 How did the band come to be?
Mondo Bear as a project began late in 2018, as the culmination of another project by our drummer Vebjorn and singer/guitarist Erik. With two new members, Anders on guitar and Sondre on bass, we quickly started writing these longer, slow songs based on jams. These jams suddenly started to make sense, and before we knew it, we had a handful of songs that we thought were too good not to share on a live stage. Do you have any releases coming up in the new year? We just released our debut album “H, as in Hollywood” in February, through the Oslo based label High Ten records. The album is a collection of the first songs we’ve written together that we thought sounded good enough for an album. It’s an amalgam of our different tastes and styles in music. “H, as in Hollywood” is available on most streaming services. What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? The feeling and atmosphere. Hopefully you find yourself on a little journey while listening to the songs or the whole album. There’s a lot of detail in this kind of music, so it might require a second listen to digest it properly. That’s the type of music we like, where you can listen to an album a hundred times and always find some new minute thing that surprises you. We hope people have some of that experience with our music as well. With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? With COVID-19 spreading rapidly the Norwegian government and our Department of Health have set guidelines and regulations in an attempt to limit the spread within Norway. These new limitations have effectively postponed or cancelled every concert and show in our hometown Trondheim, including our own release concert for “H, as in Hollywood”. This shutdown has adverse effects for musicians and artists all across the world, how bad is yet to be determined. We hope that the entertainment industry can ride out this storm, and reschedule cancelled dates when we get that “all-clear” from our government. In the meantime, we´ll listen to music, practice and continue making songs for our second album. What is your writing process like? Our songs start off as a riff or a chord, most of the time we just start jamming and having fun with it. By adding some kind of ambiance and atmosphere to them, and then running it through effects pedals until the song sounds like Mondo Bear. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? Most of our influences for this band are the greats of the 60s and 70s. Though our personal preferences are quite varied. Erik, our singer/guitarist has an affection for Lana Del Ray and Pink Floyd while the rest of the band is into anything from vintage heavy metal to jazz, krautrock, fusion, soul/rnb, etc. We also get inspired by the people we meet and the relationships we have with them. By combining elements from widely different parts of music, arts and life in general, we create music that hopefully can inspire others to create and enjoy. Any tours coming up soon? We were planning a release tour to promote “H, as in Hollywood”, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put that on hold. Hopefully we´ll be able to organize a promoter, and take our music outside of Norway this fall. Anything you would like to tell our readers? Check out our music, give our album a few good listens from start to finish, and then let us know what you think about it. Hopefully we left you wanting more, and better yet, made you want to see us live. Spotify: “H, as in Hollywood” Instagram: Mondo Bear (@mondobearband) Facebook: Mondo Bear - Home
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