Exclusive Q&A: Minus The Bear Celebrate Ten Years Of Intricate Indie Rock

posted in: Exclusive Interviews • Features • Rock

Forget about dog years. Bands years are even more unforgiving. Ten of them can seem like one hundred when a group is constantly out on the road or in the studio. Luckily, the rigors of touring life haven’t dampened the spirits of Seattle-based indie rockers Minus The Bear. After writing songs all summer for the follow up to last year’s Omni, they’re embarking on a national tour to celebrate their tenth anniversary this fall. We sat down with bassist Cory Murchy to discuss the band’s favorite Seattle venues, their predilection toward remixes and what it’s like to look back on ten years of hard work.

OS: This fall you guys are playing your 10 Year Anniversary Tour.  Where did you think the band would be in ten years when you began playing together?

CM: You know, when we first started playing I don’t think we had a vision far outside of just having it be something that we did as a side project. We were all in bands before and had bands going on at that time. But I will say that once we started writing songs and did get a little more serious we just wanted to do this as long as we possibly could and let the band run its course. We’ve been stoked that it’s taken us ten years so far.

OS: How do you look back on some of the earliest Minus The Bear songs, like those on Highly Refined Pirates?

CM: It’s always fun to revisit them and listen to the records all in sequence to check out where we were musically. For us, they’re little time capsules as far as what was going on at that time. Maybe it doesn’t even have to do with the song, but certain songs can remind us of certain places in our lives, which is cool. It’s kind of a retrospective of our lives. It’s neat to have that sort of marker.

OS: Do you feel that way when you play those songs live as well? You’ll be playing that album in its entirety on this tour, right?

CM: Yeah, and I’m sure it will bring out memories, especially because there are some songs that we haven’t played in so long and haven’t even really listened to all that much. Of course, it’ll kind of bring us back, which will be a cool thing. It’ll be neat to revisit and compare and contrast to where we are now.

OS: What was it like to develop as a non-grunge band in a city where the style still had some strong and lingering influence?

CM: Honestly, the biggest thing that we’ve seen is that we get asked that in interviews a lot [laughs]. By the time we were playing music in Seattle, that whole era had gone by the wayside. Those bands weren’t around except for Pearl Jam, but you know there is that legacy and you’re definitely aware of it because it was so close to home. I don’t think it hurt the music scene. Definitely, when people think of Seattle, they think of a music town, so you have that to live up to. Everyone’s constantly looking for the next Nirvana or the next Soundgarden or Band of Horses or whatever. So you’ll always be compared to the past.

OS: Where was your favorite venue to play in Seattle in the early days of Minus The Bear?

CM: The Graceland was always fun. They’ve changed hands. It used the be The Off Ramp back in the grunge days, and now it’s El Corazón. That was good. The Paradox Theater was actually a really fun place, because that was the all ages venue over in the U District. That was where we played our first couple shows. I think they made it back into a theater, but it was a great all ages place to play.

OS: You guys have been writing a new album this summer, right?

CM: Yeah! We’ve been writing a bunch of new songs and demoing and getting ready to record soon.

OS: And you chose to take some time off of touring to write, at least before the 10 Year Anniversary Tour.

CM: A little bit. I just recently got married and Jake is expecting a child at the end of the month, so we’ve spent a couple of months doing family stuff before getting ready for the big one.

OS: So the choice to take some time off to write songs wasn’t just that you didn’t want to write while you were on the road?

CM: Yeah, but really we do exclusively write at home. There never seems to be a real opportunity to write on the road. I know a lot of bands do, but for whatever reason we still haven’t figured that one out. It’s kind of nice, though, because we’re able to just concentrate on one thing at a time, and writing music isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. Not the hardest, don’t get me wrong! [laughs]

OS: You do have a pretty great profession, I must say.

CM: Absolutely. We’re extremely lucky. Thinking about coming up on ten years we feel extremely lucky that we’re able to do this as our job. We love it.

OS: Minus The Bear’s most recent EP contains a remix of My Time, and the band has been very open to remixes of its music in the past. What do you learn when you listen to other people’s interpretations of your own music?

CM: You learn all sorts of things. You learn a different way to look at the song. Writing the song, you think that there’s just one way to look at it. Then, when you hear someone else’s interpretation, you get into their different mindset. It’s definitely a good lesson to see where our songs can go and how they can be manipulated, changed and made better in some cases.

OS: Did you guys get any ideas for new songs when you listened to those remixes?

CM: I don’t know if we got any specific ideas from the album, but we’re constantly influenced by DJs and remixers and stuff like that. It’s definitely been a part of the sound.

OS: At the risk of sounding like a job interview, what would you like to see Minus The Bear doing ten years from now?

CM: Hopefully we’ll have a 20 Year Anniversary Tour, just with bigger venues [laughs]. We’ve never set out to say “Oh, we just want to play to five people.” We want to play in front of as many people as want to hear us play. I think that’s why we’ve continued playing music. And if they’re not bigger venues, then that’s cool too. It’ll be awesome. The fans have been amazing, so we’re stoked to continue gaining new fans and continuing to keep the old ones.

Catch Minus The Bear when they roll through your city on the 10 Year Anniversary Tour!