Band Interview: Bear Witness
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are very pleased to bring you an interview with alternative rock band, Bear Witness!
1. How did you get started as a band?
The band was initially formed in 2014 by Matt and Alex. There have been a number of line-up changes over the years, the current line-up formed in October 2017 when Liam joined the band.
2. How would you describe your sound?
The phrase we commonly use to describe our music is ‘beautiful noise’. We make sure that each song is built around a strong melody that listeners can’t forget. That being said, we are all partial to heavy distorted guitar riffs. So, by combining the beautiful melodies with more powerful rock aspects, we arrive at our very own ‘beautiful noise’. In essence, we are an alternative rock band, but beautiful noise has a much nicer ring to it.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?
We have quite a varied list of influences, we all listen to different things and that really colours the sound in a nice way. To name a few: Nirvana, Muse, Queens of The Stone Age, Nothing But Thieves, Prince, Highly Suspect, Twenty One Pilots, Michael Jackson, The Weeknd, Jeff Buckley, Kings of Leon, Jack White, The Police, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, the list goes on and on!
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
It’s a bit of double edged sword really. It is helpful in the sense that is now easy to get your music out there, but this also means that there is a lot of great music on YouTube and streaming services so it can be very difficult to stand out and be heard. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that we have to spend a lot of time coming up with creative ways to promote the band and stand out. I think that will be reflected in the music video we are set to release in January.
5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
When we aren’t making music a lot of our time is spent doing other activities which come with being an independent band such as working on promotion plans and networking. Aside from this, we also enjoy playing video games. Alex and I actually met through a mutual interest in dinosaur fossils so you could say that fossil collecting is one of the more peculiar interests within the band. I’m particularly fond of my Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus tooth which dates back to the Cretaceous period and was found in Morroco.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
We are currently near the end of recording our second EP which we plan to release in 2019. Also, we just finished shooting a music video for our next single ‘Perfect Living’ which will be released on 18th January. We will be gigging continuously throughout the coming year and are planning a run of shows to support the release of the EP.
We’d like to thank Bear Witness for taking the time to speak with us. Head over to their website where you can find out more and links to their music and social media.
