With their highly-anticipated new album ‘Blue Hours’ set for release on May 13th via Communion Records, folk-rock duo Bear’s Den – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – have now unveiled the captivating new video for one of the record’s standout offerings, ‘Spiders’.
Created by accomplished animator Mawrgan Shaw, the new visuals for ‘Spiders’ perfectly accompany the original song’s lovelorn and heartfelt direction. Written during the time when the duo chose to leave London in search of a calmer and more peaceful life, the video highlights the dark and impersonal thoughts that follow you wherever you go, but still elevates the feeling of hope that encourages us all to keep going and moving forward. Watch HERE
Speaking about the new video, Mawgran said, "Working with Bear's Den has been a wonderful experience and to be trusted to create a visual story for Spiders was an honour.” Adding, “The music video for Spiders is entirely hand-drawn and features over 2,000 individual drawings."
The pair has also today launched a new season of their Bear’s Den podcast, which will see the duo exploring the themes around their new album. It is available to stream here.
Produced by regular collaborator Ian Grimble, themes on the new album ‘Blue Hours’ 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 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.
Bear’s Den have recently unveiled details of a full UK, Europe and North America 2022 tour, with tickets available to purchase now from https://www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk/live
The full list of 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 - LAST TICKETS
- 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 - Newcastle University
- 26th May - Birmingham - O2 Institute
- 27th May - Leeds - 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 - The 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
- New Ways
- Blue Hours
- Frightened Whispers
- Gratitude
- Shadows
- All That You Are
- Spiders
- Selective Memories
- On Your Side
- All The Wrong Place