You can’t keep a good band down. That’s why Boy & Bear came off 2014’s punishing, touring schedule and almost straight into the studio to record their latest album, ‘Limit Of Love’.
“We’ve spent the last two years working on ideas and little sketches for songs, and not really finishing anything because we were busy touring,” explains guitarist, Killian Gavin.
“So when it came around to the start of February we got back together and we’ve just been writing the whole time. Then we spent six weeks overseas recording the record.”
Their third studio album, ‘Limit Of Love’, sees Boy & Bear build on the songcraft of their sophomore release, ‘Harlequin Dream’.
“I think we’ve been better at playing live than making records our whole career.”
Despite the massive success of that record, Killian says the band had never found a recording process that suited the sonic personality of Boy & Bear. “We felt like we never really found a process that made a lot of sense to us in terms of recording an album; it was something we’ve tried different ways of doing it but never quite found something that naturally made sense to us.
“One thing we did want to do was really capture what the band does live, on a record and that again was something we felt we hadn’t nailed yet. So we pretty much went looking for producers who work hard at capturing bands live and creating something that is a really live sounding record that has a lot of personality and that actually reflects the people in the band, as opposed to sounding like everything else out there.”
Killian says they found their unicorn in English producer Ethan Johns, who has worked with artists like Kings Of Leon and Kaiser Chiefs. “Ethan was one of a number of producers we spoke to and met and we met-up with him in the middle of a tour at the end of last year.
“We chatted about the process and how to do it, and we told him what we were wanting to do which was to recreate what we do live, on a record, and try and get more of our personality on to it, and he spoke about how he likes to record in a completely analogue world, and he likes to have next to no overdubs and have all the vocals sung live, everything.”
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Boy & Bear took on the daunting challenge of recording live-to-tape with no overdubs, which meant vocalist Dave Hosking was singing live in the studio with the band. “What we found through the process was by having no editing capability it means nobody can change your performance on the record,” Killian explains.
“You can’t change the sense of groove you’re feeling, or timing, so you have no other result other than literally everybody’s personal performance recorded to tape and that’s it, that’s where it ends; it’s almost finished at that point.”
Without the luxurious safety-net of on-the-spot digital editing, Boy & Bear found themselves relying heavily on their individual musicianship and cohesion as a well-honed live unit. “It was exciting because we had to work really hard to get our parts right, you can’t go ‘alright we’ll just overdub that part later’; there’s none of that because it doesn’t exist.
“So you had to work hard at the start to get the part right and then you had to almost accept the vulnerability that comes with that, which is maybe you had a couple of fuck-ups here and there but that’s part of the process.”
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The quest to capture the ‘live’ sound of Boy & Bear has been an ongoing pursuit for the band stemming from their combined love for the warmth of classic, analogue recordings. “I think there’s something in the process of recording the band in an old-school way that you get a certain result and all those classic records were recorded in the same way.
“Not that I’m saying we’ve achieved anything on par with any of those, but I feel like it made sense to us to do a process like that because that’s what we like listening to.
“Dare I say, I think we’ve been better at playing live than making records our whole career, that’s sort of the way I view it internally, I don’t know if that’s the result externally. I’m not in an objective position, but I feel like we’ve always been better playing live than recording, which is why we were on this never-ending goal to capture a live band and try to make a record that way.”
While last year’s rigorous tour circuit brought the band close to burn-out, Killian found the constant performing night after night, sometimes to only a handful of people, was the perfect preparation for recording ‘Limit Of Love’. “Particularly last year having played so many shows, the band was probably playing tighter than we’ve ever played before, and more sort of together.
“So when it came to making this record, it actually made the process quite easy. We sort of slipped into our own pocket and our own groove and found our own place where we were really comfortable.”
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With Boy & Bear set to tour nationally for the first time in 18 months in January and February, 2016, audiences will see the band flex their musical muscles to bring a little bit of Boy & Bear magic to a number of covers. “We’ve been toying with the idea of getting a bunch of cover songs up and ready so we can, on the night if we feel like it, just throw one into the mix. I’m not sure if we’re going to get the time to do it but I think that’s what we’re aiming to do.
“Just the other day we were jamming for fun ‘Sweet Thing’ by Van Morrison which will be a bit of fun, and then we sort of started jamming a song, ‘Dirty Rain’ by Ryan Adams. We’re trying to get a whole bunch of things so every night we can throw a different song in the mix, keep it fresh.”
‘Limit Of Love’ is out now.
Boy & Bear Tour Dates
Fri 22 Jan - Odeon Theatre (Hobart)Sat 23 Jan - Festival Hall (Melbourne)
Fri 29 Jan - Thebarton Theatre (Adelaide)
Sat 30 Jan - Red Hill Auditorium (Perth)
Fri 12 Feb - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)
Sat 13 Feb - The Riverstage (Brisbane)
