Garnering attention for their infectious energy and DIY ethos, Bears in Trees are capturing inter-generational audiences with their deceptively upbeat, chirpy tunes and social media prowess. Off the back of their US tour and ahead of their slot at Reading and Leeds, there’s no other logical place to slot in a gig than Bootleg. Drummer George Berry chats ahead of their gig on 20th August, with support from Tiny Umbrellas. Tickets here.
Tell us a bit about the band?
Bears in Trees have been going for nearly 10 years, starting out in college. We were pretty terrible when we started but refused to give up and slowly people started to find us online and turning up to our south London shows. Today, we are still just four friends refusing to stop playing music but now we have 1000s of people that actually care about what we do, which we will ALWAYS be so grateful for, and in turn we hope to create a space for anyone to come and enjoy music and who they are.
Who are your musical influences?
As a band we come from four very different musical backgrounds. Between us all we take inspiration from emo, pop, indie, classical, folk, electronic, and probably a lot more, and somehow make something that fits in between all these genres and (we think) sounds somewhat listenable! The only bands that we all agree on are The Wombats and Walk The Moon.
It’s been three years between your last album and your latest release How to Build an Ocean: Instructions. What was different in the process with this album in comparison to the last album?
For How to Build an Ocean: Instructions, we took a very long time to get back into the writing process and went through a lot of difficulties with record labels. We decided to go back to self releasing and teamed up with the amazing George Perks who helped us record and produce this album. We were able to live in at Vada studio for two weeks to fully immerse ourselves in the album and create a project that we are insanely proud of.
How is it touring North America as an independent artist – pros and cons?
One of the biggest pros is ending up in some pretty different or strange or amazing places that you would otherwise never have visited. Cons, we once finished a show and drove straight for 22 hours sleeping in the back of a van!
What can we expect from your Bootleg show?
No Bears in Trees show is ever the same so even we don’t know what to expect! But we can promise high energy, inclusive and welcoming fans, synchronised dancing and Callum running around the room with a wireless mic!
Our show at bootleg is part of our Seaside tour, where we are only doing shows in seaside towns. So you can expect a lot of beach and seaside references in songs too.
Is there anything else you want to check out while you’re here?
We’ve never been to Blackpool before so honestly we’re just very excited to be there, we’d love some recommendations too!
Check out Blackpool Social Club’s listings for that!
Bootleg turns 10 this year, what do independent venues mean to you as a band?
Firstly, happy birthday Bootleg! Independent venues are so important to both us and the music industry as a whole. They’re such a vital part of any artist coming up in the world and without them no one would ever have a chance to perform other than major artists. We love playing shows in independent venues, each has something unique about it and some of our best shows have been because of this.
Bears in Trees play Bootleg on 20th August. Buy tickets here.
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