Photo by Chona Kasinger
Click here to see photos from Minus the Bear's Farewell Tour
It is often a rarity for bands to stick together for long periods of time, especially in this day and age.
For a band like Minus the Bear that was able to see a 17-year career thrive in the midst of the digital revolution of music, the feat of staying together and consistently relevant is a marvel.
The Seattle- based indie rock group played its first show in 2001 and has continued to evolve and perfect their sound throughout the years. While the band’s self- proclaimed “classic rock from the future” mantra stayed true over the years, Minus the Bear constantly seeked to expand upon that futuristic approach.
“We never wanted to write the same record twice and always wanted to progress,” bassist Cory Murchy says. “Maybe someone would get a new pedal and it would act as an inspiration to try other stuff and challenge ourselves.”
Whether it was the usage of the omnichord on “My Time,” the first track off of OMNI, or the sampling from guitarist Dave Knuson’s DL4 pedal that inspired much of the sounds from their breakthrough LP, Planet of Ice, Minus the Bear was always able to find new sounds that ultimately aided in creating a unique soundscape each album.
Minus the Bear and the omnichord
Seattle
“We created something out of nothing,” Murchy says. “I’m not really sure I could compare us to any other bands sound wise just because we all come from different musical backgrounds with common bonds and themes.”
Murchy and Knuson along with frontman Jake Snider, keyboardist Alex Rose and drummer Joshua Sparks who took over for the group’s longtime drummer, Erin Tate who left the band in 2014- make up Minus the Bear today.
Being from Seattle, a city with a strong and historic DIY music scene, the band has remained very focused on what it has wanted to do and achieve in the industry.
“We are all kind of control freaks in our own right and it was important for us to do things on our own terms,” Murchy says. “We have always made decisions based on what we wanted to do and what felt right, not what a manager or label felt like we should do.”
For the past 17 years, aside for a couple albums, Minus the Bear has largely remained an artist with Suicide Squeeze Records, an independent label in Seattle. Murchy considers the band lucky enough to have worked with Suicide Squeeze which believed in the band from day one.
“David (founder of Suicide Squeeze Records) has always been so supportive and believed in what we really wanted to do,” Murchy says.
Though the band did see mainstream success and was sometimes courted by major labels, the jump never felt like anything worth pursuing.
“You know, coming from the DIY scene, you are already suspect of someone trying to come in and woo you with flashy things and you know that doesn’t equal reality,” Murchy says. “I think for the most part we were able to keep our heads on straight and not stray too far from those roots.”
After an experiment working with another label, Minus the Bear will finish out its career with Suicide Squeeze which will help release the band’s final EP, Fair Enough, on October 19.
Saying Goodbye after 17 years
Minus the Bear has been a band since 2001. Since then, the world of music has drastically changed. While the band began in a time where record sales were higher and music was less accessible without streaming services and YouTube, they have stuck around and have seen a total transformation in simply the way their music is consumed.
Photo by Amanda DePerro
Seventeen years is a long time for anything but Murchy believes this is the right time to close this chapter of the book with Minus the Bear.
“We’re getting older, our families are growing, it just feels like the right time to do it,” Murchy says. “We’ve set out to do certain things and we have been able to accomplish so much. We don’t want to just fizzle out and become you know the, ‘oh boy, here they come again act,’ and it is just really important for us to have closure with the whole thing.”
Throughout the last decade, the band released six albums and a slew of Eps, each one distinctively different than the last. With that ever-changing sound, Minus the Bear has collected a wide eclectic of fans.
“A lot of folks are letting us know what we have meant to them and its pretty humbling and incredible that there are so many memories created through this band,” Murchy says. “People have met each other and fallen in love at our shows. We have had vets come up to us and let us know that our music got them through tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. People getting through addiction… That’s heavy shit.”
Photo by Amanda DePerro
In hindsight, Minus the Bear has always been a band in the indie scene to test the limits of what it really means to be a band during the digital era. The farewell tour shows the band is going out their own way.
Nothing forced, nothing mandated by a label, no bad blood. Just sheer appreciation and admiration for not only each other but the thousands of fans impacted by this band’s remarkable career.
“We were always trying to do something that felt good and sounded good to us,” Murchy says. “It is amazing how it all worked out.”
Minus the Bear’s final EP Fair Enough released October 19 and is available wherever music is streamed.
Rocco Falleti is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com
