BEARSUIT interview

• 30th Aug 2007

Hearing the excellently titled ‘More Soul than Wigan Casino’ single by the excellently named Bearsuit , I wanted to know what made them tick in that excellently peculiar way of theirs. What do I mean when I say peculiar I hear you cry, better take a deep breath!

Well, you know, the whole wanting to retire, collectively dressed in a six man animatronic bearsuit, wearing a six way pair of monoslippers on their four hairy paws as they lounge, casually of course, and play crazy golf whilst schmoking (that’s right, schmoking) themselves to blissful oblivion in Spain’s not only glorious but Greg Norman endorsed old peoples home commonly known as Polaris World. Now, how’s that for a sentence!

I caught up with them in order to delve deeper into their deranged minds.

AS: WHO is most influential on your sound?

B: Stuff from outer space and crisps. Oh, dinosaurs too, especially Triceratops, Stegosauruses and Pterodactyls.

AS: WHERE do you sit in the grand scheme of things?

B: We sit on a bacterial level, somewhere in the lower left.

AS: WHAT act could you quite happily take out, mid concert, with your sniper rifle?

B: We once gigged with a band called Crystal Castles (probably Canadian and named after She-Ra’s home) who were terribly mean and went as far to write terrible words beginning with C on our tour bus. Yeah, they’d get it alright!

AS: WHY the name?

B: Initially, we all wanted a bear suit of our own and were dismayed to find that for a half decent bear suit we needed £3000! And so we started up our band to raise the capital. That and the fact it’s really quite a good name.

AS: WHEN is bedtime, more half 9 with a half read book or half 4 with fully red eyes?

B: We’ve a tendency to stop just before us and the empty liquor bottles drop. Jan was drinking Gin at half 9 this morning!

AS: I’m curious as to who might be the most likely to go solo or crazy?

B: (All eyes on a giggling Lisa) Again, Jan was drinking before breakfast.

AS: Any choice epitaphs for your collective headstone when you go to bear heaven?

B: Sleep when you’re dead. Eating is cheating. Sexydiscofuntimeyeah! If you can ride a bear around your school or town hall, do it. Fish off! Flock off!

Thank you for your time Bearsuit, may the farce be with you (sorry!).

For all info including unmissable tour dates for one of the quirkiest bands you’ll ever witness or their new LP ‘OH: IO’, released in September, visit the official website: link

Bearsuit are:
Lisa Horton – keyboards/vocals/theremin/accordion/keytar,
Matt Hutchings-drums,
Cerian Hutchings-cornet/violin/keyboards/vocals/piano/percussion,
Jan Robertson-guitar/flute/keyboards/percussion/samples/ vocals,
Iain Ross-guitar/korg/vocals and Richard Squires-bass/guitar/vocals)