Hunting Bears

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Let’s have a little chat and share a cup of tea with a super-promising folk ensemble from Leeds called Hunting Bears.
Hunting Bears are Jo Holwell, Richard Bennett, Mary-Jane Latimer, Alli Phelps and Reece Jacob.
‘Heavy Tree’ is a great introduction to their music, where the quintet managed to set an atmosphere of amazing harmonies and captivating musical arrangements. ‘Only in My Skin’ is their newest piece of work, and both music videos for their tracks were shot by visual arts collective The Blind Club.

What ice-cream flavour do you like the most?

As summer rolls in we’ve found ourselves eating more & more Cornish clotted cream ice-cream…with strawberries. Yum.

What is your last or upcoming project about?

For the past six months we’ve been working on our e.p, set to be released in Autumn.
I guess most of the songs are about things changing over time. We’re all at an age where we feel old enough to look back, but not wise enough to know where we’re heading, and that theme seems to dominate the songs.
It’s our first release, so these are the songs we started out with…they’re pretty dear to us. It’s a labour of love.

How do you make music? Any specific workflow or methods?

As a relatively new band we’ve dipped our toes in a few methods. Some have worked really well, other’s have failed miserably.
The songs are normally born of a single idea, whether it’s a vocal line, a lyric or an instrumental concept, and that’s brought to everyone else in rehearsals (in our basement) and we build from there. Everyone adds their own touch to each piece.

How do you make a living?

We don’t! Four of the five of us are finishing University this year so it’s a question that’s on everyone’s lips.

How do you feel about people sharing your music?

Sharing’s an integral part of music. We’re at a stage where we want to share our music with as many people as are willing to listen.
However, it is a grey area. There was a website that recently uploaded our music video as a free download without permission, and that kind of appropriation is definitely questionable.
When a lot of people put their time and effort into a creative project, for someone to take all that work and cheapen it is fairly disheartening. Especially when it’s free to watch anyway.

Who was your musical hero(ins) when you were a kid?

As a kid you listen without prejudice to whatever’s thrust in your face. So our taste was, erm, eclectic. Our lead singer, Mary, learnt how to harmonise from ABBA. We seem to have enjoyed everyone from Michael Jackson to Stravinsky to Westlife. They were dark days…

What musical genre do you love but would never make yourself?

Soul. We’re just not cool enough.

Which artists are you following at the moment?

A lot of the vocal harmonies and the whole African rhythm thing of Dirty Projectors is a big influence on us.
Apparently the new Bon Iver album has saxophones on it so can’t wait for that, Iron & Wine did a great job with that feel on their latest record. And, of course, we’re huge fans of Joanna Newsom.

*Heavy Tree*

Times are old, grey in your eyes, grey in your eyes,
And all those days, we’d run for our lives, run for our lives,
Seems to me, we didn’t try, we didn’t try.

You heavy tree,
You endless flame,
You spinning wheel,
You.

The distant lines no eye can see, no eye can see,
Until the rain highlights the seam, highlight the seam,
The cracks we hate are chasing us down, chasing us down.

You heavy tree,
You endless flame,
You spinning wheel,
You

[CHORUS] (You) Heavy tree, weeping willow of the mid-west county,
You endless flame, until I go out and amidst the unseen,
You spinning wheel, weaving the web, leaving the web.

And now the years grow slowly,
Lonely seed finds it’s stem,
Trust in time to pay it’s dues,
Dew that drops helps the living.

[CHORUS]

*Only in My Skin*

I had misplaced the voice that you were given,
Over time it had altered in my head,
Then like the snow you settled slow & even,
And I recalled the places that we’d stepped.

To the West is the town that you grew old in,
Stone-paved streets line the promenade,
I visit now and the wind is blisterin’,
No brass bands playing in the park.

I am told of all the things you conquered,
I was too young to ask you of it then,
And I wish that time was not so callous,
I’d known you well before you reached your end.

Well these days we’re all searching for direction,
And the times do nothing if not sting,
I rest assured that I can have resistance,
For you are here if only in my skin,
For you are here if only in my skin.