Interview: Bear Hands
09.23.15
On opening night of their fall tour in Seattle, we caught up with Ted Feldman – guitarist of inventive indie-rock band Bear Hands – and threw a couple of questions his way. With their third full-length release, You’ll Pay for This, out earlier this year, the band explores ideas about growing older, their music growing right along with them.
Seattle Music News: Welcome to Seattle.
Ted Feldman: Thank you. It’s a great city. I like it here a lot. First night of tour, though, of this round.
SMN: You’re actually touring with Foals, who you have toured with before. Was it just such a good time before that you couldn’t pass up the chance again?
TF: Yes. You nailed it. It was too good of a time with them before to not do it again.
SMN: Are you hitting some more basketball courts? What’s the plan?
TF: No more basketball courts, but somebody in our party bought a basketball hoop that we are now carting around with us.
SMN: A little mobile game is going to happen?
TF: I hope so. That’s the plan.
SMN: Awesome.
SMN: You’ve toured a lot this year with all of the new music, what are your favorite late night tour snacks?
TF: We’re a band of intensely individualistic people, so everyone has very clear preferences, food wise and otherwise.
SMN: What’s your fave?
TF: What’s mine? I’m a fan of Chex Mix, like jalapeno cheddar Chex Mix. Some salty, spicy.
SMN: That’s the best flavor.
TF: Thank you.
SMN: Your new album speaks to getting older, things changing. What are the things that you’re looking forward to about getting older?
TF: Good question. I should have a five-year plan, probably. What are the things about getting older that are good, you mean?
SMN: Yeah. What are you actually looking forward to as opposed to what is lost with youth?
TF: Like, youth is wasted on the young. My whole life, I expected that I would change all the time, do different things in my life every couple of years, but then I was in this band for ten years. Now, I’m thinking, “When does the next huge swing happen?” I’ve been with a girl for almost that long. “When is the next huge swing in my life?” Maybe it doesn’t happen. Maybe this is it, and maybe that’s good. I mean, it is pretty good. I don’t think I’m going to continue exactly what I’ve been doing through my twenties in my thirties and beyond, but I am looking forward to deepening my relationships, and suspenders, eventually.
SMN: Suspenders! There’s always something. Are you guys still constantly working on new material, are you jotting stuff down
TF: Yeah. I’ve been trying to get better at writing down my ideas. Sometimes, I’m waking up in the morning and I’m writing some lyrics in my head. I’m like, “I should totally write that down,” and then I take a shower and it’s gone. I’m getting better at just putting stuff, not to paper, but to my notes on my phone or voice memos. We haven’t been doing much concentrated band writing. I think at the end of this tour, in the winter, we’re going to get back into it, try to get a head start on the next thing, even though I think we’re going to be touring next year still on this record.
SMN: If you could pick your dream lineup to be a part of for one night, who else would be playing?
TF: Dead or alive? No. Alive, current. Shall we check availability?
SMN: Let’s assume everyone’s available. You can call them in, for one night only.
TF: That’s too hard.
SMN: We already took away the dead people.
TF: There are a lot of dead people. I understand that takes away a lot, but… I would love to play a show with Tame Impala, I really love that band, and Chance the Rapper.
SMN: And you guys are into Young Thug, everybody listens to hip hop? Are you guys still on this hip hop spree?
TF: It’s a lifelong spree.
SMN: Who’s on the rotation right now?
TF: Well it’s the first day of tour, and we haven’t been hanging out for a few weeks, so I don’t know what will make it into our dressing room speakers. I like that Schoolboy Q record. I don’t think that’s going to make it though, that’s not the vibe. It’s not the group vibe.
SMN: What’s the vibe you’re looking for?
TF: We were listening to a lot of Young Thug in the dressing room, first drink of the night, before we went on stage. I think it’s just like some sort of higher plane, trying to get ready for a party. Sometimes, we do that and it’s some really sad rap, and it counteracts the intention. We’ll see. I don’t know.
SMN: What’s your favorite song to play live?
TF: We have this song called “Like Me Like That,” it’s on our new record. It’s been fun because people seem to react well.
SMN: Mostly the feedback from the audience?
TF: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s because that’s a song that people have noticed or attached themselves to before our shows, or if it’s because it’s got a killer groove. That seems to be a winner. It’s fun to feel that.
SMN: That makes sense. It’s always nice to have a reciprocal relationship with whatever you’re doing. You don’t just play to a blank.
TF: Right. Feedback is nice.
SMN: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
TF: I have this down, because I have talked about this a lot recently. Not in interviews or anything. I’ve had this conversation. I would want to teleport.
SMN: That’s a good one. Where would you go?
TF: Even if it’s just from one show to the next. I spend so much time in a van. We have a gorgeous country and I’ve seen it many times over and it’s beautiful, but sometimes I just want to be there and enjoy the place that I’m in, instead of the road.
SMN: Are you the, “Are we there yet?” kid in the van?
TF: No. I’m not. I’m the guy that’s checking Google Maps to see how much longer. Only Google needs to hear my complaints.
SMN: What’s the most interesting stop you’ve made on the road, not show related?
TF: The most interesting. Oh, man. There are a couple of rest stops or gas stations that we frequent whenever we come through the area.
SMN: You have your favorite gas station?
TF: Yes. The short answer. We often go from one city to the next, the route is very similar. It’s about three hours from one place to the next. Sometimes, we’ll go to a new place and be like, “Oh, we’ve been here. I bought some jalapeno cheddar Chex Mix here two years ago.”
