Beer, burgers and bromance: Boy and Bear on the road

TO conquer the world, Australian bands will eat bad food, drink many beers and live in a bus. Boy & Bear reveal their life on the road.

Boy and Bear

AT some point during their American tour, Boy & Bear frontman Dave Hosking began observing his band mates as a psychology experiment.

Like countless bands before them, Boy & Bear were doing the hard slog, playing the gig, leave venue and drive for a couple of hours, sleep for a few hours and then repeat.

“I find it fascinating watching people deteriorate and myself deteriorate,” Hosking says.

“It’s interesting that touring like that can break some bands.”

With 100 gigs behind them and more than 50 in front of them before the end of the year, Boy & Bear are not only match fit on stage but mind fit off stage.

Since the award-winning band released their second album Harlequin Dream a year ago, they have been chasing a global audience.

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Each return trip to a city in America or Europe is rewarded with a gig at a bigger venue, more familiar faces in the crowd and more interest from local media.

And then there are the unexpected signposts that your music has made it out of Australia, small things like hearing it playing in a random cafe you walk into in Copenhagen.

“we have always been ambitious in terms of chasing other territories and maybe that comes from a slight sense of the little man syndrome you can sometimes feel coming from Australia,” Hosking says.

“We want to keep playing overseas and on a broader scale, we are really committed just to getting better at this.

“We have committed to something that doesn’t have an end date.”

In an era where clicks on video and streaming sites are outstripping sales charts as a barometer of pop success, rock bands rely on the tried and true measure of ticket sales.

Bums on seats, lines at the bar, the heat rising from the front rows or the moshpit, depending on the venue.

Hosking says rock bands still have a long career in their sights rather than fleeting chart success.

“In terms of the model we look at following, we look at bands like My Morning Jacket, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Shins, bands that have been around a long time and keep producing good work,” Hosking says.

“There was a reality check after we finished the second album and started touring that we weren’t the new kids on the block anymore.

“But what used to scare you before is now embraced and there is a calmness, that we have earned out stripes when we walk onto a festival stage or have a discussion with a potential producer.”

The journey can be brutal but the destinations are generally worth the effort, according to the Boy and Bear blokes.

The burgers of America may force them off their butts and into the gym but it is likely there will be a detour to the nearest microbrewery.

“Sad, confused and completely obese is what touring America can feel like after all the burgers and beer,” Hosking says, laughing.

“But we love the fact they have embraced the microbrewery concert and every city has a vast array of amazing beers.

“We get into the heavy eight or nine per cent (alcohol) beers. They are the goblets of death and it’s a different sort of pissed with those beers.

“Not only are you pissed, but there’s so much sugar, you are completely buzzed at the same time.”

And like every band whose bromance is forged in the touring van, Boy and Bear have their repertoire of rituals and private jokes to maintain sanity.

Drummer Tim Hart is the official band hugger and if one of the five men or their crew invoke “Kelly style”, you have to share whatever it is you are imbibing or eating.

“Our tour manager works with Paul Kelly and apparently Paul likes to try everyone’s food at dinner. So any time someone says it’s Kelly Style, you have share what you have got around.”

Boy & Bear perform at the Sydney Opera House on September 21 and 22

Originally published as Beer, burgers and bromance: Boy and Bear on the road