Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

Interview: Boy and Bear

It’s strange chatting to a band straight after seeing them up on a festival main-stage. As I sit down with Dave Hosking and Tim Hart of the Aussie folk-rock outfit Boy & Bear, I’m still a little speechless from their incredible performance just minutes earlier.

When we meet at Green Man, Boy & Bear are in the middle of a jam-packed festival season, taking in a country a day on the European leg of their tour. They’re squeezing in two UK shows before heading off to Sweden the next day. “We came straight from Holland last night… I literally haven’t eaten all day!” exclaims Dave as they fill me in on their busy schedule. It’s clear, however, that a hectic life on the road has done nothing to diminish the band’s energy and enthusiasm on stage.

Discussing which songs are their favourites to perform, drummer Tim explains, “You start to learn what works, and if something works it makes it more enjoyable. When a crowd’s responding I think it helps you to enjoy your- self more on stage. We could probably play anything off the new record quite comfortably and feel good about it for that reason.”

Said new record is Harlequin Dream, released in 2013. It certainly lives up to Tim’s description as a crowd-pleaser, moving further into the realms of pop tentatively explored in their de- but Moonfire, with infectious tracks ‘Southern Sun’ and ‘Three Headed Woman’ leading the way. I ask Dave, lead-singer and lyricist, what prompted the change in direction.

“I think when you’re doing this you’ve just got to follow your instincts and do what feels right… In this case, one of the last songs we wrote for the first album was a song called ‘Part Time Believer’ and that definitely drew inspiration from 70s pop-rock.

“We were looking at American bands from that era like Eagles. It felt very natural for us as a band so we fuelled that until the record fell that way.”

Perhaps so much time on the road has contributed to the changing style of the music they’re producing. “It’s really interesting,” Dave comments. “They say where you listen to music really changes your experience of it. I heard someone say that listening to music waiting for a bus is very different to listening to music on a bus. So that’s my philosophical way of seeing it.”

He adds with a chuckle, “I like to listen to the same music when I read a book on tour.” Tim ponders, “For me, the music starts to create a sense of place. I just finished this really long one, so I ended up listening to Sigur Rós for about two weeks straight.” He laughs and turns to Dave, “You wrote ‘Old Town Blues’ in Prague, on a pretty dark day, and that was inspiration wasn’t it? It’s a bit darker…”

Dave pauses to consider this, “Yeah I suppose. Maybe a place will shift your state of mind or where you’re at emotionally, but for me personally, inspiration tends to come from more internal stuff.”

With Moonfire picking up numerous ARIA awards, it’s easy to see why Boy & Bear have achieved such success in their native Australia. It’s not quite clear why their reception here has been more lukewarm.

“We kind of felt like the old stuff, though it did really well in Australia, didn’t do much at all overseas.” Dave muses, “But people know the tracks and it’s cool now, there’s a nice balance… We could definitely compare a London crowd to a Melbourne crowd: both very hard to please…” “But very appreciative” Tim interjects hastily, with a slightly nervous laugh.

Judging by today’s reception to their laid back charisma, Boy & Bear have a firm and loyal contingent of fans here on British soil. Maybe it’s just taken longer for us to catch on to these rockers from down under.

Boy & Bear will play at the O2 Academy Oxford on Sunday 16th November. 

Check out our other content

Most Popular Articles