UK Folk Rock Duo Bear’s Den Announce New Album ‘Blue Hours’; Share Latest Single “Spiders” & Tour Dates

UK folk-rock duo Bear’s Den, composed of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones, have announced their fourth studio album Blue Hours will be released on May 13th via Communion Records. Alongside the news, the band have shared their latest single “Spiders” and a list of extensive tour dates.

Speaking about the new album, which can be pre-ordered here, 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.” 

Themes on the album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main over-arching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who have 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.“

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.”

Building on the poignant and triumphant themes of the album, the new single “Spiders” explores the idea of trying to escape one’s problems. Speaking about the song, Davie says: “I started writing ‘Spiders’ around the time we left London. In my head, I thought moving would solve lots of problems, like everything will be better – almost like this Neverland vibe. ‘Spiders’ is a song dealing with the fact that this absolutely wasn’t the case. I had this vision in my head that I’d be at one with nature, that I’d be calmer – but all the things that were rattling around in my brain before were still there after the move. The song is about the fact you can’t run away from the things that are bothering you.”

Bear’s Den have built a loyal fanbase surrounding their anthemic and vibrant folk rock sound, and “Spiders” continues their lush and rugged style, brought out by shimmering guitars and rich, melancholic vocals.

Listen to the single below, and check out their tour dates just past:

Tour dates:

23rd April – Oslo – Parkteatret 

24th April – Stockholm – Debaser

26th April – Copenhagen – Studie 2

April – Berlin *venue/date to be confirmed

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

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