Bears in Trees

Bears in Trees are an English indie rock band from Croydon, South London, England.

The band tend to reject genre labels, preferring to call themselves a 'dirtbag boyband.'

In October 2020, Bears in Trees announced that they had been signed by Boston label Counter Intuitive Records. The band is no longer signed to this label, and released their second album How to Build An Ocean: Instructions independently after rejecting a "major record label deal."

History

Childhood friends Callum Litchfield and Iain Gillespie formed the band in 2014 after the dissolution of their previous project, The November Criminals, which also included Bears in Trees guitarist Nicholas "Nick" Peters.

Musical influences

The band cite Fall Out Boy, The Front Bottoms, Modern Baseball, The Wombats, Walk the Moon, The 1975, Dodie and Cavetown as their main influences, but have also referred to many others on their social media.

Band members

• George Berry – drums, percussion, producer
• Iain Gillespie – vocals, bass guitar, lyrics
• Callum Litchfield – vocals, ukulele, piano
• Nick Peters – guitar and lyrics

Discography

Albums/EPs

Let's Sleep On It (2015)

Bears in Trees released their first collection of songs on 1 September 2015. The band has since removed Let's Sleep On It from all streaming services except Bandcamp and SoundCloud, because they say the album doesn't "accurately reflect [their] sound anymore". The final two songs on the album are listed on Bandcamp as bonus tracks.

Track listing:

Just Five More Minutes (2017)

Bears in Trees released their debut album, Just Five More Minutes, on 14 August 2017.

Bears in Trees call their fans "sandboxes", a reference to the song "The Sandbox One". This has also resulted in the Bears in Trees Discord server being named the Sandbox. "Good Rhymes for Bad Times" was the album's pre-release single.

Track listing:

Bits n' Pieces (2017)

This EP was released on 30 December 2017. Mikey Tree of deafpony provided the guitar on "Alone in the Basement". "Fyaaa" is only available on Bandcamp.

Track listing:

I See Blue (2019)

I See Blue was released on 23 August 2019. This EP once again reflects upon the band's time at university. The song 'I Am Cold' contains repeated references to Catch-22, Peters' favourite book.

Track listing:

I Want To Feel Chaotic (2020)

All the songs on the I Want To Feel Chaotic EP were released individually as singles before the EP's complete release on 5 June 2020. This EP is the band's first release under the Counter Intuitive label. The band refers to this period of single releases as the I Want To Feel Chaotic era. The band have said that this EP is about "coming to terms with the worst parts of your personality—with the things that scare you, with the things that keep you awake at night… with the deaths of your friends, and the slow acceptance that you are deserving of love." "Reverberate" also contains references to Catch-22.

Track listing:

Keep Me Safe (2020)

As with companion EP I Want To Feel Chaotic, the Keep Me Safe EP heralded a new era for Bears in Trees. Each song was released individually as a single before the EP's complete release on 11 December 2020 with Counter Intuitive.

Track listing:

Flower Through Concrete (2021)

Flower Through Concrete was released on 14 May 2021 with Counter Intuitive. The band's first professionally produced music video, for "Fresh Concrete", was directed by Rakesh Jaitly and was released on 17 May 2021.

Track listing:

and everybody else smiled back (2021)

Bears in Trees announced their first studio album under Counter Intuitive Records, and everybody else smiled back, on 16 September 2021. The album was released on 19 November. The lead single, "Great Heights", was also released on 16 September. The next single, "I'm Doing Push Ups", was released on 8 October. The album's third and final single, "Little Cellist", was released on 5 November. Accompanying videos, also directed by Jaitly, were uploaded on 18 September and 9 October, respectively. The "Little Cellist" video was released on 6 November; unlike the band's previous videos, it was directed by Jamie Benyon. It is also their first video not to show the band.

Every Moonbeam, Every Feverdream (2022)

Every Moonbeam, Every Feverdream is an EP that was released on 11 November 2022. The first single, "Kind Love", was released on 7 October 2022, accompanied by a video later that day. The second single, "Doing This Again!", was released on 28 October 2022, also with a video uploaded to YouTube that day. The description of the video mentions that the band opted to record and edit it themselves on a compact camera reminiscent of their earlier music videos, as opposed to the more professional music videos they've had since the release of Fresh Concrete. The EP was inspired by the film Tick, Tick... Boom!. The band described the EP as being about "walks under street lamps and goodbyes and nights spent quiet after days that won't end, moonlight, and those days where you wish you didn't have a body."

