Bear's Den Third Album Might Be The Most Kanye-influenced Folk-Pop You'll Ever Hear

London's Bear's Den, a folk duo that sounds a bit like Coldplay, Mumford & Sons and Ben Howard chucked together in a blender, are going through a big period of change. While the group's debut, Islands, was mostly based around the plucky sounds of folk-pop, their next effort, Red Earth & Pouring Rain, saw them lightly dipping their toes into the sounds of synth-driven heartland rock. But this creeping, electronic evolution has finally reached full maturity on the bombastic yet vulnerable So That You Might Hear Me, a record born from a rejection of artistic labels, bold instrumental experimentation, and a sincere love for Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.

Speaking to The Music over the phone on an early London morning, lead vocalist and guitarist, Andrew Davie, one half of Bear's Den – with multi-instrumentalist Kevin Jones – couldn't be more stoked for the release of their new album. "We're super proud of it, we're really, really excited," he laughs.

After acquiring their very own creative space, Josiah Booth Studios, next to The Church Studios in north London, the duo decided to hunker down and carefully craft their next album, a move that felt long overdue considering their previous record was written in a three-week span in between touring. 

"Having the studio, having everything plugged in all the time, ready to go, just meant that we could walk in there at 10am and work until ten in the evening. It just felt really fluid, and like, 'What do we wanna hear, how do we wanna hear it, let's just try things and stumble into things without worrying about how we're gonna do it later. 

"Let's just make the music we wanna make.'"

Davie, an avid fan of Albuquerque indie-rockers The Shins, jumped at the opportunity to work with producer Phil Ek, responsible for Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing The Night Away. They recorded So That You Might Hear Me in studios around Seattle. "There was something about his back catalogue that we really liked with bands like The Shins, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse. He makes amazing albums but the band's character never feels like it's clouded by his production. It was a real honour to work with him."

While Bear's Den have never been ones to shy away from a good synth melody, the electronic sounds of Islands really only existed to supplement the folksy finger-picking that lay at the core of their early work. But on So That You Might Hear Me, Davie and Jones have clearly fallen head over heels for the plugged-in world. "For a really long time, acoustic instrumentation was just the most exciting thing in the world to us, and it still can be, but at the same time, I think we both made a couple of purchases that shaped what this album's become. I bought a Prophet-6 synthesiser and I'm just in love with it, I could just explore it forever." 

With a song like Fuel On The Fire coming to life after mucking around with a drum machine, Davie makes no bones about his love for Kanye West's oft-misunderstood masterpiece, 808s & Heartbreak, a record that's been somewhat of a guiding star for him and Jones in the making of their new record. "We've both had a relationship with that album where we just thought it was incredible. It's one of those subtle game-changer albums where people don't realise the impact it's had. The idea of tuned drums or tuned percussion is really cool, and how melodic you can be with a rhythmic instrument is just the coolest thing in the world to us."

Much like Thom Yorke hating his guitar following the release of OK Computer or Tom Waits starting to bang around pots and pans after he decided to become an absolute madman, Davie says that much of the album's new sound was a direct result of instrumental experimentation. "We have an upright piano in the studio and Kev was just naturally playing that a lot more and then I would start writing songs on piano. And I can't really play piano, but any song ideas I had on that felt so different to what I would have written on an acoustic guitar.

"After a while with a guitar, your fingers will naturally play certain chords or naturally go to certain licks, but as soon as you're playing a different instrument it's like you're learning how to songwrite all over again."