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“Can I have four shots of espresso over ice please?” Grizzly Bear’ singer/songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist Ed Droste's choice of beverage appears to be as beguiling and unconventional as his band’s unique brand of psych-folk. “You ought to try it, it’s really nice,” he reasons almost defensively as Gigwise met up with him and co-vocalist Dan Rossen in London recently. Fresh from there sold out show at London’s Koko both Droste and Rossen appear in fine spirits ahead of their appearance at the Green Man Festival in Wales and a wealth of tour dates throughout the rest of 2009 which will see the band jet back to America play dates before returning in the winter to the UK.
Topics covered during Gigwise’s chat with Grizzly Bear include London which is “lower down, slightly more architecture and a little more claustrophobic” than Brooklyn according to Rossen and the Beach Boys ‘Sloop John B’, (Droste declaring it his least favourite song on Pet Sounds as it reminds him of family singalongs) but it’'s not until the topic of their latest album arises that Droste and Rossen truly open up.
Brooklyn'’s Grizzly Bear have enjoyed an almost meteoric rise to prominence in the UK over the course of 2009. It seems hard to believe that the band’s marvellous Veckatimest album was only released in May considering the critical acclaim from across the board that it was met with. Already strong contenders for album of the year amongst various music aficionados, the four piece’s live performances have also been heralded by the press as revolutionary. Speaking of the album’s unimpeachable reception Droste states, “obviously if it was panned we would be bummed so having a nice review helps to get people to shows to sell records... so it’s obviously very nice and flattering”, before musing further, however, that “it’s not the be all end all, and hurt can make you stronger anyway”.
Co-vocalist Daniel Rossen, like Droste, remains modest, almost to the point of self-deprecation about the plaudits the quartet has been showered with over the three months since Veckatimest was released. Whilst the positive press coverage has allowed the band to play “bigger shows” Rossen admits, “we haven’t done that much in Europe yet so it’s hard know how things have changed.” It'’s almost impossible to imagine how Veckatimest could be received with anything but the acclaim that the album dully deserves. As each of its twelve beautifully crafted vignettes gives way to the next it becomes clear very quickly that Grizzly Bear are band made up of the rarest of things; four prodigiously talented musicians. “Veckatimest was a more natural process, in terms of working together, feeling more comfortable and exchanging ideas”, Droste states regarding the band’s third album before then going onto describe the composition process of material and the band'’s dynamic as “pretty democratic”.
It will come as no surprise to many to learn that of the band’s four members all but Droste (although his mother was a music teacher and his grandfather a professor of music) have an academic grounding in music having studied it at some point in their younger days. Rossen, however, asserts that such an education merely helps the band rather than drives them. “Pretty much all of us studied music when we were teenagers and then stopped. It helps in doing harmony parts and coming up with arrangement of chords... but as far as structure of songs its basically try not to ever think about that and just do whatever feels natural”.
Judging by Veckatimest, not to mention the bands previous two albums, ‘Horn of Plenty’ and ‘Yellow House’, Grizzly Bear are doing exceptional job of doing “whatever feels natural”, and whether it contains a mineral water, beer or four shots of espresso over ice, we should all raise a glass to Grizzly Bear.
