Boy & Bear Announce New Album ‘Suck On Light’ Out Sept 27 + Official Video For Single “Hold Your Nerve”
July 11, 2019 BY Nettwerk
Following the release of new music last month, Boy & Bear have announced their anticipated fourth album Suck On Light will be available digitally, on CD and standard & limited edition colored vinyl on Friday, September 27th. Fans can pre-save, pre-order and pre-add from here. With this news comes the official video for the upbeat and optimistic new single “Hold Your Nerve.”
The video celebrates the return of the Sydney band with an intimate and energetic performance, shot by director Onil Kotian (Angus & Julia “Snow” and “Cellar Door”). Filmed in black and white, the video is intercut between scenes of a constantly revolving camera and a series of open-ended abstract, texture-adding visuals. The colored visuals are lifted from the Suck On Light artwork, which was designed by Leif Podhajsky who is behind the album artwork for artists like Tame Impala, London Grammar and Foals, in addition to being the creative director for Vivid Live Festival.
Director Onil Kotian says, “When I first heard ‘Hold Your Nerve,’ what resonated for me very early on was to be minimal & abstract in the concept – that didn’t detract from this energetic rhythmic drive that the song presented. Focusing on generating movement in the video that mirrored the dynamic of the song became the focal point of the execution.”
Boy & Bear guitarist Killian Gavin says of the video, “Making this clip was a real treat. We’d obviously been away from this world for a few years and were keen to rethink how we’ve gone about clips in the past. We’ve often layered stories over performances as we felt like it helped make clips more intriguing. But this was different. We wanted to find a way to captivate an audience with just a performance-based clip. It was a challenge we sort of came up with on the spot while shooting Day 1.”
Produced by the band and Collin Dupuis (Lana Del Rey, The Black Keys) in Nashville’s Southern Ground studios, and mixed in part by Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Tom Elmhirst (Arcade Fire, Beck, Lorde, Amy Winehouse), Suck On Light is comprised of 12 tracks including the recently released “Hold Your Nerve” and “Work Of Art.”
Met with an incredible reception from fans and media on release, their first and current single “Hold Your Nerve” was instantly added to Australia’s triple j (hitting #1 Most Played on the station) and added to playlists across the country. The first new music since the release of 2015’s Limit Of Love, it revealed the personal and professional storm of a band delivering their next album, and one they feared might never come to exist. The band was faced with the challenge of vocalist-guitarist Dave Hosking battling a debilitating illness, which drove them to create their finest album to date; a record that takes the trademark analogue warmth of their sound and pushes it to places the Sydney quintet have never explored before.
To protect the purity of their musical vision, the band – which also features the afformentioned guitarist Killian Gavin, drummer Tim Hart, bassist Dave Symes and keyboardist Jon Hart – wrote a brief for the album; a clear memorandum of exactly how they wanted it to sound, and how they would achieve it. “We still wanted ’70s tones, ’70s drum tones and guitar tones, we still wanted to embrace harmonies, but we wanted to push it more into the 21st Century and mess with it a little bit, more than we had in the past,” says Hosking.
While Hosking’s health remains a work in progress, the fact that he and the band have reached this point is nothing short of a triumph. Motivation was never hard to find.
Boy & Bear will be hitting the road once again for their global “Hold Your Nerve Tour.” All tour dates are listed below.
Australia
Thursday August 15 | The Tivoli, Brisbane
Friday August 16 | The Forum, Melbourne
Saturday August 17 | Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Friday August 23 | The Astor, Perth
North America
Thursday September 12 | World Cafe Live Downstairs, Philadelphia
Friday September 13 | Bowery Ballroom, New York
Saturday September 14 | Union Stage, Washington
Monday September 16 | Brighton Music Hall, Boston
Tuesday September 17 | L’Astral, Montreal
Thursday September 19 | Opera House, Toronto
Friday September 20 | Maxwell’s Concerts & Events, Waterloo
Saturday September 21 | The Casbah, Hamilton
Monday September 23 | Bottom Lounge, Chicago
Tuesday September 24 | Turf Club, Minneapolis
Wednesday September 25 | Garrick Centre, Winnipeg
Friday September 27 | The Capitol Music Club, Saskatoon
Saturday September 28 | The Palace Theatre, Calgary
Sunday September 29 | Starlite, Edmonton
Tuesday October 1 | Capital Ballroom, Victoria
Wednesday October 2 | Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
Friday October 4 | Sunset Tavern, Seattle
Saturday October 5 | Aladdin Theater, Portland
Tuesday October 8 | The Independent, San Francisco
Wednesday October 9 | The Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles
Friday October 11 | Constellation Room, Santa Ana
Saturday October 12 | Voodoo Room @ House of Blues, San Diego
UK/EU
Wednesday 5 February 2020 | De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium
Thursday 6 February 2020 | Tivoli Vrendenburg, Utrecht, Holland
Friday 7 February 2020 | Doornroosje, Nijmegen, Holland
Saturday 8 February 2020 | Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam, Holland
Tuesday 11 February 2020 | Les Etoiles, Paris, France
Wednesday 12 February 2020 | Luxor, Cologne, Germany
Thursday 13 February 2020 | Knust, Hamburg, Germany
Saturday 15 February 2020 | Lido, Berlin, Germany
Sunday 16 February 2020 | Strom, Munich, Germany
Monday 17 February 2020 | Magnolia, Milan, Italy,
Tuesday 18 February 2020 | Papiersaal, Zurich, Switzerland
Thursday 20 February 2020 | Gorilla, Manchester, UK
Friday 21 February 2020 | Glasgow Arts School, Glasgow, UK
Saturday 22 February 2020 | Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK
Monday 24 February 2020 | Institute 3, Birmingham, UK
Tuesday 25 February 2020 | Thekla, Bristol, UK
Wednesday 26 February 2020 | Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
