US indie band Grizzly Bear have a new album Painted Ruins and are coming to Australia

IT HAS been a seemingly quiet few years for US indie-rock band Grizzly Bear but the Brooklyn-born four-piece have been busy with their fifth album Painted Ruins and, now, a tour.

US band Grizzly Bear. Picture: Tom Hines

It has been a seemingly quiet few years for US indie-rock band Grizzly Bear but the Brooklyn-born four-piece have been busy since coming out of hibernation with their fifth album Painted Ruins late last year.

Known for their eclectic blend of folk, psychedelic pop, rock and vocal harmonies, the members of Grizzly Bear – singers and multi-instrumentalists Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen, drummer, percussionist and lap-steel guitarist Christopher Bear and bassist Chris Taylor – took some time after they wrapped up the tour for their previous album Shields at Sydney Opera House in January 2014.

“Everyone just kind of had ‘life stuff’ going on,” Christopher Bear tells U on Sunday. “We toured a lot with Shields and it was a long process and I think we were all just kind of exhausted. We were just hitting that point in our lives where we maybe needed to have a pause for a second and do life stuff. I had a baby, so that was kind of a thing.

“I think we needed to step away, all individually, maybe all for different reasons but I think we were all sort of ready for a break in general form the life of a touring musician for a second. It takes a minute to sort of emerge from that and sort of readdress yourself as a human, and then it’s like, OK, yeah, let’s make some music again.”

Bear says the time away from Grizzly Bear proved to be reinvigorating, and the band spent longer than usual honing their songs before entering the studio to record what would become Painted Ruins.

“In the past we were often writing a lot while we were in the process of recording, which I think has its own benefits and makes for certain things, but I think this time we were really excited to go into the recording process having a lot more of the basic structure of a lot of the songs before we did that. As a result it ended up making a pretty fun and, all things considered, a pretty quick recording process.

There is a definite duality to Grizzly Bear’s atmospheric sound, which is equal parts triumphantly melodic and beautifully melancholic, and Bear says this contrast is something that has always appealed to the band.

“Sometimes it’s between something that rhythmically seems very bright and upbeat but then has a more melancholy melodic energy, and finding a way of making those work at the same time has always been something that’s interesting to us.

“It’s not always conscious but now and then there will be a moment where a section is feeling one step or two too much in one direction, and then it’s about figuring out how to offset whatever sort of emotion or energy is happening there, not to go too far in a doomed melancholy direction, or to have something that feels overly bubbly, either. I think it also lets each listener have their own take on the music, too. Some people hear a song and feel one way and it can feel completely different to another listener. I appreciate that when I listen to music.”

The band will be performing at a diverse range of venues on this tour, from the floating Riverbank Palais on Adelaide’s River Torrens, to Melbourne Zoo, Golden Plains festival in Victoria, Sydney Opera House and QPAC Concert Hall in Brisbane.

“I think you have the opportunity to make something slightly more cinematic when it’s a seated audience,” Bear says. “I think it will be really cool how our whole visual show translates. We’ve done it in a few shows on this tour in theatres and I think it had maybe a stronger effect because it is a little more like you’re watching a play or something when you’re seated like that.

“The opera house is obviously pretty fantastic and an exciting opportunity but we generally have very fond memories of playing Australia. It’s always been a super fun country to come to and I feel very fortunate we’ve gotten to do it a number of times.”

Grizzly Bear, Wednesday March 14, QPAC, from $86.20, qpac.com.au