Bear Clause does ‘Dream Folk’

by Annalisa Millo in She Culture | 0 comments

In the womb, five people were prenatally predestined to cross paths and play music with each other.  Fate decided that Elyse Winn, Megan Monroe, Emmy Decker, Kara Kartchner and Alex McComb shall migrate from Arizona, Montana, Idaho, and parts of Utah to live in the same house in their early 20s. Together, they formed the local band Bear Clause.

“I believe in fate,” said Winn, as she described how all members ended up living in the same house last December. And when it was established that they all play music, that’s exactly what they would do virtually every night until the early morning hours.

Monroe added, “What was so awesome though, is that I would hear Elyse playing in the room above me, so I would just grab my guitar and run upstairs, and join in, and eventually everyone would join in and we would all just jam. We were just constantly playing music.”

Among the creative environment surging through the house, the band was officially formed in April. They call their style “Dream Folk,” and their heavy female vocals and harmonies, with their assortment of many instruments, are reminiscent of artists like CocoRosie, Local Natives, Arcade Fire and early Tegan and Sara.

They’ve made an EP, and are currently working on a full-length album and are making plans to tour next summer. They explained that their EP is very autumn and winter oriented, and their full-length album will be more upbeat, just in time for spring.

They already perform with a wide range of instruments, and are hoping to expand their versatility by using even more instruments on their full-length album. I was impressed to see Monroe switch from playing guitar, to a towel-covered drum, to xylophone, which has encouraged the other members to focus on changing and playing more instruments in their songs to come.

Bear Clause has acquired a large fan base from the queer community; so much so that they say about half of the attendees at their shows are gay and lesbian.

I asked if they still get nervous performing on stage because they are still a new band. They responded by wishing they had as much fun on stage as they do when they have jam sessions at their house, but they’re becoming more and more comfortable with every show they play. They also noted that they get more nervous about the few friends in the audience than the rest of the crowd.

McComb remarked, “I think it’s really hard being a small band, because you can’t really project yourselves and you don’t have the really good sound system backing you up. So you really have to just go with what you have and sometimes that can be hard. When we play the Kilby Court stage, I have to play (drums) a lot quieter than I want to.”

Often I see people immediately criticizing the creative endeavors of others, which is much easier to do than actually taking the time to understand and interpret the intent of the artist or musician. It was refreshing to see that this was far from being the case with this group of roommates.

“We love each other,” they said, but that was already clear from observing their interaction on and off stage. This is a band who truly enjoys each others’ company, and who are all very supportive of each other’s music and creative progression.

This band is all smiles on stage, and if you haven’t seen Bear Clause perform yet, support local music by making it to their next show. For more information, go to facebook.com/BearClauseMusic.