by broose tulloch
When they were booked for this year’s Winnipeg Folk Fest, dreamy folk-pop outfit Boy and Bear were already well-known in their homeland of Australia, but still relatively unknown to the rest of the world. By the time they arrived in Winnipeg April 1st for a sold-out show at the Park Theatre, they had a pair of singles in regular rotation on the radio and sold-out shows were a nightly occurrence. Stylus caught up with lead singer and principle songwriter, Dave Hosking somewhere between Winnipeg and Saskatoon and chatted about the weather, songwriting, and crafting a band out of a solo gig.
Stylus: Our apologies for the snow in April..
Dave Hosking: Ah, so usually this time of year isn’t quite so cold.
Stylus: Is snow still a novelty for you?
DH: Oh yeah! Absolutely, we’ve had snowball fights. Though, at this point it’s wearing off a little bit, I must admit. I made the mistake of having a snowball fight without gloves; it felt like my hands were on fire. But the novelty’s still there.
Stylus: Your photos from Europe indicate you guys enjoy a good beer. Do you source out local craft brews?
DH: To some extent, yeah. I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily connoisseurs of beer, and Heineken’s probably not our greatest example of the finest ales going around, but we do generally try to source locally brewed stuff. There’s at least two or three of us in the band who love a really good quality beer. We’ve been lucky enough, this tour at least, to try some of the best beers around, it’s been fantastic.
Stylus: International success has come on you like a torrid love affair…
DH: It’s funny, for us, about to be on tour. We’ve been lucky to have a lot success in our home territory first. Even then, we did a little bit of touring off the first album, but this thing never really got off the ground. This time around, it feels that the second record’s being received much better, and received a lot more radio play and the tour’s selling out. It’s just really exciting for us, we’re as hungry as we’ve ever been! We’re just loving the fact that this is the biggest international tour we’ve done, and that people seem to be paying attention in front of us much more and that is the bird. We’re all in good spirits and just keeping the dream alive.
Stylus: What do you think it is about the music that has resonated with the fans?
DH: I don’t know, that’s such a difficult question, and I’ve wondered… But I think all of us sort have a real love of sort of old pop music, at least music that is real melody-based. And that led to this last record is more groove based than the last album. I really pride myself on the lyrics; I like telling honest stories and I like the idea of how the melody thinks, how image catches peoples’ attention. Then through that you can unwrap the different layers of the track and understand there are legitimate stories underneath as opposed to some pop music, which is catchy but lyrically lacking and a bit shallow. I’m not sure, maybe that’s a part of it. I just hope it’s the depth that people are engaging to, but it’s really difficult to tell; I’m just glad people are connecting to it.
Stylus: There will always be comparisons to other artists, but where do you see yourself in the musical spectrum?
DH: The irony to that question is that we’ve worked so hard as a band to find our own space, even though arguably we’re not reinventing the wheel with this record by any means. But I do feel like we’ve moved into our own free space, as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of bands embracing 60s-70s pop to the same extent as we are.
Stylus: When did you know that this was a band and not a solo project?
DH: I woke up one morning; and it was definitely a lightning bolt moment to not only wanting to do a band thing, but it made complete sense. It made sense to give everyone complete ownership of this project. I’d been doing the solo thing for awhile, over the period of about two years, and Killian [Gavin] helped me with out with the guitars, Tim [Hart] started helping me with the drums, and then started to do some live shows. Soon we all started talking and the project started to do relatively well, and we were talking about potentially doing a “Dave Hosking and something.” Because to some extent you’re trying to hang on to a brand you’ve already created. You’ve got to think long term in these things even as difficult as it is trying to get people to take often a minimum of five years of their lives of working extremely hard at something, which will pay no money for a long time. We’re all in this together, and it was the best decision I ever made, I think.
Stylus: Tell us a bit about the band itself.
DH: Jake Taresenko left about a year and a half ago and we have a wonderful bass player, Dave Symes who’s officially on board with the project. He makes us all look bad on our instruments, which is awesome. Then we have Killian Gavin on lead guitar, he and I met at university; Jon, he’s a real stones fan. Tim and Jon are brothers, he drums to a lot of Simon and Garfunkel and Sting and the Police. Jon was settled in to a fairly well paying job, and had been for a couple of years, when he decided to leave that and come play with the band. At this point the band was earning nothing, so he rolled the dice and it’s worked out fairly well for him. It’s good, everyone brings interesting influences to the band. And we get along which is also important.
Stylus: How has the songwriting process changed now that it’s a band effort?
DH: It’s still pretty much the same, I bring the bare bones of the song to the band. I’ll record these acoustic demos on my computer, send them around, and we get together and jam it out. So much of the sound is sculpted in those arrangements, in the way the tracks come together. So definitely the songs evolve a lot from their original form, particularly these days. So even though its not a complete collaborative song-writing effort, the arrangements really rely on the band as a whole.
Stylus: It’s easy to love, but harder to like. How do you keep your cool being on tour for months away from home?
DH: It’s sort of poignant that you’re asking that question because we’re eight weeks in and we haven’t had a day off in a long time. It’s true that the pressures of the music industry can push each of us in different ways, and we’re feeling slightly under pressure at the moment. But I think you get used to each other, I think you just understand when a fellow needs his space, or needs a bit of a hug, or when someone needs to pull their head in. And we all have a pretty good idea on when that needs to be done. It’s sort of weird, but it’s like any relationship,. At times it takes managing and at times it takes discussions when there’s a question of doubt. But we haven’t had to have any of those discussions in a really long time now. Which is really good, we’re lucky. We genuinely care about each other and really love hanging out and playing music.
Stylus: The tour keeps rolling. Europe, North America, Australia, and then you’re back here for the summer festival season.
DH: I think we do get a couple of weeks off. We head home for a couple of days and in amongst that tour and I think we get two and a half weeks after. Then we jump back on a plane head over here and do summer festivals in Canada and North America and the UK and Europe. I’ve been watching our calendar and our breaks seem to be shrinking as opportunities keep arising. We can’t complain about that at all, it’s a good problem to have, which is lucky people want us to play.
Stylus: What are you looking forward to doing first when you’re finally home for a rest?
DH: I think the first thing I’m looking forward to doing is catching up with my family and my friends and doing things not music related. Just going out and just being out there, and being able to cook my own dinner. As simple as that sounds, it will be very therapeutic. I’m lucky enough to live a couple hundred metres away from Tamarama Beach, which is just south of fairly well known Bondi Beach in Sydney. I’ll be looking forward to waking up to an empty house, as my brother and his girlfriend will be at work, going for a swim, and getting myself a coffee. Take it pretty bloody easy, I think. That’s my plan.
Stylus: What was your first impression of the Canadian music scene?
DH: In Canada, the music culture is definitely really different in a great way; it’s really enthusiastic and people seem to be really passionate about their music.
Stylus: As we speak, you’re driving through the Prairies, from Winnipeg to Saskatoon. How do you like it?
DH: I’m just looking forward to seeing any town. I feel like there’s just nothing on this road and we’ve been driving in a straight line for like five hours.
Boy and Bear will return to Winnipeg in July for the Winnipeg Folk Festival, appearing on Big Bluestem Stage Sunday night. Please visit online boyandbear.com and winnipegfolkfestival.ca for more information.
