Metal Anarchy

Time for the next edition of Metal Anarchy’s “new music showcase,” the feature where I introduce you to up and coming bands that readers of this site may find interesting. This time I have an exclusive Q&A with Bear Witness.

METAL ANARCHY: Tell me a little about your band:

BEAR WITNESS: We’re an Alternative Rock trio from Birmingham. We like to describe our sound more accurately as beautiful noise because we love to smash together the heavy elements of rock music (monstrous rhythms, chaotic riffs and distorted guitars) with soulful melodies and arrangements (the more beautiful aspects of music); those two ingredients put together gives us our recipe for beautiful noise.

METAL ANARCHY: Who are your main influences?

BEAR WITNESS: Our main influences would have to be (in no real order): Linkin Park, Nothing But Thieves, The Police, Nirvana, Green Day, Muse, Bring Me The Horizon, Incubus, Highly Suspect, Soundgarden, Prince, QOTSA; the list goes on and on really. We’re all huge fans of music that has some real feeling infused into it, especially when it’s paired with interesting melodies, powerful choruses or a clever arrangement. We love music that if it were to be stripped back to just a guitar and vocals it would still sound incredible; just raw, talented songwriting really. Nothing that is overused or manufactured, we hate those artists. Overall bands or musicians that make what we believe to be great songs, whatever the genre.

METAL ANARCHY: What is your latest release and why should readers of this site check it out?

BEAR WITNESS: Our latest release is ‘Perfect Living’ and will be out on the 18th of January. It is a powerful rock song that begins with soft vocals over a solid groove driven verse. This leads into an epic chorus wherein you are surrounded by distorted guitars and a hook infused belted vocal that leaves you with the desire to bounce around the room singing along. We’re so excited to show it to everyone! It always goes down so well live, it’s easily one of our favourites to play. We’ve also made a music video for it which pairs really nicely with the song.

Shot in its entirety in POV it has a very real sense of energy and suspense throughout, it makes for an exciting visual to go along with the music, we tried to make a video that was good without the music, our attempt at a mini film inspired by our love of sci fi films like Bladerunner and Star Wars. This one’s just the first part, the following two singles will complete the story in the summer.

METAL ANARCHY: What can people expect when they go to your live shows?

BEAR WITNESS: If you come and see us live then you can expect quite an exciting, uptempo show. We try and encourage some dancing and bouncing around like an idiot from everyone involved! We really love the songs we play and I think it comes across when we play them. We love bands that put on live shows that add to the music, Nothing But Thieves, Jack White and Green Day are a few examples that spring to mind, so we work very hard to ensure our live show adds to the music. Not to mention there is an occasional guest performance from a certain Jeff Goldblum playing jazz piano!

METAL ANARCHY: Where do you see your band in 5 years?

BEAR WITNESS: We would love to get to a point where we can make a living off the music and know that it is connecting with people, it would be unreal if we achieved that. Obviously we would love to do a sell out tour, maybe play a few stadiums haha, but that would all just be icing on the cake. We’d also love to do a George Michael covers album at some point, but baby steps hahah.