Before we begin, let’s get a few things straight about Bear Mountain. Kyle Statham (vocals, bass and guitarist) had never been to Sasquatch or the Gorge before. Frontman Ian Bevis is a Dave Matthews fan. And Bear Mountain’s debut album XO was just released last summer. Ian and Kyle — who finish each other sentences — understand that the music industry is no cakewalk. (One of the Sasquatch! press folks came up to me the next day and asked, “Who were those guys you were interviewing yesterday? They did a ton of interviews, and I just wanted to reach over and give them a pat on the back.”)
Oh yeah, they also played in the same SXSW showcase as Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids. So exactly who are these Canadians?
Ian Bevis and Kyle Statham sat down with me after their Saturday Sasquatch! performance on the Honda Bigfoot Stage to talk about SXSW, touring with Bloc Party, and Jack Kerouac.
So where does the name Bear Mountain come from?
Ian: As I was uploading music to MySpace one day – back when MySpace was cool – I needed a name for the song I was uploading. At the time, I was reading Jack Kerouac’s book Dharma Bums. And really, that was it. I was also really into snowboarding at the time.
How did you guys all meet? Where does the Bear Mountain story begin?
Kyle: It begins a long time ago. Well, Ian and Greg are twin brothers. But we all went to high school together – I was a bit older, separated by a few years – so we kind of hooked up at university. We played in this punk band and we all kind of did some other things here and there. But it wasn’t really until a couple years ago back in Vancouver where Ian was like, “Hey, check out some of the stuff I’m doing.” I didn’t even know Ian could sing at the time. And he played me some of the beats he made and I heard his voice and I was like “Holy shit, this is great!” I was really into it and knew I wanted to get involved in it.
How do you feel about in being in a band with your twin brother? Was it natural?
Ian: We’ve always played music together. Sometimes it’s hard for us to play music together but on another level it’s so good, too. We’re pretty different creatively a lot of the time, but we’re also both really creative. Like Greg (Bevis) says, we both have the same goal but very different ways of getting to it.
What’s that goal?
Ian: Make amazing music, the best music, for as long as we can.
What are you guys listening to right now? I saw Disclosure on your blog…
Ian & Kyle: Yes!
Ian: We saw them at SXSW and their live show was so good. We saw the set and were like, “Oh okay, there’s a few things we gotta change.”
Kyle: That kick drop is sooo nice. Beautiful kick. They nailed it. It’s so round and beautiful. So we totally redid our kick drop live. It was inspired by them.
The visual component of your guys live shows is really important – who does that?
Ian: Yeah, Kenji (Rodriguez) does it. He’s the fourth member of the band. He does all the visuals.
So did you pick him out for that?
Kyle: He found us! He had seen us play like a year before, and he was like, “Oh — I definitely want to do something with these guys sometime.” And Ian actually worked with his wife. He just came up to us and was like “This is what we can do.” And he just described these huge ideas. And as soon as he joined the band, we were like, “Okay, now we’re a band.”
Ian: He’s actually triggering the visuals live.
Kyle: Each show is totally different. And were expanding on hooking it up to all of our instruments. Everything is constantly changing; the visuals are changing as the show goes on.
Bear Mountain got a lot of positive attention at SXSW – could you tell me more about that experience?
Ian: It was our first time. And we had the Hype Hotel our first night, and it was a big show. At the time, it was our biggest show we had ever played. Before it was just clubs and stuff. So we played the show and it went really well and we were like, “Okay – we can do this. We know we’re a band that can play these kind of shows.” This is what we had hoped. And then we saw that Billboard had written something up and that was really dope for us. And as soon as we saw it we were like…
Ian & Kyle (in unison): “Whaaaaat? Billboard?!”
Kyle: It was awesome.
XO came out last summer – so when did you guys find out about Sasquatch? Was it a total shock?
Ian: Yeah, it was a total shock. We found out a couple months ago.
Kyle: We had no idea that was going to happen.
Ian: We’re opening for Bloc Party this tour. And we just got a text message that was like, “Wanna go on tour with Bloc Party?” And we were all like…
Ian & Kyle (in unison): “Uhhhh, yeah! DUH. Obviously.”
Ian: And then we found out soon after that we would be doing Sasquatch.
So Ian – I read somewhere that you had been to Sasquatch like 11 times? I didn’t even know it’s been around that long!
Ian: Was that on the Internet?
Kyle: (Laughs) Okay, tell the real story Ian.
Ian: Okay, okay – so I used to love Dave Matthews Band.
Oh, god.
Ian: It’s okay, though – they are really good. I love them. (Laughs) My friends and I used to come here every year. I came like four years in a row and went to all three nights.
What’s next for you guys? Are you recording already?
Kyle: We’re working on a new album right now, and yeah, touring. We just re-released our EP with a new single about a week ago.
Ian: Yeah, just a bunch of shows through this summer and we kind of are always working on the record, even on the road.
Kyle: We’re constantly working. As hard, and as much, as we can.
Loving these guys!!!