Project Description
Interview with
JON HART
from
BOY & BEAR
Interviewer – Erika Miegel
.
.
While Indie Folk luminaries Boy & Bear were busy rigging up for a huge US tour, I had a quick chat with keys-man Jon Hart about his artistic influences, career highlights and tale worthy experiences. On the edge of releasing their newest studio album since 2015, “Suck On Light” is building up a lot of anticipation for Folk lovers and music enthusiasts alike.
.
.
.
Lets talk about your major influences when you were growing up. Who did you look up to and who influenced you when you became more serious about music?
Mom and Dad had a collection of a lot of Simon and Garfunkel records. I remember them having a bunch of artist’s records when I was younger. There was that ‘We Are The World’ record. I really dug that one as a kid. Then there was some John Denver. I think there was Crosby, Stills, Nash and maybe even some Neil Young as well. So I guess it was kind of that more funky-ish feeling. And then the classic pop like The Eagles as well, I definitely liked that stuff when I was a kid, then you become a teenager and you try to develop your own taste. I didn’t necessarily think that stuff was cool when I was in high school. I was a 90’s high school guy. You know it was sort of like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden. That real grunge era, I rarely ever listen to anything like that anymore, whereas I definitely listen to the things that I checked out as a kid. It’s funny how you kind of go around with things.
Since the beginning of Boy & Bear when you guys formed in 2009, what has been your major highlights and successes, and how have they shaped the band?
It’s funny, you sort of go through different phases. I remember when we first played Splendor In The Grass that seemed like a crazy thing. I mean the first headline show seemed like a crazy thing, in Sydney. We’ve all been in other bands before Boy & Bear where your almost begging your friends and family to come along so that maybe they will buy a few drinks, and the pub lets you have another show. But then to have people you don’t know there wanting to come along and hear the songs, that was really cool at the time.
We won a bunch of Aria Awards in 2011. That was one of those things that you almost enjoy it after the fact because at the time you are so overwhelmed by it all, at the time you keep thinking “oh no, no this is weird. Oh we got one now, that was really lucky.” And then we won five. I don’t think that really sunk in for a number of years. And when we played the main stage at Splendor, that again felt like a really big thing for us.
You have a new album coming out later this month, “Suck On Light.” Can you tell us about the newest album?
We wrote the songs for Suck on Light over the last couple of years. We came off the road end of 2016 and Dave, our singer, hadn’t been very well. He had some cognitive issues, which probably relate to an imbalance, or a pretty significant imbalance to his gut bacteria. He was having issues with memory, having issues with physical energy, and things like that. So we took quite a while to get back into the swing of really writing. We went over to Nashville this year in February which is the sixth time we’ve been to Nashville. We recorded our first album there and sort of coincidentally we ended up back there working with a guy whose mainly a music engineer, but we got him to co-produce the new album with us. So we recorded that album in about six weeks in an amazing studio called Southern Ground in Nashville. We start off the American tour in Philadelphia tomorrow night. We’ve just done a few dates in Australia to just get us back out there and give people a little bit of a taste of what’s to come.
Your music has always carried a calming, ethereal tone to it. What can listeners expect to feel from the new album?
It’s hard because I feel like we’re almost the worst people to ask that question because we’re too close to it. Our four albums all sound so different to us. But maybe to the listener the differences are a little bit more subtle. I think we’ve kind of incorporated some elements this time that we’ve not used so much before. Occasionally some electronic percussion sounds, and we dive into the synth world a bit further. Hopefully if you like what we did before, you can still like it now. But I think to us it probably feels like an evolution again.
.
.
Since Boy & Bear have been around, the music industry has changed drastically. How has this effected Boy & Bear as a band?
The trends in the way people listen to music have definitely changed, it’s kind of moved to streaming. When we started people were still buying CDs. Then people started listening by buying and downloading it but now a lot of it is through streaming services. That has changed, but it hasn’t really changed the way we approach things. We still make albums. I know some bands now just kind of release singles, things like that. That’s cool, like whatever works, but we still think about things such as having to order the tracks a certain way to create the right feeling. We’ve really thought about it as a Side A and Side B, as a model. You know virtually imagining turning the record over and going “now Side B starts.”
