Bear, Man Dangerous is a fairly new project based around shoegaze and post rock sound. The latest EP, ‘Unofficial Coworker’ is an exciting experiment captivating various genres.

The project takes its inspiration from bands like This Heat, Russian Circles, Shellac, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yuki Numata Resnick and Fugazi to name a few.

“Most of the projects I have played in were genre bending”

Listening to ‘Unofficial Coworker,’ makes me think that this might be your most experimental release to date, how did you approach it and what were some of the inspirations for the tracks recorded?

Jason: First off, wow and thank you! I have played with pushing boundaries in home recordings for a while. I love Charles Ives, Miles Davis, Black Dice and other artists who play with the notion of what music is. Most of the projects I have played in were genre bending and used asymmetrical arrangements.

This recording was inspired by the limitations of the two previous Bear, Man Dangerous EPs. Both were written in pandemic isolation. I wanted to jam through the writing process and give the songs more life. Playing them, jamming on them, listening back and getting feedback, et cetera. The two previous EPs, even though I am fond of them, were too sterile. Even with ‘Unofficial Coworker,’ I wish I had waited a bit longer to record as now I hear so many missed opportunities. With ‘Unofficial Coworker,’ I was able to explore and then take them to Earwig, my favorite studio in Seattle! Don Farwell is top notch and a wonderful human!

I want to create music that pulls from all the great artists who have inspired me from adolescence to adulthood. Black Flag, This Heat, Can, Dalek, The Treepeople, Russian Circles, Shellac, A Place to Bury Strangers, Run the Jewels, Mos Def, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fela Kuti, The Jesus Lizard, Uzeda, Yuki Numata Resnick, Fugazi—I could go on and on—just naming artists. So many people have made music that affects me in different ways. ‘Missionless Days’ by the Canadian slowcore band Kepler is a brilliant record and so is ‘She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not’ by Kiss It Goodbye. There are just too many artists, genres, songs and records to name, and I want to incorporate/honor all of them all at once—in every song.

In addition to musicians, writers such as Jesmyn Ward, Chris Abani, Cormac McCarthy, Omar El Akkad and Don DeLillo are huge influences on my songwriting as I try to loosely or in a focused way write EPs around themes or ideas that won’t leave my head.

The short answer is: the inspiration is the need to excise demons and clear my head of the clutter that keeps me awake at night.

<a href="https://bearmandangerous.bandcamp.com/album/unofficial-coworker">Unofficial Coworker by Bear, Man Dangerous</a>

There seems to be a concept behind it, at least thematic-wise?

All of my songs over the past decade or more have been focused on ideas around equity, compassion, anger and the vulgar ways that we readily—sometimes gleefully— rob each other of our humanity. Here in America—since 2016 things have gotten ugly. Really ugly. Just the other day on Twitter, I let myself get into a quibble with someone when I responded to a disgusting homophobic tweet by a trash Twitter account. The person I got into it with had things like anti-race mixing and other “anti” titles that I won’t repeat. Seeing people so willing to disregard others’ humanity and are furious with certain groups of people just for existing, is scary. I want to weep and get into a fist fight simultaneously.

‘Unofficial Coworker’ is a piece of my response to the willful child that many Americans strive to be. There are white men who are triggered by non-white elves, mermaids and storm troopers—fictional characters from sci-fi and fantasy. Magical powers and fantastical abilities make sense, but the skin color of characters can completely break the enchantment? Really? It’s the people who say everyone is weak and triggered, who fall apart and reach for their guns when people “different” from them say, “Hi. I exist. I matter.” You can have whatever ideas you want in your head. However, when we start othering people and groups of people, things get really bad. After WWII people said “never again” yet there have been a staggering number of genocides and crimes against humanity that have taken place every decade since WWII—all over the globe. A lot of people seem to think it could never happen in America—despite the fact it already has from King Philip’s War to the Trail of Tears, enslavement, Jim Crow, the Ludlow and Tulsa Massacres—1919’s “Red Summer”—just to name a few.

