

give it a try. One of the suggestions it came up with was ‘Bears in Submarines’ which

we found super funny. It got the ball rolling and we ended up throwing out other

‘Bears in’ suggestions. At some point, someone said Bears in Trees and I guess we

kinda knew that was the one!”

Who are your biggest influences?

“We all love such different types of music and all of them feed into our songs! As a

band our main influences are:

i. Fall Out Boy

ii. The Front Bottoms

iii. The Wombats

iv. The 1975

v. Walk the Moon

vi. Tik Tok by Kesha (that song, and only that song.)”

I can’t quite draw a line between all of those influences and the band’s work (TikTok is a fantastic song but doesn’t quite come through in the band’s discography) but there are fairly obvious links to The Front Bottoms who arguably are one of the biggest folk-punk bands around. Bears In Trees may not quite have the eccentric festival-fillers just yet that The Wombats have but tracks from the latter’s debut like ‘Little Miss Pipedream Fantasy’ and even elements of their later work like ‘Cheetah Tongue’ can definitely be heard in the band’s work. Songs like ‘Ramblings of a lunatic’ could easily be from an LP by either The 1975 or Walk The Moon, even the lyrics of the song sounding like something Matty Healy would have penned.

What sort of music do you listen to whilst writing/ recording?

“We try to take in songs that we want to emulate, we just kinda write and see what

happens. Sometimes we’ll listen to music on the way home in the car that is similar to

something we’ve written but that’s about it to be honest.”

With so many artists starting to blend genres, do you still think it’s important to have those labels or do you like to just go with whatever?

“Naa genre is dead! We all have so many different musical interests and you can hear

loads of those in our music! Like we don’t sit down and decide we’re going to write a

pop-punk song today, we just write and see what happens!”

The proclamation of genre as a dead concept is fairly easy to draw from listening to the band’s introductory playlist,  jumping from the acoustic folk-filled ‘It Gets Better’ to the very Courteeners-esque banger ‘I Am Cold’. While the group definitely have a firm foot inside the indie and folk worlds, there’s definitely more to them than just these labels.

What effect has the pandemic had on your music? If any?

“It’s been tough like not being able to gig or meet up regularly to rehearse, but we’re

not letting it stop us! We’ve always been a bit of an online band but it gave us time to

work out how TikTok works and that’s going pretty well, becoming our largest social

media following. It’s also given us all a massive appreciation for how lucky we are to

be in [a]  band and we can’t wait to get out playing shows again!”

You have a fairly large following on TikTok, how important do you think social media is for a band in 2020?

“Massive! Especially with lockdown and covid, people are using social media more

than ever and it allows people to get to know us a people and as a band! Really we’re

just trying to create a community and social media allows us to interact and engage

with our fans.”

What’s your karaoke song of choice?

“George – any instrumental song

Nick – Escape (The Pina Colada Song)

Iain – Dancing in the Moonlight

Callum – A Whole New World from Aladdin”

You’ve released 8 songs in 2020, is this leading to anything? Or are you trying to gain some traction?

“Yep so we’ve got one more single to come this year and that will complete the ‘Keep

Me Safe’ era. Keep Me Safe was always meant to be paired with the EP we released

earlier this year ‘I Want To Feel Chaotic’ and we’ve come up with a way to celebrate

this with our new label Counter Intuitive, but you’ll have to wait and see what that is!”

I think ‘I Want to Feel Chaotic’ is currently my favourite of the band’s long-form work, the slightly moodier and more emo-focused tone, especially on songs like ‘Reverberate’ and ‘Cobwebs’. This also is what I’d consider the band to be at their best in terms of lyricism - emotionally consciousness and sensitive without being pretentious or dry and still managing to be catchy and have fantastic melodic flow. Having said that, the singles released since the EP have been promising, such as ‘Seaside’, a more light-hearted and pop-oriented sound with again fantastic lyrics and good hooks.

What song are you all obsessed with at the moment?

“Nick - Mos Thoser by Food House

George – Real Good Life by The Mowglis

Iain – The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie by Colter Wall

Callum – Lost In The Wild by Walk The Moon”

Your latest song Ibuprofen is all about anxiety and mental health, is this something important to you as a group?

“Yeah absolutely! We try not to shy away from topics which might be difficult to talk

about. Writing and performing music helps us with our mental health and hopefully

listening to it can be helpful for someone else”

Not only is ‘Ibuprofen’ a very sincere, honest, non-preachy take on anxiety and a very open account of the issues the band have, it also manages to be one of the band’s catchiest, most well-written and upbeat songs. The chorus builds well throughout the song and has such an endearing and warm feel that means when it keeps cropping up in your head throughout the day it’s welcome rather than annoying.

If you could collaborate on a song with any artist who would it be?

“Iain – Stormzy (South London massive)

Callum – dodie

Nick – One Direction before Zayn left

George – Daft Punk”

How has your music changed from your debut album to now?

“To be honest we’ve all just become better at writing songs. We’ve had more practice,

we’re more experienced and are able to create what we have in our heads in real life!

Don’t get us wrong we still love all our back catalogue but our music now is just a bit

more nuanced!”

I’ve focused a lot on the band’s latest stuff but their early work is often just as good, in fact, their most played on Spotify is one of their first. ‘Good Rhymes For Bad Times’ features just as playful and off-the-wall lyrics as on the more recent tracks, with the same folky and catchy groove. A simple but very effective song, but it does show how the band has progressed to their current point.

Besides your UK Tour (Which is sorely missing Cardiff) do you have any big plans for post-covid?

“Cardiff is kinda near Bristol right?!

Oh man we’re planning so much! We always joke that 2020 is the start of the decade

of the bear so we are mad excited for the next few years! Obviously right now with

the world being in such a mess it so difficult to solidify any plans but we’re writing,

we’re organising more shows and we’re working with our label on even more

exciting things!”

Important one, what’s your go-to meal deal choice?

“Firstly we all agree that Tesco does the best meal deals.

Callum – hoisin duck wrap, cool original Doritos and one of those cold coffee thingys

Iain – humous and falafel wrap, sweet and salted popcorn and a naked green machine

smoothie

George – chicken wrap, hula hoops and water

Nick – tomato and feta cheese pasta, paprika max crisps and a naked green machine

smoothie”

Finally, do you have anything else coming out in the near future to look out for?

“Yep! We’ve got the final instalment of Keep Me Safe coming out in December and

we’ve got our socially distanced Southampton show in February!”

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the band has in store in the future, especially with  the possibility of getting to one of their live shows in 2021. The folk-punk scene is still alive and kicking but looking for a new injection of life into its veins and I firmly believe Bears In Trees could be exactly what the scene (and the wider indie landscape) could need to get it back in the relative mainstream.

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