Rich Wardrop of Bear Arms catches a few words with us before their trip to Inverness.
Bear Arms are relatively fresh, depending on whether their hangovers reached the previous year’s level, from playing at the SAMAs 2014. Rich ,and the band obviously have a lot of time for the event “It was great! The Scottish Alternative Music Awards is always a great night and it highlights some of the awesome talent coming out of Scotland’s music scene right now.(Rich identifies Vukovi and Shambles in a Husk (which draws together members of Crusades and The Darien Venture) as particular acts that have caught his eye recently.)”
And as for the hangovers from SAMA 2014? “It’s usually a messy night out afterwards too”, say no more.”
The previous year, they had received the “Best Metal” accolade described as looking “like a bunch of geography teachers”, by host Billy Kirkwood. By no accounts do they sound like geography teachers, well at least not the ones that I remember…
In 2012 , just after the release of EP New Skin ,they described their music as “alt/post-hardcore” or a “‘a healthy mix of Thrice, The Xcerts and Fightstar”. Recent tracks such as ‘Empty Vessel’, which you can download via Struggletown, identify a different route. Rich explains establishing their own style took a bit of time ; “The music we’re writing and playing now is definitely a lot heavier than what we were doing when we first started out. It took us a while to find our own sound.”
The direction of that sound is creating something that the band would like themselves, “What it really comes down to for us is that we just try and write music that we ourselves would want to listen to.”
As a band, they are moving towards four years together and looking at what keeps the band together, Rich explains three main points “We’ve all played in bands since we were kids and although we work full time jobs we’d love to one day be able to play music on more of a full time basis. I think that is one of the main drivers for all 4 of us in the band. Our main ethos is really just to enjoy the music we’re playing and try to get as many cool experiences under our belts as possible.”
After a clutch of single and EP release, in between the experiences and the forthcoming tour, they are also fitting in recording “We’re currently in the middle of tracking our debut album. We can’t wait to get it finished and let everyone hear it!”
They play Inverness as part of a short mini-tour on four consecutive nights that also take in Dunfermline, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.They are joined by Wolves at Heart a band that they have played with in the past “[They] are a great band and good friends of ours. We really can’t wait to get out on the road with them.”
Catch both Bear Arms and Wolves at Heart at The Eagle on the 28th of March, 2014.