So, from an early age, bands like Fugazi, 7 Seconds, Public Enemy and so many others—really instilled a sense of civic responsibility and engagement in me. This EP—specifically—was inspired by the fact that I live in a society where nobody seems to want to sit down and talk—work through problems and ideas. Like diseased animals we are lashing out at each other. Consumerism has destroyed us—however you define the soul or life force of a person—consumerism is a vampire. It sucks meaning from our lives leaving us hollow and empty. Now in the throes of late-stage capitalism the fissures are expanding—widening. Decades now of working to consume, devoid of meaningful connection and living in collective isolation—has made it really easy for us to fear, hate and other people who are different from us—superficially or significantly so. This EP is my musing on late-stage capitalism and the waste it has wrought. Empathy is an act of imagination, and we are proving to be some pretty fucking unimaginative folks.

It’s difficult to describe the sound as it’s really a fusion of various genres. Listening to it, do you hear where those sounds are coming from?

I think I touched on this earlier. Post-rock, punk, hardcore, post-hardcore, shoegaze, post-rock, math rock, slowcore, classic rock, neo-classical, space rock, acid rock, noise rock, post-metal, hip-hop, darkwave, no wave, jazz, sad/dark and political Americana songs—I love all of this and more. My head is too chaotic for me to focus on one genre or sound. As a result, I think the songs have a really psychedelic sonic footprint. Not a traditional psychedelic rock sound but they are pretty trippy and dense. I want to push this more on the next EP.

How would you compare it to ‘More Than You Need’?

I like ‘More Than You Need’. I think the Quicksand cover of ‘Blister’ is fun—a little too atonal, but fun. It was simply written and thrown together. There was not a percolation period. I know some people write and record that way—for me nothing great comes from that. I need to sit with songs, try lots of different things—keep re-imagining them. ‘More Than You Need’ feels more like a bookmarked idea than a finished piece.

<a href="https://bearmandangerous.bandcamp.com/album/more-than-you-need">More Than You Need by Bear, Man Dangerous</a>

I’ve been also really enjoying ‘Slow Violence,’ which is way more mellow in my opinion. Would you like to talk about it?

Wow! Thanks. 90% of ‘Slow Violence’ was recorded in the back seat of my car in a Seattle parking garage. This was written in the early lockdown portion of the pandemic. All I had to do was watch the news, read and stew over the ugliness that the pandemic brought out. I thought maybe it would bring us together and help us re-imagine a new world. Instead, we saw racially motivated violence by citizens and state actors intensify. People trying to kidnap politicians, crazy baby eating conspiracy theories—we just spiraled out of control. The us vs. them intensified. ‘Slow Violence’ is pretty dark. I like that about it. It’s raw. The lo-fi recording, for me, at least, gives the EP a lot of character. Adam King who played in a band Yonderlow with me and is part of Rest as Mutes—mixed ‘Slow Violence’ and added drums and cello. I had a few friends add various tracks (details are on Bandcamp) on the EP. That alone makes ‘Slow Violence’ special.

<a href="https://bearmandangerous.bandcamp.com/album/slow-violence">Slow Violence by Bear, Man Dangerous</a>

Tell us a bit more about yourself, how it all started for you and what led to the formation of Bear, Man Dangerous.

Covid fucked everyone—in various ways. I am not sure anyone made it out without some type of mental and/or physical health issues—those of us who didn’t become statistics. I was in a band called Rest as Mutes. We put out two recordings—close to two hours of music and had a third album written. We decided to record in July instead of January of 2020, so we could play shows and fine tune the songs—a rad group of songs that blew the first two Rest as Mutes records out of the water. The lockdown happened and we never made it to the studio. Not creating music—drove me absolutely nuts—not that I am a paragon of mental stability—but I am a pretty good faker. So, I started Bear, Man Dangerous. I am not sure if Rest as Mutes will reform or not. I hope so but we’ll see. If not, I will keep releasing songs as Bear, Man Dangerous—in whatever forms the project takes as the years move on. I hope I keep making sounds until I’m in the grave.

Are you working on any other project as well?

I have written more songs and am now in the process of collaborating with David and Adam from Rest as Mutes. I am hoping to head back to Earwig with Don Farwell to record the next Bear, Man Dangerous EP. Originally, I was thinking February of 2023. However, I think July or August is more realistic. We’ll see—maybe April. We’ll see.

What’s next for you?

Creatively: The next Bear, Man Dangerous EP, I am writing a novel and working on an easy on dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories and art in the current Zeitgeist. In general, just spending more time with the people I love and making sure they have no doubt as to how much I appreciate and value them.

Klemen Breznikar

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