Grizzly Bears and The Traveling Circus

Posted on 24th May 09 by Rob Cumiskey | 5

While preparing to phone and interview Daniel Rossen, Grizzly Bear’s (GB) singer/songwriter/guitarist, I wasn’t sure what to expect. GB are hailed, along with fellow WARP Records charges, Animal Collective, as being the darlings of Modern Indie. They create music with such intricate beauty and finesse, it’s very easy to see why. Much hyped about, GB’s album Veckatimest is already being touted as one of the year’s finest releases – before it has even hit the stores.

Calling him on Friday afternoon, I found Dan to be sitting down at home in Brooklyn to his morning coffee, in advance of a band rehearsal to prepare for their forthcoming tour. He turned out to be an eloquent yet down to earth fellow.

Dan speaks fondly of his first tour with GB. He had just met Ed Droste, main singer/songwriter and all of sudden he found himself spending two months on the road with him. ‘That’s where I felt I learned about what I could do as a musician’ he muses. ‘Playing to new crowds in different places every night, you really learn how to interact with an audience, and your band mates’.

It was a learning experience that I really enjoyed

He had met Chris Bear and Chris Taylor at NYU while studying music, and will claim that he never planned on playing full time in a four-piece collective.
Ed Droste had just released Grizzly Bear’s first record, Horn of Plenty, and was looking for a band to tour with. Drummer, Chris Bear, recommended that Ed take him on, and the rest is history.

Comparing touring to a traveling circus, Dan finds playing live to be fun and exciting, but he loves writing too. Did he find it difficult coming into a collective with an established songwriter? ‘Sure I did, but it was a learning experience that I really enjoyed.’ He had been writing since his teens (the angsty years he calls them) and brought a lot of his own ideas and sounds to the table when GB went to record their first Long Play as a collective, Yellow House.

What came out of that recording was a realslowburner of an album. One that earned them critical acclaim from New York Magazine and Pitchfork, and set them up for some amazing gigs with Radiohead, TV on the Radio and Feist among others. They’ve had many international TV experiences and have rubbed shoulders with some of the best bands in the world, but Dan cites playing with the LA Philharmonic as being a personal highlight. ‘These were musicians that I had grown up listening to and respecting and it was a humbling and nerve wracking experience to watch them playing before us at a gig.’
Rossen cites having the time between Yellow House and their new album to find their feet as being very important. Because of the slow burning nature of the 2006 LP, GB had more of a chance to develop a fan-base, a sound of their own and get to know each other.

What about their new album then? Veckatimest is named after a small island in Dukes County, Massachusetts. It’s a place that GB spent time rehearsing and they have fond memories of their time there. Dan explains that they had a far more collaborative approach towards song writing this time around. It was also the first time that he had written during the recording process, rather than bringing a set of pre-crafted songs to the table. He had just finished his album with his other musical venture, Department of Eagles, and found it refreshing to arrive at the studio with a clean slate from any older stuff. Engineering duties were again taken on by band member Chris Taylor, but this time, instead of using the one location (Yellow House was recorded in, you guessed it, one of their grandmother’s Yellow House), they used a number of different locations. Namely, a place in Cape Cod, Upstate NY and a church.
Rossen explains that this method suits them perfectly. ‘We would not work in a studio’ he says. ‘We need time and space to achieve progress, in our own convoluted way.’

Grizzly Bear have come on leaps and bounds since their lauded sophomore effort. Veckatimest takes the earnest, baroque style that has stood them well and adds a warmth and immediacy akin to some of Fleet Foxe’s faster stuff, or The Shins more intimate pop.

Southern Point kicks proceedings off with some great acoustic moments, and a driving beat that reminds one of a steam engine. This is a musical journey kicking off. GB understand the art-form of the album and it’s a pleasure to listen to such carefully, crafted music flowing seamlessly from one song to the next.

The band genuinely seem touched that people talk about their music, and are humbled at the good response to the new album

New single Two Weeks is a delight. Two-note piano, and ‘ooooh’ vocals over sporadic drums and bass leads the way for Droste to showcase his otherworldly vocal talents. Fine for Now brings some baroque harmonies together for an intimate slow moving lo-fi treat and About Face takes proceedings up a notch again with a lighter piece of croony pop.

While You Wait for the Others is another stand-out. It’s reminiscent of some of Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief era awkwardly beat-ridden rock. The build up to the chorus here is fantastically engineered, crunchy guitars seeping through the vocal melodies.

I Live With You starts with a sound that could have been released in the twenties. The Coen Brother’s classic O Brother, Where Art Thou comes to mind. It moves into a 50s/60s psychedelic mash-up with powerful, angsty vocals and a wonderful orchestral build-up.

Foreground is a haunting close to a magnificent album with minimal drums, and hypnotic piano, ending our journey with choir vocals that delight and spook in equal measures.

Note must be made of the artwork on the album. Willaim O’Brien‘s wonderful colours fit perfectly in with the palette of sounds and angular style of the album.

What’s most refreshing about this band is their everyman approach. The band genuinely seem touched that people talk about their music, and are humbled at the good response to the new album. They love the fact that they are on a label that boasts acts such as Broadcast, Jamie Lidell and Boards of Canada and are immensely proud of playing with bands like Radiohead. Dan says that he can’t see something like that happening again. They seem like genuine music fans. Dan talks passionately about bands like Dirty Projectors, Micachew and Beach House all getting serious air-time on the bands iPods right now.

So what’s in store over the coming months? ‘I’d love to kick back for a bit in a farmhouse my friends own in up-state New York on 5 acres, and just…be’. They’ll be touring a plenty in August and November, and plan to hit Ireland at some point. ‘Whelans in 2006 was one of our favourite gigs’ he remembers. Will they be back? ‘Most definitely’.

The conversation finishes, at my request, on a discussion about whether a Grizzly Bear or a Polar Bear would win in a fight. Dan argued that Polar Bears are an endangered species and quite angry, but that a Grizzly Bear would most likely triumph due to their ferocity. On the strength of Veckatimest, it’s going to take something a lot bigger than an angry Polar Bear to stop Dan Rossen and Grizzly Bear right now.

Rob Cumiskey runs the music and culture blog Venntertainment.com

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Tags: Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Merriweather Post Pavilion, The Shins, WARP Records