NEW ALBUM : Communion Records’ BEAR’S DEN announce new album ‘BLUE HOURS’ + extensive UK, Europe & North America tour

Bear’s Den’s Kevin Jones (L) and Andrew Davie (R) © Bennie Curnow 2022

BEAR’S DEN

ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘BLUE HOURS’

OUT 13th MAY 2022 (VIA COMMUNION RECORDS)

PRE-ORDER HERE

+ EXTENSIVE UK, EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA TOUR SET FOR 2022

Bear’s Den will release their highly-anticipated new album ‘Blue Hours’ on 13th May 2022 (via Communion Records).

The folk-rock duo – made up of Andrew Davie & Kevin Jones – have also announced an extensive tour of the UK, Europe & North America, as well as unveiling the video for a brand new electronic driven track, ‘Spiders’, taken from the forthcoming album. The new video is beautifully illustrated by artist Mawrgan Shaw

“I started writing ‘Spiders’ around the time we left London. In my head, I thought moving would solve lots of problems, like everything will be better-almost like this Neverland vibe,” Davie laughs. “‘Spiders’ is a song dealing with the fact that this absolutely wasn’t the case. I had this vision in my head that I’d be at one with nature, that I’d be calmer – but all the things that were rattling around in my brain before were still there after the move. The song is about the fact you can’t run away from the things that are bothering you.”

 “While making the record we wanted to get across a kind of simmering intensity with the song and the idea of someone trying to keep their s together while wrestling with these darker thoughts and feelings,” furthers Davie. “We wanted to get across a sense of bravery and triumph in saying, ‘sometimes I can’t pull myself out’ of these difficult situations. To celebrate the difficult moments because we all have them. They are a universally shared experience even if it feels sometimes like they’re not and you’re the only one who feels them.”

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.”

Adding more about the new album, which can be pre-ordered here, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”

 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.”

The album will be available on an exclusive signed colour vinyl (transparent blue) format from the group’s website, as well as a D2C special format personalised vinyl – a strictly limited 500 pressings of a handmade and numbered white label pressings.

It will also be available on an independent record store exclusive coloured vinyl, as well as standard vinyl, CD and cassette.

 

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The group has also announced details of a full UK, Europe & North America 2022 tour, with tickets available to purchase now from https://www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk/live

The full list of live dates are; 

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 

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 University

26th May – Birmingham – O2 Institute

27th May – Leeds University Stylus 

 

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 – 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

Bear’s Den – ‘Blue Hours’ album tracklisting;

New Ways

Blue Hours

Frightened Whispers

Gratitude 

Shadows

All That You Are

Spiders

Selective Memories

On Your Side

All The Wrong Places

  

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