Brownbear - Questions for the Band
This week I am pleased to say that following the release of their new single Retro yesterday we have the brilliant Brownbear answering “Questions for the Band”. As usual I will leave the intros to the band so over to Matt Hickman.
A gentle start, for those that don't know the band that well. can you tell us a little bit about yourselves ?
Brownbear are originally Ayrshire based, very much a project driven by myself but the band are amazing and have really started to get involved in the creative process. We started in 2014 with Sam Waller (Drummer) being the original member and for me one of the unspoken key components of our sound. We all live in various places in Scotland.
Who are your musical influences ?
I have a massive range of influences. I suppose my big love is songs. Music, melody and lyrics. That is as simple as music should be and its a lost art. I think Motown is my big love. Then there were the greats like Ray Charles, Michael Jackson & Stevie Wonder. Then on the opposite side of the scale, the thing that made me pick up guitar was my love of rock. My dad had me on a healthy diet of Queen, Led Zeppelin & the Clash from a young age. Nirvana really played a big part in my musical education as well, I really took to their no solos, straight to the point attitude. Basically, I love a lot of music and i cant get enough of it.
What is your writing process ? Music or Lyrics First ?
Writing wise, it changes for every songs. Sometimes you have a lyric or a thought, other times its a tune or sometimes you just sit down and start playing and something seems to come. I would say as I have gotten older that I think more on what I am saying than when I first started out.
What is the biggest problem you have had in your music career ?
Being me I reckon. I don't mince words and I like to do things the way I believe in doing them. I think honesty and principles can be intimidating in a business like this but I just don't see the point in pretending. I believe in the songs, I believe in the band and if someone doesn't that is cool but I'm not going to wait about for them to decide I am worth putting on or cool enough to play on their show or whatever.
If you had the opportunity who would you most like to collaborate with and why ?
Wow, that is a tough question. I would say at this point that I have had the absolute honor of collaborating with some amazing artists like Kitti (If you don't know her then get to know her). Dream collaborations, I guess Quincy Jones. He is the king, one of the greatest producer and arrangers ever to have lived and he worked on arguably the greatest records of all time. Imagine what you could learn from someone like Quincy Jones!! In Scotland, I think a duet with Billy Mitchell is well over due.
Which venue would you most like to headline and why ?
The Barrowlands. It is the single greatest venue on earth.
Looking ahead for this year, what are your plans ? can we expect new music ? and do you have any ambitions that you want to fulfill this year ?
2020 is looking like an exciting year for fans of Brownbear. We have lots of new music on the way. We are working on our second album. We have been filming loads of content to compliment our music videos. That was a big focus on album one and our work with Tom Alner will continue but we are adventurous so we want to see what else we can create content wise out with music videos this year, Tom & Hannah McMillan are kind of the creative team in terms of visuals and they have really helped me put on to screen what I am trying to say through my music.
On top of that we will have some live shows as well. Not as many as people may expect, we want to do Quality over Quantity because we want to play bigger venues and bigger stages.
Thanks to Matt for giving us some great answers and a huge insight into his creative process and also some teasers of what we might expect from Brownbear as the year progresses.
Subject to the dreaded C word Brownbear have a live gig as follows:
Glasgow - King Tut’s, Saturday 6 June
As I said their latest single Retro was released yesterday Friday 27 March 2020 and it’s an absolute banger (read the review below):
https://www.aliveandgigging.co.uk/epsingles-reviews/4w1gaglraaly2yfkhtxq5ptniru1rm
