Teddy bear's picnic

Three years on from the release of their breakthrough record Yellow House, Brooklyn-based experimental indie types Grizzly Bear are back in action with their fifth effort Veckatimest. While it might have taken the adventurous four-piece a little longer than usual to assemble a follow up, GB mainman Daniel Rossen insists it was worth the wait.

“Initially when we sat down to make Veckatiest we were a little worried,” confesses the musician. “It was a little scary and then it ended up really exciting. We weren’t sure what was going to happen because the four of us hadn’t spent a lot of time together for a while, so there was a real unknown there. A lot of the material was written while recording so we weren’t sure how everything would work out, but it was refreshing and exciting because we felt like we could try anything. A lot of Yellow House was pre-written, but this one has an anything-goes flavour.”
This damned if you do, who cares if you don’t attitude infuses much of the new album, and once GB got their heads around being back in the saddle again, Vecktimest is the sound of a band who’ve grown together emotionally as well as musically.
“After a few years of touring we feel like a family and have got really comfortable with each other, making it very easy to get work done,” Daniel testifies. “It was a fun, easy process and we took our time with it and recorded in a bunch of different locations and made sure we were really happy before it was released. We all feel like it’s a big step forward from Yellow House. We tried to make it a lot more focused and encouraged more collaborations between band members. We wanted it to be as open and positive as possible.”
Formed in 2004, Grizzly Bear have always been a musically daring beast. While part of their Frankenstein’s monster-esque vision is indebted to prog, there’s also a hefty slice of Brian Wilson-flavoured harmonies and a good old fashioned hippy ethos thrown in there for good measure too, and if it sounds like Daniel and company are smarter than your average bear, well, that’s because they are.
“We don’t really work the way most bands work. Our bass-player has this little mobile recording studio that we take with us wherever we want to go and we don’t record the way other bands do. We just lay down whatever we feel like doing, when we feel like doing it. If we didn’t have that freedom I don’t think we’d be able to make the records we make.
“However, in terms of how we operate, we’ve never really had a manifesto as such. If a more old fashioned way of recording felt right, then we’d do that too because we keep things varied for our own enjoyment.”
As well as being one of the main Grizzly Bear songwriters, Daniel is also the brains behind Department Of Eagles and tells us that even though he enjoyed making last year’s fantastic In Ear Park, it was a musical exorcism for him in many ways.
“We did a few Department Of Eagles shows, but it’s pretty much on hiatus now as far as live performance goes. In a way it was good because we came right off that record and then went straight into the new one. I had a lot of old material that found its way onto In Ear Park and basically it was me wiping the slate clean for Grizzly Bear and it helped free myself up a little to come up with new and fresh things.”
At the moment Grizzly Bear are in the middle of a six-month tour, and even though some critics have the boys written off as a studio act, Daniel tells us he enjoys performing just as much as he does tinkering around at the mixing desk.
“I’ll always be a total nerd when it comes to technology but I love performing equally as much,” he enthuses. “I like the idea of making music and turning it into a loud and exciting live show. We’ve always been reconciling the live manifestation of Grizzly Bear with the recording side. It’s a kind of quest for us because they’re very different animals in many ways.”
Grizzly Bear’s mini sonic odysseys have won them plenty of fans over the years and current president of their unofficial fan club is none other than Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, who declared them his favourite band last year. When we ask Daniel about the accolade, the musician appears reassuringly shy about the whole thing.
“We all get a little bashful about the compliments, but I guess we feel very lucky getting to do what we’re doing,” he concludes. “Any time anyone is kind to us we’re very grateful and make sure not to let it go to our heads too much.”

Grizzly Bear play Vicar St., Dublin on November 1