Bear's Den have shared a short documentary video focussing on the band's lead singer, Andrew Davie, and his trip back to the Scottish village where his family hails from. Watch it first on Gigwise below.
The alternative folk band released their debut album, Islands, last year. One of its tracks, 'Above The Clouds Of Pompei', was nominated for an Ivor Novello award.
Amidst the hectic hype of the past year, Andrew Davie took a camera crew back to the quiet Scottish village in which his parents were married, his grandparents lived, and he used to holiday growing up. It's also where he chose to retreat to while writing Bear's Den's album.
"The first time I came [back] here," he says, "I remember feeling like I needed to get away from London. I wasn't really saying the things I wanted to say, and I don't think I was very happy with where I was at musically. I needed to take some time away, and I think I just found a real sense of identity from being here."
He continues, "To a certain extent you're gonna go a little crazy when you're that isolated. It's part of it. You want to check that stuff out, or I do anyway. I want to know who I am on my own, as well as who I am with people. Write what you know, but you never really fully know yourself."
Watch Bear's Den's travel back to Scotland first on Gigwise below
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The song playing behind Davie is 'Stubborn Beast' - the only song he ended up writing while he was in Scotland. "To me it was a really important breakthrough," he reveals, "and in the process of writing that song, which seems kind of accusatory of someone else, it was very much actually accusatory of myself. I was the person being stubborn and not really seeing things for what they were, and I think it took me spending that time alone to really realise that."
Though this was the only song that was fully formed while Davie was in Scotland, there were many small happenings - a fawn jumping out in front of his car, standing watching the stream rolling by, familial comforts - that ended up inspiring the entire album.
Bear's Den play London's Citadel Festival on 19 July.
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