Grizzly Bear Make Connections With Halifax

The music industry is more close-knit than most can fathom.

When Grizzly Bear bassist and multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor takes a break from recording in a church outside Brooklyn, N.Y. to answer his cell phone, it's fair to assume he doesn't expect much from the other end of the line. Surely it's just another journalist trying to get the scoop.

But we avoid obvious topics of conversation, including last summer's tour with Radiohead, their five-night stint with Paul Simon, Grizzly Bear's mention on the Gilmore Girls television show and the internet leak of their new album, Veckatimest, which comes out on Tuesday.

With the current economic climate and plummeting record sales, finances don't force artists forward — inspiration does. And it can take root in various forms, from geography to casual colloquialisms.

"Veckatimest just sort of summed it up," says Taylor. "Maybe that's why it's named after a place.

"Giving a title to the time we spent there, calling it something else like 'the shit's mask' just doesn't fit well.

"Titles can be very foxy. It's good to leave things a bit more general."

After I mention I'm calling from Halifax, Taylor is quick to tell stories of a pre-band road trip to Vancouver, his first to Canada. A few friends drove up in a van and all their CDs were stolen. The experience didn't sour him, but he can't disclose the name of the church where they're recording due to liability.

"It seems as Canadians there's a certain naivety to this sort of thing," Taylor says. "What if someone just came in and stole our stuff? All of our equipment is here."

It's not surprising when Taylor tells me he's never been to Nova Scotia. Many Canadians are uncertain of its whereabouts, but he seems intrigued by the gigantic hunk of geography looming above the border — especially our small provincial peninsula.

"We were just in Berlin and I met some musicians from Halifax on tour — two twins, actually. They were telling me about some great camping in Nova Scotia. I hope to come this summer and check it out on a personal trip. Oh, what is their name?"

Taylor seems slightly perplexed when I guess Ghost Bees. He's absolutely flabbergasted when I say Bee member Sari Lightman subleased my last apartment and Ghost Bees once played gigs with my old band, Oh, Beautiful! Majestic! Eagle!

What Taylor doesn't know is this is typical Halifax. Everyone's either shared bands, beds or lovers. At the very least, they've split a restaurant, phone or concert bill. Something tells me this isn't the case in the boroughs of New York.

"The album is named Veckatimest after this place in Cape Cod," Taylor says. "We did a lot of recording and rehearsing there.

"It sounded good. it just sort of summed everything up.

"The record isn't about a certain thing. There is no central theme. It's just about getting together to make music together. It's more an interpersonal thing. It's more creative dynamic, what comes and what doesn't come from working together."

After Grizzly Bear's debut release, 2004's Horn Of Plenty, Taylor joined forces with singer/guitarist Daniel Rossen, singer/guitarist Ed Droste and drummer Christopher Bear to fill in the band's enigmatic sounds. As a producer, he works with Grizzly Bear and Rossen's other project, Department Of Eagles. He rotates between bass, clarinet, flute and accordion during Grizzly Bear's live performances.

"Grizzly Bear was a nickname for one of our singer's ex-boyfriends," says Taylor. "He broke up with him and wrote a lot of funny break-up songs about meeting someone new.

"But there are a lot of animal bands. I don't know why people do it. It's so weird. It's like a living being without being a person, so it sort of has that unpredictable animalistic quality without necessarily being attached to a particular personality. It's animorphical or something."

You can see Grizzly Bear here:

May 25 George, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheater (Sasquatch! Music Festival)
May 26 Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/Foreign Born
May 28-29 New York, NY @ Town Hall w/Here We Go Magic
May 31 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
June 1 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/Here We Go Magic
June 2 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero w/Here We Go Magic
June 3 Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center w/Here We Go Magic
June 4 Montreal, QC @ Le National w/Here We Go Magic
June 5 Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre w/Here We Go Magic
June 7 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center w/Here We Go Magic
June 8 Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater w/Here We Go Magic
June 9 Bloomington, IN @ Buskirk-Chumley w/Here We Go Magic
June 11 Manchester, TN @ Great Stage Park (Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival)
June 11 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle w/Here We Go Magic
June 12 Manchester, TN @ Great Stage Park (Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival)
June 13 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle w/TV On The Radio
June 15 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre w/Here We Go Magic
June 16 Austin, TX @ The Parish w/Here We Go Magic
June 18 Tucson, AZ @ Centennial Hall w/Wilco
June 19 Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theater w/Here We Go Magic
June 21 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore w/Here We Go Magic