There’s this big thing called Little America. It’s in the west somewhere. It’s this big truck stop. There’s a place for cars to stop and there’s a place for trucks to stop. On the truck side, they make a really mean bacon, egg and cheese on a muffin. That’s the spot that I have to go to every time we’re there. They also have twenty-five cent ice cream cones. There’s a gas station in the middle of nowhere that has llamas, in Arizona somewhere.
SMN: Can you feed the llamas?
TF: Yeah. You can feed the llamas. Recently, we went to Mount Rushmore. We made a point to go there. We were driving through South Dakota, and none of us had ever been to South Dakota, so we went to Mount Rushmore. It turns out it’s not that interesting.
SMN: It’s just a big rock.
TF: It’s just a big rock. You can’t even see… You’ve seen a picture of Mount Rushmore. The only place you can view it from is the place where they take the pictures. You’ve seen it. You don’t go there and see a different angle. You know what I mean?
SMN: You can’t go up to a higher spot?
TF: No. You can’t do a North by Northwest and hang off the nose. How’s that?
SMN: That was good. Llamas and Mount Rushmore.
TF: Llamas, bacon, egg and cheese, presidents.
SMN: Everything you need. What’s the most rock star things that you or the band has ever done?
TF: Define “rock star.”
SMN: What’s your definition?
TF: Is it the carefree? Is it the rich thing?
SMN: Do you have a rock star moment where you were like, “Holy shit. That was just totally killer, what I imagined rock stardom to be”?
TF: No. I don’t really feel like a rock star. We’ve played some really big shows. That feels great. The first time we played a really big show, I think I felt like a king. It was in Leeds, in England. It was part of the Leeds Festival, you know, Reading and Leeds Festivals, but it was the night before. It was six thousand people and it was us and Wild Beasts and Blood Red Shoes. People were pumped to be there. It was so fun. That felt amazing. We went skydiving once. That’s pretty cool. But anyone can pay to do that. There was a man holding me. Not that rock star.
SMN: Back to the llama thing. Have you ever driven through Georgia, near Savannah, and there’s a petting zoo with alpacas and llamas and out there.
TF: Really?
SMN: Just put that on your list.
TF: I will. I break for llamas.
SMN: What do you do, personally, to get ready, to get yourself loose, to get yourself to show level?
TF: I feel like I’m still getting my rituals together. I usually have a drink.
SMN: What’s your drink?
TF: It’s been tequila and soda of late. For a long time, it was whiskey. I’ve been on a tequila kick. We do a little cheers. For a long time, we laughed at bands who did a huddle or sang a song or said a prayer or whatever. Then, we just started hitting glasses, I think, casually. Now, it’s like if we don’t, it’s a problem, everyone feels really uncomfortable. I think it’s a good thing to look in each other’s eyes before you go on stage. Personally, I’ve been trying to close my eyes and just zone in on what I want to feel like, but that hasn’t worked. We’ll see.
SMN: Maybe on this tour you’ll get it.
TF: Yeah. Come back to me at the end of this tour.
SMN: We’re going to hold you to it. If you could only use three words to describe the band, what three words would you use? It doesn’t have to be literal. When I saw you hanging out, I just thought “chill.” I could feel your energy.
TF: You could feel the chill.
SMN: You just seem pretty effortless. You guys seem like you’re just having a good time.
TF: Thanks. I like that.
SMN: We gave you one, now you have to give us two.
TF: Okay. Angry.
SMN: Chill and angry.
TF: No, no. I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe my band in paragraphs, so pass.
SMN: The name Bear Hands. It’s a funny name for a band, what’s the source?
TF: There’s no good story. I think we were shooting around names, and that was something that Val, our bass player, just had in his pocket. It was the first thing that we didn’t all hate immediately, so we were like, “All right. We should just do that.” That’s kind of our creative process.
SMN: Somebody just has something in their pocket.
TF: We all are very harsh critics. When something passes…
SMN: That’s acceptable.
TF: Yeah. If we don’t all hate it, then we’re like, “All right, this stays.”
SMN: I’ve heard bear claws, bear paws, but no bear hands.
TF: Yeah. Bear hands is like the pun. I feel like the weird, humorous aspect of it, I think is actually a big part of our identity. We try to keep things light, even when we’re talking about serious things.
SMN: Last question. You’re stranded on a desert island, you’ve got one book, one movie, one album, what are they?
TF: Wow. Oh, shit. I’m reading this great book right now, but it’s too premature for me to say, “That’s the one.”
SMN: What are you reading right now?
TF: I’m reading Goldfinch. It’s excellent. I’m reading it and I know I’m going to read it again. That’s cool. I know I want to read it again, and I don’t really want it to end because I like being in that book. There’s a book called Ghostwritten by David Mitchell that I really love.
TF: Album, forever…
SMN: You can pick dead people for this one.
TF: Okay, good, definitely gonna be dead. I think Giant Steps, John Coltrane. And movie … It’s hard to be so goddamned singular about these things. I’d say One, Two, Three. It’s a Billy Wilder movie that’s about East and West Germany and this Coca-Cola executive. It’s pretty great, you should check it out.
SMN: Awesome. We only really ask because we like getting recommendations.
TF: Check them out, they’re good. All of those things are good. I don’t know if they’re going to be the only thing you want to listen to ever.
Check out our recap from their live show here.
Interview by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Phillip Johnson