Track listing:

before you got here (2023)

before you got here was released on 27 June 2023 as an ep of "reworked songs from their adolescence". This is their only album to be required to be bought to listen to, excluding any Patreon-only songs. Purchasing the album also entered the buyer into a raffle for memorabilia from Bears in Trees past including lifetime tickets, an and everybody else smiled back tour backdrop, and signed lyric sheets among others.

Track listing:

How To Build An Ocean: Instructions (2024)

"Things That Look Like Mistakes" was released on January 24 2024 and is the first single of the band's second studio album How To Build An Ocean: Instructions which was released on 26 April 2024. The final single "We Don't Speak Anymore" was released on 10 April 2024. The album was accompanied by a UK/EU tour with The Happy Fits. The album also marked the band's first appearance in the UK charts reaching a peak position of 20 in the album sales chart aswell as a peak position of 6 in the independent albums chart.

The album title was inspired by the Flights (novel) by Olga Tokarczuk and deals with identity and mapping; mapping of the self and the future.

Track listing:

Singles

"Fly Out To Alaska" (2018)

Bears in Trees recorded the song, released as a single on 8 November 2018, in the AudioHeart Studios in Vienna. The video was also filmed during the band's time in Vienna. Austrian slang is included in a call-and-response section of the song; Nah oida! Leiwand! roughly translates to "hey man! It's cool!"

"Sitting Pretty" (2019)

"Sitting Pretty" was released on 11 February 2019.

"Precipitation" (2022)

"Precipitation" was released on 2 June 2022.

"No Point Pretending (Song for Tour)" (2023)

"No Point Pretending" was released on 7 March 2023, as a collaboration with NOAHFINNCE.

"Cassiopeia" (2023)

“Cassiopeia" was released on 31 August 2023. Its name and album cover refer to the constellation of the same name, Cassiopeia.

"Apathy Is Boring" (2023)

"Apathy Is Boring" was released on September 29, 2023. Its album cover shows the floorplan of a small room, containing a sofa, and a table from above, upon a jagged blue circle. It is presented as a scientific diagram, similar to their previous song, "Cassiopeia". "Cassiopeia" and "Apathy Is Boring" were both released independently, as compared to their other songs, released under Counter Intuitive Records.

"Bart's Bike" (2023)

"Bart's Bike" was released on December 1, 2023. The songs release has been described as an end of an era by the band. This is reflected in the cover art; a collage of photos of the band, spanning across the past eight years.

Tours

UK tours

Bears in Trees had their debut UK tour in mid-2021. The tour was originally due to take place in December 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Bears in Trees have also toured the UK with NOAHFINNCE, and had their second UK tour in February 2022 with support from Lucy Blue, who toured alongside them. Bears in Trees also played a number of festivals in summer 2022, headlining many. They embarked on their third UK tour, "The Moonbeam Tour", in November 2022, with support from Misery Kids and Me Rex. They played "the smallest UK shows [they'll] play in a long time." Bears in Trees opened for You Me at Six on their "Truth Decay Tour" in February 2023, alongside Waterparks and The Maine. On 28 September 2023, Bears in Trees appeared as a "super secret guest" at a headlining show by Good Kid. Bears in trees are currently on a UK/EU tour co-headlining with The Happy Fits visiting Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds Bristol and London on the UK section of the tour, where Bears in trees are headlining. The European leg of the tour, which is being headlined by the Happy Fits, will go to Rotterdam, Ultrecht, Berlin, Hamburg, Köln and Antwerp. Lexie Carroll also supported for the UK tour dates as the opening act.

North American tours

Bears in Trees went on their first US tour in March 2022, when they supported Just Friends. They supported NOAHFINNCE in April 2023.

European tours

The band supported the The Happy Fits on their European tour from 24 April to 10 May 2024. This was be the first time they have toured across Europe. Walking on Rivers also supported for the European tour.

References