Bear’s Den release the poignant video for their latest single ‘Shadows’

Bear's Den release the poignant video for their latest single 'Shadows'
Bear’s Den’s Andrew Davie (L) and Kevin Jones (R) – Credit: Bennie Curnow

With their highly-anticipated new album ‘Blue Hours’ set for release on May 13th via Communion Records, folk-rock duo Bear’s Den – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – have now shared the new video for their recent single ‘Shadows’.

Created by accomplished animator Mawrgan Shaw, who also created the visuals for their recent track ‘Spiders’, the video for ‘Shadows’ looks to continue the story told on ‘Spiders’, but from a new perspective. While the original piece focused on the male character’s struggle with depression, ‘Shadows’ turns to his female counterpart experiencing and trying to comfort him throughout his ordeal, seen through their connection and moving into both her headspace and his.

Speaking about the new video, Mawrgan said, “In approaching Shadows it was important to me that I tell the story of the song in a unique way. The music video for Shadows is about two people journeying through memories together, and as one becomes lost in their own sadness, their partner finding a way to reach them. It’s an expression of all that someone offers and gives when they say ‘I want you and all the shadows that walk beside you’. The visual story came to me from a place of wanting to show a connection between two people that wasn’t necessarily grounded in a real space, but a representation of all that we and our loved ones endure when afflicted by depression. The story is their love connecting them through disparate spaces, encapsulated in ending with their final moment becoming its own memory full of joy and triumph.

“Shadows is digitally hand-drawn and animated frame-by-frame, containing over 3,000 unique illustrations. Animated on what is known as two’s, 12 illustrations are required for every second that you see on screen. As an independent artist, the process from concept to delivery is my work. After the storyboard is approved, I move to planning out all the individual shots. I then film what will be reference material for my drawing – so the animation actually has a near complete live action cut! I then begin the painstaking job of drawing each frame. Being based in Toronto, Canada at the moment means that the filming stage had to take place in some pretty shockingly cold weather – quite the experience shooting outdoors in 20 degrees below zero! Terrifically cold weather aside, working with Bear’s Den has been a wonderful experience and I’m honoured to have been given the opportunity to create this piece with them.”

Watch the video for ‘Shadows’ – BELOW:

Produced by regular collaborator Ian Grimble, themes on the new album ‘Blue Hours’ include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main overarching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who has worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”

Adding about the new album, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”

The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.”

Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”

The group has also recently announced details of a full UK, Europe and North America 2022 tour, with tickets available to purchase now from https://www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk/live – including a newly added second date at Brussels Ancienne Belgique on May 10th.

The full list of dates are:

23rd April – Oslo – Parkteatret
24th April – Stockholm – Debaser
26th April – Copenhagen – Studie 2
28th April – Berlin – Astra
29th April – Hamburg – Fabrik
1st May – Amsterdam – Paradiso
2nd May – Amsterdam – Paradiso
5th May – Zurich – Kaufleuten
7th May – Cologne – Carlswerk Victoria
9th May – Brussels – Ancienne Belgique *Last tickets
10th May – Brussels – Ancienne Belgique **extra date
17th May – Bristol – O2 Academy
18th May – London – Eventim Apollo
21st May – Dublin – Olympia
22nd May – Manchester – Albert Hall
23rd May – Glasgow – O2 Academy
25th May – Newcastle – Newcastle University
26th May – Birmingham – O2 Institute
27th May – Leeds – Leeds University Stylus

8th Sept – Dallas, TX – The Studio at The Factory
9th Sept – Austin, TX – Emo’s
11th Sep – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
12th Sept – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
14th Sept – Ardmore, PA – Ardmore Music Hall
15th Sept – New York, NY – Webster Hall
16th Sept – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
17th Sept – Boston, MA – Royale
20th Sept – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
21st Sept – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
23rd Sept – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
24th Sept – Iowa City, IA – The Englert Theatre
25th Sept – Kansas City, MO – Knuckleheads Saloon
27th Sep – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
28th Sept – Salt Lake City, UT – The CommonWealth Room
30th Sept – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
1st Oct – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
3rd Oct – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
5th Oct – Felton, CA – Felton Music Hall
6th Oct – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
8th Oct – West Hollywood, CA – Troubadour

The full album track list is:
New Ways
Blue Hours
Frightened Whispers
Gratitude
Shadows
All That You Are
Spiders
Selective Memories
On Your Side
All The Wrong Place

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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