So, I don’t think its effected the way in which we do things. We’ve noticed even the fashion change. When we started out the”indie folk” thing was kind of en vogue. And it’s definitely moved from there now. So it’s kind of cool that we’ve been able to survive and keep doing what we’re doing, even though we’re not, you know what’s exactly current. So yeah that’s cool.
What can fans expect from your upcoming tour?
We’ll have a few new songs in the set but we’ll be kind of playing a mix of things, I think even from the E.P which came out in 2010, we’ve made four new albums now. So we’re just trying to introduce the new album slowly. But it feels like we’re really back in the groove and we’re playing and singing as well as we ever have, so I’m looking forward to doing it.
What are your most memorable moments from past tours? Any highlights that you feel like you would never forget?
Last summer in the States was really cool, we played Bonnaroo and we saw Father John Misty playing, that was really cool. Just I think what kind of stands out to us is the way things are a different scale in America, than in Australia. So even though we’re a smaller band in America than we are in Australia, you just get exposed to a different level of everything because the size of the American’s festivals are enormous, and so is the organization around it.
We had a really cool thing happen a few years ago where we met Neil Finn because we did a cover of his song. We were in New Zealand and I think we were doing some promo on the radio, and his people heard it, and got in touch, and said Neil wants to meet you. So we went to his studio and met him. He gave us a tour of his studio. Then he came along to the show that night. It wasn’t really fun at the time playing Neil Finn’s song to Neil Finn. I could see him in the room. I was just thinking “Oh God, I hope he doesn’t think we’re butchering this beautiful song he wrote”. But that was really nice sort of thinking back on it. He was a cool guy as well. Yeah, that was a highlight.
.
“Suck On Light” is set to be released on the 27th September.
.
.
BOY & BEAR
HOLD YOUR NERVE
GLOBAL TOUR
Continues
For All Ticketing Information VISIT HERE
North America
Tues Sept 17 | L’Astral, Montreal
Thurs Sept 19 | Opera House, Toronto
Fri Sept 20 | Maxwell’s Concerts & Events, Waterloo
Sat Sept 21 | The Casbah, Hamilton
Mon Sept 23 | Bottom Lounge, Chicago
Tues Sept 24 | Turf Club, Minneapolis
Wed Sept 25 | Garrick Centre, Winnipeg
Fri Sept 27 | The Capitol Music Club, Saskatoon
Sat Sept 28 | The Palace Theatre, Calgary
Sun Sept 29 | Starlite, Edmonton
Tues Oct 1 | Capital Ballroom, Victoria
Wed Oct 2 | Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
Thur Oct 3 | Sunset Tavern, Seattle – NEW SHOW
Fri Oct 4 | Sunset Tavern, Seattle – SOLD OUT
Sat Oct 5 | Aladdin Theater, Portland
Tues Oct 8 | The Independent, San Francisco
Wed Oct 9 | The Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles
Fri Oct 11 | Constellation Room, Santa Ana
Sat Oct 12 | Voodoo Room @ House of Blues, San Diego
.
UK/EU
Wed 5 Feb | De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium
Thur 6 Feb | Tivoli Vrendenburg, Utrecht, Holland
Fri 7 Feb | Doornroosje, Nijmegen, Holland
Sat 8 Feb | Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam, Holland
Tues11 Feb | Les Etoiles, Paris, France
Wed 12 Feb | Luxor, Cologne, Germany
Thur 13 Feb | Knust, Hamburg, Germany
Sat 15 Feb | Lido, Berlin, Germany
Sun 16 Feb | Strom, Munich, Germany
Mon 17 Feb | Magnolia, Milan, Italy,
Tues 18 Feb | Papiersabl, Zurich, Switzerland
Thurs 20 Feb | Gorilla, Manchester, UK
Fri 21 Feb | Glasgow Arts School, Glasgow, UK
Sat 22 Feb | Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK
Mon 24 Feb | Institute 3, Birmingham, UK
Tues 25 Feb | Thekla, Bristol, UK
Wed 26 Feb | Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
.
.
Follow BOY & BEAR
Website | Facebook | Instagram
Twitter | Spotify | Apple Music
.
.
