In the spotlight – Broken Bear
In the spotlight – Broken Bear: Broken Bear are a two-piece female fronted indie guitar garage rock band with a live feel from Epsom (UK), featuring Laura on lead vocals, guitars and drums, and Paul on bass, synths, drums and backing vocals. Their sound is influenced by the likes of Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Half Moon Run, and The Cranberries to name a few.
In september 2022 they released their last three EP’s as one LP, hence the name ‘3 EP LP’. The 3 EP’s in question are ‘Gonna Let It Burn’ (2021) and ‘Voices In The Hurricane’ (2021) and ‘The Void’ (2022) with the single ‘Help Us’ as a bonus. Keep on reading to get to know Broken Bear.
Would you like to start with a brief introduction of the band? How long have you been making music together?
“Hi, we’re Broken Bear. We’re a garage-rock-grunge-indie-shoegaze kinda duo with Laura on lead vocals, guitars and occasionally drums, and Paul on backing vocals, bass and drums. We’ve been making music together for over a decade having formed from the ashes of a four-piece band. Weary from regular gigging, we locked ourselves away in the studio to focus on our sound.”
What do you admire most about each other as people and as musicians?
“We both admire each other’s lack of ego and no BS approach to life and music.”
What sparked your desire to start making music?
Paul: “I always had an interest in music from a really young age and DJ’ed throughout my teens. I started recording bands and ended up writing for a band and then ended up in the band!”
Laura: “Free guitar lessons in primary school got me started. I realised I was a bit of a natural so I carried on and locked myself away playing along to the radio and writing songs.”
What musicians have really been inspiring you all since you first started making music?
Paul: “I was massively into grunge when I was in my teens, so Nirvana were a huge influence. I listened to alot of Prince, Queen, Eagles, Bob Marley, EMF, David Bowie, Carter, 50s rock n roll like Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly when I was younger. Brought up on The Kinks, The Stones, Joe Jackson, Motown and Trojan reggae and more growing up… and a lot of rave music and DNB and a late comer to The Beatles and John Lennon which became a huge factor in songwriting and harmonising. So all sorts really too many to list for sure!”
Laura: “I started off with the worst taste in music you could imagine. All the 90s pop stuff… especially all the boy bands. Alanis Morrisette was probably the first decent musician I got into and, like everyone else, I loved and still love the ‘Jagged Little Pill’ album. I remember watching Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock performance on TV late one night and being blown away by that but his playing seemed a world away from mine, so I am not sure if that was inspiring or not?! I got into more guitar music later in my teens, and listened to alot of Radiohead, Kings of Leon, IAMX, Tracy Chapman, Damien Rice, Nirvana, RHCP… and loads more!”
Did your sound develop naturally over time, or did you push it deliberately in a specific direction?
“Our sound developed naturally over time. We were in a rock-reggae band for a long time, which could be a bit twee, but we’ve gone back to our more natural influences with a darker, grittier, grungier, moodier sound for Broken Bear.”
Where does the band name come from?
“We are broken… bears.”
What song do you feel has been the best song the band has released so far and why?
“‘The Void’. The song felt like it wrote itself and we think it really captures our sound.”
Can you give us a little insight into your songwriting? What inspires you during that process?
“Usually the song starts with a guitar. Laura will jam around until we find some riffs/chords which we find inspiring to write everything else over. If the drums go over the guitar idea easily, we’re usually on to something. Paul often writes the lyrics separately to Laura’s melody ideas or is inspired by one hooky line from Laura which the song is then written around.”
What are you hoping to achieve when you sit down and write a song?
“A better song than the last one!”
Tell us a little bit about a normal day in the studio while recording.
“It’s fairly relaxed. We just jam around ideas and record quick rough versions. We’ll then go back and record properly with more considered ideas and sounds.”
I read you supported Razorlight and Toploader, but who is the one band you would want to tour with?
“We’re big fans of Sam Fender and Half Moon Run so would like to tour with them but we’d probably go down well with Radiohead fans, so we’ll go with them?! Or Raconteurs… just so we could see them every night?? Or maybe Wunderhorse?!”
What is your goal as a band, both short term and long term?
“Short term, have enough of an audience to justify putting out a vinyl record. Long term, get better at what we do and get in more ears!”
To finish, what is one lesson you’ve learned that you think is important to pass onto other bands?
“Ego is the enemy.”
What’s your favourite song from the Cool Top 20 and why?
“No Ninja Am I – ‘Next Time Around’. Big Beatles vibes and interesting chord progressions. Lyrically, tipping their hat to John Lennon and the Stones.”
What song would you like to add as a bonus track and why?
“Wunderhorse – ‘Butterflies’. Absolute tune.”
Broken Bear are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For more info also check their LinkTree.
(Photo credits: Mark Gee at 122 Management.)
