Bear in Heaven

Even after losing bassist James Elliott to School of Seven Bells, the Brooklyn four-piece known as Bear in Heaven is still a promising  act in the country. Their experimental pop/rock textures stunned even on their debum, Red Bloom of the Boom. But it’s their follow-up, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, that has critics applauding and people talking.

From the thunderous spine of “Beast in Peace” to the inventive synth on “Lovesick Teenagers,” every song on BRFM deserves your attention. Better yet, our goal became talking about the album to the creators themselves. In this latest SSv feature, the four members of Bear in Heaven sat down with editor Matt Conner to talk more about the changes within the band and, of course, to take stabs at former band members.

SSv: I want to go back to Red Bloom for a second. I’m wondering where you all were at musically and where you wanted to go next?

Jon Philpot: When that ended, I knew that we all should get somewhere that we were happy and also that our audience was happy. It seemed like we wrote that record and that it was a little far out for people perhaps. But we’re happy now. We were also happy then, but we were happier now.

Sadek Bazarra: I would say that we were at a stage in our progression when that album was done and we started to get into the next album, there were some transitions in the band line-up and we also changed our technical set-up. I think we bought a few new synths after that album and reworked some of our technical stuff, so our process was refined a bit between the two albums. That in some ways contributed to the difference in part. We haven’t talked about that too much.

Jon: Yeah, James Elliot was in the band for Red Bloom in the Boom and then he left after that.

SSv: Yeah, I knew that.

Jon: Yeah, now he just looks like Robin Thicke. I think he’s trying to be a Robin Thicke impersonator.

Sadek: Oh, my god, don’t put that in there. [Laughs]

All: [Laugh]

Sadek: You can quote Jon on that, not me. [Laughs]

Adam Wills: There’s also the fact that when Red Bloom was wrapping up, only three of the songs on the new album weren’t in existence to some degree. We were playing different versions of those songs lives, so we weren’t too far off from where we’re at now.

Joe Stickney: Yeah, it took us a really long time to get Red Bloom of the Boom out, so by the time it was out, we weren’t even playing those songs live anymore. We’d all sort of moved on to different things before we had that record. When it came out, we even had to relearn those songs because it didn’t make any sense to not play them live since we put the CD out. So we’ve just now caught up to where we’ll be writing music and then putting it out at the same time. We’ve just now caught up to ourselves.

SSv: With the changes that Sadek mentioned, what’s the most significant for the band?

Jon: Well, obviously going from the five-piece to a four-piece was a significant change.

Sadek: Yeah, that was really significant because James was playing bass at that time. When he left, we were playing a lot of songs and we had to remap and refigure how to accommodate that bass. So in the process, some of the bass went to Jon’s keyboards. Some of them went to Adam. Then I started playing bass on others, so it all shuffled around a good bit.

Jon: It also simplified us a little bit more. So that’s nice.

Sadek: Agreed.

SSv: Joe mentioned you had to catch up to the music, but can you explain that out a bit further?

Jon: Yeah, for the entire time we’ve been together, we’ve been writing music and then recording music and by the time whatever we’d recorded came out, we’d already gone to a whole other level or game with new structure and new gear sometimes. [Laughs]

So we finally caught up with ourselves, so now we can go into a record right. We’ve been recording our rehearsals for the past five years, so we do have a bunch of sketches, a bunch of stuff that we can go back and look on and stuff, but for the first time I think we’ll be able to record a record that’s where we are at in that moment and then we’ll be in that similar place when the record is done.

SSv: The reviews of the record are very strong in the early going, so how proud of this album were you when you were finishing it up?

Adam: I think that we knew that we busted our ass on the record. Of course, it’s impossible to be objective about something you’re so involved in. But at the same time, we all knew collectively that we’d made a good record. I don’t know. We’re still leery of how people will accept it, but other people’s interpretations are mostly just fun for us.

Sometimes I’m like, ‘Wow, what the hell are they talking about on that one?’ Or sometimes, people nail it on the head. It’s just fun to hear someone’s take on things. Of course, there are some reference points just regurgitated from review to review to review. Then again, there are other fresh perspectives out there that shock us sometimes. For example, someone on Twitter compared us to [Giorgio] Moroder meets Toto. I was like, ‘Holy shit, that is the fucking perfect comparison.’ [Laughs] So that’s my take. It’s just fun to hear everyone take it on good or bad, and I personally enjoy the bad ones the most.

Sadek: For me, I don’t know if the outside perspectives change how I feel about the album as a whole, but it is reassuring. It’s nice to know it’s been received fairly well. I think that’s a good word in answering that question – just that reassurance, at least on my part. That’s a nice feeling to have.

SSv: With the state of things in the industry, are you nervous about trying to make it in this climate?

Jon: I think it’s neat that we’re in a position of growth, whereas the rest of the world is in a position of decline. It is odd. Our record label was saying the same thing the other day. They said, ‘Well, the label is growing, our band is growing.’ We’re actually doing the exactly opposite, so it’s kind of neat. Certainly there are tough times now economically, even for us, and it’s just a hard time for everybody. But we’re going to bust our ass to try to make something worthy of it regardless of that.

Adam: To add on to that point, we’ve been a band for six years, so to be able to be at a bar and for someone to hear that you’re in a band and ask, ‘What band are you in?’ For six years, I’ve said [deadpan voice], ‘Oh, we’re called Bear in Heaven. You’ve never heard of it.’ Now, 40 percent of the time, you hear, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of you guys.’ That alone is the most fucking exciting thing in the world to me. It’s some justification. I don’t care if they’ve heard it or like it or don’t like it, just the fact that they’ve heard the name finally is reassuring as Sadek said. That’s how easy we are. [Laughs]

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3. The Antlers

Tagged as: Brooklyn

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