Boy & Bear are an Australian indie rock band that formed in 2009. The band has since put out two full length albums and the group, fronted by Dave Hosking, has been equated as Australia’s Mumford & Sons (….the common “&” is pure coincidence). With a sound heavily rooted in choral harmonies and upbeat rhythms, the parallels are easy to see. Their debut released peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart and their sophomore follow up, Harlequin Dream, came out late last summer.
Allston Pudding got a chance to chat with guitarist and co-vocalist Killian Gavin about the process for Harlequin Dream and whether or not people should put their phones away during concerts (ugh).
AP: So where are you all now?
KG: In England, getting used to the cold weather over here. We’ve actually got two more nights here until we play a show so we’re kind of acclimating really. Trying to hit the jetlag on the head before we have to play any shows.
It seems like this tour is quite lengthy.
KG: Yeah, yeah, it’s about three and a half months until we finish in May and then get on back over to Australia. It’s quite a long one.
And this will be the first time you’re visiting some of these places.
KG: It is, we’ve never been to Canada before. Sadly we ‘ve never gotten over there before. The response we’ve been getting from out there is really nice, I’m really excited to go.
Do you have cities and countries on a bucket list to play at?
KG: I’d love to get down to South America. Especially Brazil, but anything like that would be fantastic. We aught to have a conversation with our manager to try and work something out like that.
Before you make it to Boston you’ll be plowing through SXSW and speaking of festivals, I was excited to see you added onto the lineup for Sasquatch this summer!
KG: Yeah, I’m actually really excited about that. I have to be honest, it’s one of those festivals that I don’t know much about. But ever since we were booked on it, it seems like every single person around me knows about it. People coming up to me saying, “wow that’s great you’re on that!” and all I can say is, “yeah, right, I guess so!” So I’ve heard a lot about it now.
You had a record come out last year, Harlequin Dream, what was the process for that album like?
KG: We did it quite a bit differently than the first one. We spread it out across a block of about eight months so we recorded three or four songs, then maybe went out and wrote a bit more until we were ready to record the next few. When we did the first record it was just one long session over just about two months. We didn’t have enough time to look backwards and see if we captured the song correctly. This time we could record and listen back a month or two later and be able to rerecord in the studio if we needed to. It had its pros and its cons.
I’ve read you guys talking about how much more organic this process felt compared to the debut.
KG: It did because last time we were recorded overseas, we recorded in America, in Nashville, actually. It had more intensity to it. We were in a big studio [Blackbird Studio] so all these other factors chipped a way at you a bit and were distracting at times. Versus we were at home, could go sleep in our own beds and then come back to continue recording. We were as relaxed as possible. It didn’t even really feel like we were in a studio, just like we were jamming.
Are the lyrics written solely by Dave?
KG: Mainly it’s Dave. But Tim and I were singers in previous bands but lyrics are such a personal form of expression to tell your own story. It’s one of things that’s hard to let other people get involved with. But with that said, if Dave gets stuck on something that isn’t quite right, he’ll go to Tim to try and work it out. I think that’s part of the beauty of allowing someone to express something that deep.
When you look at live shows are the sets sticking mostly to Harlequin Dream?
KG: It will probably be about half new and half old. It can make it more fun for us because we’ve been playing some of those older songs for a very long time. It’s nice to be able to add a whole bunch of new stuff to your set.
More and more often you see artists telling audience members to put their phones away and things like that, how do you feel about that notion?
KG: You know, it’s not something I feel too strongly about. I know when I go to shows, I keep my phone away because I like to be there in that moment. It’s much more of an experience for me that way.
But it doesn’t really bother me. In all honesty, I think bands that have say a song that is very famous, one big single, will run into fans all recording that one song – and that can ruin the moment very easily. We grew up with a lot of digital stuff in our world so I’m used to it. I will say though it is something you notice on stage. Not necessarily as a distraction, but it can make you feel more vulnerable. But then again…you are standing up on a stage in front of a crowd of people so….*laughs* how much difference can it make?
Boy & Bear will be playing a sold out show tomorrow at The Sinclair hosted by Radio 92.9 supported by Dresses. Check out a video for their hit single “Southern Son” below.