Bear's Den release their fourth studio album 'Blue Hours', alongside the single 'New Ways'

BUY / STREAM ‘BLUE HOURS’ HERE

EXTENSIVE UK AND NORTH AMERICA TOUR 2022 ON SALE NOW

CALM ‘SECRET ENCORE’ INITIATIVE TAKING PLACE ACROSS THE UK TOUR

Following on from the huge support for their previously unveiled singles ‘All That You Are’, ‘Spiders’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Blue Hours’ and most recently ‘Frightened Whispers’, folk-rock duo Bear’s Den – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – have now released their highly-anticipated, fourth studio album ‘Blue Hours’ through Communion Records, which also comes accompanied by the focus track ‘New Ways’. The album release is supported by an extensive UK, Europe and North America tour which is already underway in Europe and includes a night at London’s Eventim Apollo on May 18th.

Produced by regular collaborator Ian Grimble, themes on this new album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main overarching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who has worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”

Adding about the new album, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”

To tie in with the band’s UK tour dates Bear’s Den have teamed up once again with UK suicide-prevention charity Campaign Against Living miserably (CALM) to take part in their ‘Secret Encore’ initiative. Much like Sam Fender and Supergrass who’ve recently joined forces with CALM on tour, the campaign will give fans attending the live shows the opportunity to donate and raise funds for CALM’s lifesaving work, and in return receive a specially recorded ‘Bear’s Den’ live video of a track, delivered an hour after the show.

The record’s final cut ‘New Ways’ looks to show the timely nature of this new release. Written at the beginning of the pandemic, the pair were in search of a guiding light to find their way through the deepening anxiety and stress of that time, making this new single the perfect opening to their latest full-length.

Speaking about ‘New Ways’, they said, “We’re so happy to be releasing ‘New Ways’ and our brand new album today!! I started writing ‘New Ways’ at the beginning of the pandemic as a way of dealing with a bunch of my fears and anxieties about the future whilst also trying to find some sort of hope in a difficult situation. The hope of finding ‘New Ways’ to be ok or make it through what at the time was so unprecedented and scary. It also became a mission statement for us both creatively for the album and we immediately felt it should be the first track. We’re so excited for you to finally hear it.”

The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.”

Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”

The album is available in a multitude of formats including; a ‘Blue Hours cassette’ (which has been created using stills from the Blue Hours video), the ‘blueprint edition’ on vinyl and cassette (comprised of a baby blue vinyl in transparent packaging and a cassette with alternative packaging), which are available from the group’s website, alongside a D2C special format personalised vinyl – a strictly limited 500 pressings of a handmade and numbered white label pressings. In addition, there is an exclusive Dinked Edition vinyl – a numbered exclusive format on crystal clear vinyl with an art print which is available to order from the Dinked coalition of indie stores here. The album is also be available as standard vinyl, CD and cassette.

Bear's Den will be hosting a series of in-store events across the UK, starting tonight May 13th at Rough Trade East, London and running through to May 17th at Rough Trade, Bristol, where fans can see exclusive stripped back acoustic performances of the new record and some old favourites!

Fri 13th May - Rough Trade East, London, 7pm

Sat 14th May - Vinilo, Southampton, out-store at 1865, 7pm

Sun 15th May - Truck, Oxford, 2pm

Sun 15th May PM - Sound Knowledge, Marlborough, out-store at Royal Oak, 7.30pm

Tues 17th May - Rough Trade, Bristol, 12.30pm

Having just completed the European leg of their extensive touring schedule, Bear’s Den will next visit the UK & Ireland before heading to North America in the Autum. Tickets on sale NOW!

The full list of dates are:

17th May - Bristol - O2 Academy

18th May - London - Eventim Apollo

21st May - Dublin - Olympia

22nd May - Manchester - Albert Hall

23rd May - Glasgow - O2 Academy

25th May - Newcastle - Newcastle University

26th May - Birmingham - O2 Institute

27th May - Leeds - Leeds University Stylus

NORTH AMERICAN DATES:

8th Sept - Dallas, TX - The Studio at The Factory

9th Sept - Austin, TX - Emo's

11th Sep - Nashville, TN - The Basement East

12th Sept - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

14th Sept - Ardmore, PA - Ardmore Music Hall

15th Sept - New York, NY - Webster Hall

16th Sept - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

17th Sept - Boston, MA - Royale

20th Sept - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall

21st Sept - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall

23rd Sept - Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater

24th Sept - Iowa City, IA - The Englert Theatre

25th Sept - Kansas City, MO - Knuckleheads Saloon

27th Sep - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater

28th Sept - Salt Lake City, UT - The Common Wealth Room

30th Sept - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre

1st Oct - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre

3rd Oct - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall

5th Oct - Felton, CA - Felton Music Hall

6th Oct - San Francisco, CA - August Hall

8th Oct - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour

The full album track list is:

New Ways

Blue Hours

Frightened Whispers

Gratitude

Shadows

All That You Are

Spiders

Selective Memories

On Your Side

All The Wrong Place

FOLLOW BEAR’S DEN

lorraine longMay 13, 2022