Firefly 2014 interview: Boy & Bear

At Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Del. last week, I met up with two of the musicians from Australian group Boy & Bear, David Hosking and David Symes. The group is huge back home, but have begun to amass fans here, if their inclusion in the set list is any indication. Here's what they had to say: 

Boy & Bear, the five piece indie/folk group from Sydney, has received several major awards back in Australia, but has been slowly gaining a larger following here in the States. David Hosking, lead vocalist and guitarist, said that last year’s sophomore album, Harlequin Dream, brought a more old-school pop, less experimental sound, which has in turn gained the group more American followers than the first album, Moonfire.

“In Australia we’re doing bigger rooms, but there’s something really fresh and exciting about playing overseas,” said Hosking. “It [the band’s sound] is bigger than what most people expect…live, it’s more energetic, a bit more in your face [than on the record].”

Their sound, he said, gets comparisons to Fleetwood Mac (here in the U.S., there are a lot of Mumford & Sons comparisons) which Hosking said might not be too far off the mark.

“There’s a song called ‘Part Time Believer’ that has a really 70s style, and I think that we used to take the piss [joke about playing that way] and what started as a joke, the riffs and style, it kind of sparked our interest, and came into the live show,” he said.

Boy & Bear has been touring for a few months now, and Firefly is similar to the sort of festivals they’ve seen in Europe and Australia. Both guys said they were excited to watch Beck’s set.

“We looked up Firefly beforehand, and the lineup is really incredible,” said bassist David Symes. “It seems like a festival for music lovers. In Australia we have a similar thing, a lot of nature and festivals where people get  together and camp, and in Europe it’s quite similar.”

As far as not-so-great moments from all the touring they’ve done, Hosking recalls a show in Luxembourg.

“There were one or two [shows] where I wanted to neck myself,” he said, laughing. “In Luxembourg…”

“Right, we were next to like an old mine, a coal mine,” Symes finishes his thought. “I opened the window like [pulls an aghast expression], the mine was just…there.”

“We realized the venue [there] was 600 capacity and we only sold 60 tickets,” Hosking said. “But it ended up being a really good show!”

“I remember hearing Wilco saying if one in nine shows feels really great, that’s the goal,” he continued. “This tour has been so good.”

At Firefly, B&B played on one of the smaller stages, which made for a cozy experience where the most diehard American fans called out requests and bantered with the guys on stage. Guitarist Killian Gavin’s playing was phenomenal, even on the most subdued tracks. The sound really was quite larger than you’d expect from a sometimes mellow group.

They’re friends as well, which factors into the collaborative process.

“Recently we went outside of Sydney and rented like a beach shack,” Symes said. “We’d get up, go for a swim, come back, cook beautiful food, drink too much…it was seven days of really being productive and also really…we’re all together, no distractions, doing things that we want to do.”

“I think we’re just a bunch of slightly weird music nerds that enjoy the simple things in life,” Hosking said. “We’re lucky that we enjoy each other’s company, and we love playing music. We’re going to work our asses off to play it as long as we can.”

“Exclamation point,” Symes added.