Bear's Den On Making An "Old Oil Drum" Part Of Their Record

Bear's Den are "off the road" at the time of our chat, but multi-instrumentalist Kevin Jones observes being on tour is "a bit like being in the army". "Every second of every day is kinda planned out for you and then suddenly you're sort of jettisoned back into freedom. But also just, like, not sleeping in a moving vehicle and all that stuff just feels weird when you're suddenly stationary."

"They're always evolving and breathing... As long as the sort of fundamental DNA of the song is the same."

Joey Haynes left the band earlier this year, but Jones stresses, "We're still mates with him". Reflecting on the guitarist's departure, he offers, "We came straight off a very long tour and went straight into the studio. I do think we tour a lot and I think he felt that he just wanted to spend time at home." Although "touring is a very exciting thing to do", Jones acknowledges, "It can be psychologically quite punishing as well".  When asked how Haynes' departure shaped their latest album, Jones points out, "We don't just play one instrument so it's not like, you know, 'You play drums and you play bass,' and so if the bass player leaves then you go, 'Oh my god, who's gonna play bass?'... I don't know what it would've come out like sounding if he'd have stayed, but I think that we already knew what we were trying to do so we just sort of continued that process."

Jones believes songs are "never finished" and says of "making a record", "It's actually, like, a record of a certain thing". "At some point you have to go, 'This is where we were at, at this point in time,' like a photograph, and then you move on - you have to at some point." Bear's Den songs morph - "massively" - into different beasts when played live. "With [songs from] the new album, we're already changing chord sequences and all sorts of stuff, 'cause we're like, 'Oh, why didn't we do that in the studio?' So they're always evolving and breathing... As long as the sort of fundamental DNA of the song is the same, then I think that's a really interesting thing." 

A behind-the-scenes peek into Bear's Den recording Red Earth & Pouring Rain also reveals the band utilised the table tennis facilities at Rockfield Studios in Wales. So who's the band's most skilled ping pong player? Jones chuckles, "The answer is probably [Andrew] Davie... he's got great technique, he's got a great smash - you can't really argue with it." When asked whether they play with paddle in one hand, drink in the other, Jones jests, "Isn't that how you play the game? Is there another way of playing it? I think actually I'm better at playing with a drink in my hand." In between hits, an "old oil drum" was found outside the studio. "It sounded amazing and so we thought, 'Well, let's make this part of the record'," Jones explains. This "really cool" discovery made its way onto "half the songs" on their album. "Obviously if you recorded that in a different studio - a different place in time - you would never have that [oil drum] so it becomes, like, site-specific," Jones enthuses.