Boy & Bear Announce New Album and Single ‘Tripping Over Time’
Tripping Over Time is the band’s sixth full length album, set for release in December.
Image Casey Moore
Sydney folk pop rockers Boy & Bear have announced the release of their sixth studio album, Tripping Over Time.
Set for release on Friday 12 December, Tripping Over Time is the band’s second independently released album. Exploring the themes of love, death and self-reflection, vocalist and guitarist Dave Hosking believes “the record has an optimistic feel to it. There’s challenge and confrontation but underneath it all, there’s a belief that everything for now is in its right place.”
"The record predominantly is about how time changes us,” adds Dave, “we grow up, our priorities shift, our lives move onto new chapters and with this comes new insights but also new challenges. It’s a balancing act of reflecting or even yearning for our youth whilst also embracing life as it inevitably moves forward. So, I think the record's emotional core is really about finding peace in who we are and who we’ve become. It’s about self-growth.”
“The album is about embracing life as it is,” continues Dave. “The songs are played live with real human energy and emotion. While optimistic, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows; it’s honest and grounded. Each track carries a bit of tension but avoids a dark or heavy feeling. The album encourages stepping back to appreciate the beauty in the world. It’s a big celebration full of happiness, but with a bittersweet, “happy-sad” energy. The focus is on feeling things emotionally rather than intellectually and staying grounded while looking toward the future. Tripping Over Time is more experimental and “trippy,” designed as an escape from reality. The tracks create a journey that listeners want to revisit, evoking memories from past periods of life. It’s a form of escapism, reflecting the nature of life itself. The lyrics are poetic rather than literal, allowing listeners to interpret them in their own way and create personal stories. The record features floating sounds and playful experimentation, showing how working at your own pace can foster creativity.”
“It’s about the subtle lessons of life. You often don’t realise you’ve gone through something until you experience it. You’re always learning and stumbling forward, embracing the cyclic nature of life. There’s playfulness in all the crazy moments. The overall feeling is optimistic, nostalgic, and reflective.”
Accompanying the announcement is the release of the self-titled album track, which was produced by LA-based Justin Stanley (Prince, Beck, Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, Mark Ronson).
“‘Tripping Over Time’ is a celebration of the newfound wisdoms of age. As much as it’s a trade-off sometimes, I feel more at peace with myself and my circumstances these days,” explains Hosking. “The things that give me joy have shifted, I operate to a slower but more stable pace and there’s something profoundly pleasant about this.”
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Boy & Bear also released a music video for ‘Tripping Over Time’ that was directed by ARIA Award-winning Jeremy Koren (Grey Ghost), previous collaborator of Khalid, Hiatus Kaiyote, Ruel, Tones & I, Troy Sivan and more.
“In a sea of inauthenticity, we wanted to slap the face of the viewer with nostalgia via a montage of images on images using a variety of 80-‘90s broadcast cameras and 8mm film and Hi-8,” says Koren. “The classic John Brack painting ‘Collins St at 5pm’ was an influence, as was Rene Magritte’s depictions of suited men in hats. There’s something quite sad and unnerving about uniformity, but it also allows the band to become an organism reflecting our collective gaze upon this crazy world. The loneliness of Jeffrey Smart’s visual compositions as well as the weirdness of David Byrne’s comments on society - all these things made their way into the visuals.
“The album is so multi-layered that it felt necessary to distil it into a pure form, which became the suited men who walk thru these vast landscapes. We were of course led by the music and its deep influences… the syncopation and textures of Talking Heads or the quirky layering of Peter Gabrielle, the warm/world building synths of Sade or the bright/positive elation of the Beach Boys or Devo, all of these collective influences have somehow snuck their way into our representation on screen. These first 2 clips are the first 2 feet stepping into this world … it’s a journey broken into little pieces and we have plenty more to come...PS - Fuck AI.”
Tripping Over Time by Boy & Bear arrives Friday 12 December. Pre-order/pre-save here.
