 Bear’s Den’s Kevin Jones (L) and Andrew Davie (R) – Credit: Bennie Curnow Following on from the announcement of their highly-anticipated new album ‘Blue Hours’, set for release on May 13th via Communion Records, folk-rock duo Bear’s Den – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – have now returned to deliver the full-length’s powerful title-track. With the pair’s previously unveiled offerings ‘All That You Are’, ‘Spiders’ and ‘Shadows’ continuing their raw and organic routes, the new single ‘Blue Hours’ sees them adopt a more electronic bed, delivering one of the record’s more anthemic cuts. With its driven pace and euphoric textures, their newest effort marks a vibrant moment within their repertoire to date, and gives us a clearer indication of what to expect on this new album. Accompanying the new single is a captivating video created by illustrator and animator Ryan Anderson in his unique visual style. Speaking about the new single, Davie said, “Fundamentally ‘Blue Hours’ is a song about communicating with someone that’s hard to reach. It’s this idea of trying to have a conversation with someone through one-way glass, where they can’t even see you and there’s a real disconnect with how you’re communicating. On one level, it’s also an internal thing, where you’re trying to get through to yourself. “I think the act of writing songs, or even trying to write anything, is the act of trying to communicate, so I think there’s something in that which is interesting.” Produced by regular collaborator Ian Grimble, themes on this new album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main overarching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who has worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.” The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.” Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.” Bear’s Den recently unveiled the poignant and moving short film ‘Spiders & Shadows’, which combines the visuals from their two recent singles. Created by accomplished animator Mawrgan Shaw, the two original videos have been brought together into one beautiful composition to really encapsulate and bring to life some of the core themes of their forthcoming album, and features over 5000 digitally hand-drawn and animated images. While ‘Spiders’ focused on the male character’s struggle with depression, 'Shadows' turns to what his female counterpart is experiencing as she tries to comfort him throughout his ordeal. Watch ‘Spiders & Shadows’ HERE To mark the new single release a new ‘Blue Hours cassette’ is also available to pre-order today, which has been created using stills from the Blue Hours video. This is available alongside the recently announced ‘blueprint edition’ of the album on vinyl and cassette, comprised of a baby blue vinyl in transparent packaging and a cassette with alternative packaging, which are available from the group’s website, alongside a D2C special format personalised vinyl – a strictly limited 500 pressings of a handmade and numbered white label pressings. In addition, there is an exclusive Dinked Edition vinyl – a numbered exclusive format on crystal clear vinyl with an art print which is available to order from the Dinked coalition of indie stores here. The album will also be available as standard vinyl, CD and cassette.
The group has also recently announced details of a full UK, Europe and North America 2022 tour, with tickets available to purchase now from https://www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk/live - including a newly added second date at Brussels Ancienne Belgique on May 10th. The full list of dates are UK & EUROPEAN DATES 23rd April - Oslo - Parkteatret 24th April - Stockholm - Debaser 26th April - Copenhagen - Studie 2 28th April – Berlin - Astra 29th April - Hamburg - Fabrik 1st May - Amsterdam – Paradiso SOLD OUT 2nd May - Amsterdam - Paradiso 5th May - Zurich - Kaufleuten 7th May - Cologne - Carlswerk Victoria 9th May - Brussels - Ancienne Belgique SOLD OUT 10th May - Brussels - Ancienne Belgique EXTRA DATE 17th May - Bristol - O2 Academy 18th May - London - Eventim Apollo 21st May - Dublin - Olympia 22nd May - Manchester - Albert Hall 23rd May - Glasgow - O2 Academy 25th May - Newcastle - Newcastle University 26th May - Birmingham - O2 Institute 27th May - Leeds - Leeds University Stylus NORTH AMERICAN DATES 8th Sept - Dallas, TX - The Studio at The Factory 9th Sept - Austin, TX - Emo's 11th Sep - Nashville, TN - The Basement East 12th Sept - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse 14th Sept - Ardmore, PA - Ardmore Music Hall 15th Sept - New York, NY - Webster Hall 16th Sept - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club 17th Sept - Boston, MA - Royale 20th Sept - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall 21st Sept - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall 23rd Sept - Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater 24th Sept - Iowa City, IA - The Englert Theatre 25th Sept - Kansas City, MO - Knuckleheads Saloon 27th Sep - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater 28th Sept - Salt Lake City, UT - The CommonWealth Room 30th Sept - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre 1st Oct - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre 3rd Oct - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall 5th Oct - Felton, CA - Felton Music Hall 6th Oct - San Francisco, CA - August Hall 8th Oct - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
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