Seattle indie rock band Minus the Bear have made music on their own terms while carving out their own unique musical world, selling over 500k records in the process and playing to countless sold out crowds along the way. We chat to Dave Knudson ahead of their upcoming headline shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne following the release of their new album VOIDS.
Hey guys, Thanks for taking the time to talk to Forte Mag. We’re all excited to have you hitting Australian shores soon, how are you all feeling about heading down under?
Definitely excited to be coming back. It’s been a long time, too long for sure. We’ve had great experiences both times we’ve been down before whether it was a festival tour or our own headlining run. Expecting to have a fun time yet again.
15 years of music, over 500k records sold and playing countless sold out crowds along the way, what are some of your favourite highlights in Minus The Bear’s history?
So many great memories. The most recent US tour in March/April was one of our best, in my opinion. It was great to be back playing new material and also the old stuff that everyone wants to hear. We clicked early on and kind of ran with momentum and enthusiasm through the entire run… We’ve had lots of amazing adventures over the years. One of the most formative would have to be our first trips to Spain. It was a blurry mess of music, food, culture and straight up fun. It’s where we named the “Menos el Oso” LP and really ran with that inspiration to create the record. Iceland, Hawaii, Japan. There are too many to include!
Every new album offered by Minus The Bear so far seems to offer a new musical approach each time. Tell us a bit about the approach you took when it came to making “VOIDS” your new release.
We wrote a ton of material for this record. Probably upwards of 40 musical ideas were either completed entirely or were half finished or were just a great part or riff that didn’t lead where we wanted it to go. This time we had a different drummer for the first time in our career and it was a much different experience. We also used a different producer. Sam Bell had a lot of great ideas in many ways — songwriting, recording technique, vibe and personally, he really pushed me to get some different tones. He’d say lets make this “more synth-y” and we’d get some wild sounds I hadn’t experimented with before.
“VOIDS” has divided some fans here, we’ve seen a whole lot of love for it but we’ve also seen some fans conflicted with the album. Do you feel like the opinions of your fans can ever influence the way you approach writing music?
Not really. We write what we want and bring our influences whether they’re musical, political, or cultural. The reception over here in the states has been great for the new LP. Lots of people singing along and really getting into the material. Of course everyone went nuts for the old stuff too. Ultimately we all understand that some of the earlier songs have a lot of meaning in people’s lives and it’s hard for a new song to meet that experience or expectation. We evolve to keep ourselves excited about writing and performing but also realize there are certain elements that are crucial to the band’s sound whether that’s Jake’s voice, the intricate guitar work, the synth-based vibes, or the powerful rhythm section. We’re all extremely proud of VOIDS. It’s one of my favorites.
You’ve mentioned previously on your social media that the process of making VOIDS resulted in a “whole re-examination of ourselves both personally and professionally”, can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, there’ve been a lot of changes since “Infinity Overhead” came out five years ago. A couple of us had kids, we parted ways with our original drummer and cleaned house in regards to most of the business people we worked with. We felt it was time to go in a new direction and hit the “reset button” on quite a few things. In addition, working with Sam to produce and engineer the new LP was a big change and going back to working with David Dickenson from Suicide Squeeze Records was a big one as well. All great moves that we are very happy with. It was time to shake some stuff up.
Minus The Bear have always been able to avoid being labelled as a specific genre due to the vast array of sounds across your albums, however if you had to describe to someone the music of Minus The Bear how would you define it?
We used to joke around and describe ourselves as “Classic Rock of the Future,” but I think maybe we’ve strayed a little from that. Not sure. I guess we operate kind of like a blender—we add elements of rock, pop, hip hop, electronic music and anything else we’re inspired by and try to mix it up until we get something we geek out on.
Heavy questions aside we have a few fun ones we like to ask, we always try to ask bands what CD is essential in your car when you’re on long trips and why?
Until recently my car CD player was broken because my son shoved a bunch of coins in the disc slot. Thanks a lot kid… In terms of music though I’m always vacillating through different phases. Sometimes it’s Mars Volta or Katy Perry or King Crimson or Deantoni Parks or Four Tet or Justice or Russian Circles or…
Finally, We have to ask and we’re sure you’ve been asked this a few times but Minus The Bear – Please explain the origins of the band’s name because I’m sure there must be a great back story there.
It was a drunken inside joke from when the band was first starting. It happened at the Cha Cha Lounge, the bar we’d all meet up at each night. If you search the internet, you’ll find the answer. You know where to look. 😉
We really appreciate you taking the time to chat to us. Is anything you’d like to add?
Not much to add… Just excited to come back over and play a bunch of old and new tunes for y’all. See ya in August!
Check out the Minus The Bear Spotify list here – they’ll be playing songs across their six albums
Also check out their video for their track Pachuca Sunrise.
Photo by Ryan Muir
