Bearstronaut

If there was a band to watch in Boston's local music scene of late, it would have to be part-dance, part-Brit-pop, part-synth pop outfit BEARSTRONAUT, whipping up a storm of delectably danceable pop tunes that are highly attractive to Depeche Mode and Roxy Music lovers. But they're not just about new wave - or reviving it for that matter. As they suggest, it's more than dance music; "Dance is a loose term."

How did Bearstronaut manage to transition from punk pop into a more synth-orientated sound?

When we first started we spent a lot of time trying to make every song sound different than something we’d tried before. So for a long time, it felt like each song was written by a different band. I think we enjoyed that at the time but looking back it must have been hard to get into. We started introducing keyboards into our sound and one of those early songs was called Wire. It opened up a lot of possibilities and felt like a style that was more our own that we could explore. It brought a lot of our influences more within reach as well. We started to experiment along those lines after that point.

The band has been nominated for "Best New Act" and "Best Electronic Act" over the last two years in Boston. What ingredient keeps Bearstronaut at the forefront for such exposure?

Boston has been great to us in terms of support. It’s a smaller community but they really take an interest in you. The press is very proud of the music that comes out this town and rightfully so. There’s a lot of great bands but they all seem unique. There’s not a lot of room for a lot of carbon-copy bands here.

You’ve supported the likes of Fun, A-Trak, St. Lucia, Passion Pit, Surfer Blood, and Japandroids. Who would you go on tour with again if you had the chance?

Definitely St. Lucia. Very recently we were able to support St. Lucia and Gold Fields in Boston, which was such an incredible night. It was one of those bills where we felt really comfortable playing with those bands and it was also a show with a band that we were all dying to see. Everyone who came out was there to dance and have a good time. Certainly a highlight of 2012.

How has the response been to your latest EP release, Paradice, which you released earlier in 2012?

It’s been great. We recorded the EP over the course of the year and the writing was an on-going process. It changed a lot over time and we got to experiment with a lot of new ideas. It seems like a lot of that has been received well. It’s a short EP, but we managed to pack a lot of our ideas into it. We’re glad More Than Disco is into it. We’d like to make our way down to Australia soon.

How do you manage to replicate the recorded sound as a four piece live band? 

We’ve been having a lot of fun with our new live setup. Some of the songs on the records are done with 100+ tracks in the studio, so yes it’s fairly impossible to replicate completely. We took a look at the songs from an audience perspective in terms of performance. We tried to find the parts that we each wanted to play in order for it to be a good show and worked to pull off the rest from there. Each of us has percussion. There's also samplers, tons of keyboards, drum pads and lots of other tricks to pulling it off. We have to be well rehearsed.

The best parts of the band’s music collection include…

Dave: Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s It’s Your World, on vinyl.

Phil: Cameo’s Single Life, on vinyl.

Paul: I found a slightly water damaged 12” promo copy of The Stone Roses’ Elephant Stone single while I was working at my college’s radio station. It’s the original edit with the drum intro and without all that wah guitar nonsense that was on the re-release. I had to keep it.

Nate: An original mono pressing of Another Side of Bob Dylan that I bought for a dollar.

Are you excited about the new David Bowie album?

Absolutely. We are all huge Bowie fans and are excited for a new album of his that seems worth the time. That single is pretty somber, but he sounds amazing on it. Visconti + Bowie working together? I’m in.

Famous last words...

Don’t worry about the math.