Bears In Trees

The Croydon, south London quartet blends folk-punk, emo, and indie pop into bright, word-driven tracks that examine hope, camaraderie, transformation, and individual hurdles.

Childhood companions Iain Gillespie and Callum Litchfield later joined Nick Peters in the November Criminals; after the group disbanded, the three launched a fresh project in 2014. A random name generator produced “Bears in Submarines,” which they shortened to Bears in Trees. At music college Litchfield encountered George Berry and invited him to help shape the band’s first recordings; Berry’s substantial input earned him a permanent spot behind the kit. Once roles stabilized, the trained flutist Litchfield concentrated on ukulele and piano, while bassist Gillespie and guitarist Peters handled lyric writing.

Their self-released debut, September 2015’s Let’s Sleep on It, captured the unpolished urgency associated with New Jersey’s the Front Bottoms—an influence the quartet would reference across later work—yet the members eventually withdrew the album from most streaming platforms, concluding it no longer served as an apt entry point. After issuing two understated standalone singles, “Nick’s Wild Night In” and “A Song About the Weather,” on their own Bearberry label, they delivered the Berry-produced full-length Just Five More Minutes in August 2017. That December they followed with the ten-track EP Bits n’ Pieces, whose total runtime fell under eleven minutes. The Vienna-recorded “Fly Out to Alaska” appeared before 2018 closed, and the propulsive, pop-leaning “Sitting Pretty” opened 2019.

August 2019’s I See Blue EP, a twee meditation on nighttime introspection, drew the ear of Jake Sulzer, who signed the band to his Boston-based Counter Intuitive Records. The label subsequently released the companion 2020 EPs I Want to Feel Chaotic and Keep Me Safe. A May 2021 double-A-side, Flower Through Concrete, arrived alongside the quartet’s inaugural U.K. headline tour, while the album And Everybody Else Smiled Back surfaced later that year. Their first U.S. tour commenced in early 2022, supporting California labelmates Just Friends; the punchy single “Precipitation” preceded the November arrival of Every Moonbeam, Every Feverdream, Bears in Trees’ final Counter Intuitive release, which they promoted with headline runs across the U.K. and the North American east coast.

In 2023 Gillespie debuted the ambient indie side project Pet Yeti, issuing three understated EPs, yet Bears in Trees remained active with a U.K. support slot for You Me at Six and a U.S. support slot for Noahfinnce that included the Hopeless Records single “No Point Pretending.” A string of self-released singles followed before April 2024 brought the George Perks-produced album How to Build an Ocean: Instructions, which probed darker, more mature subjects while retaining commercial appeal. The band joined New Jersey’s the Happy Fits for a joint European tour, and the record became their first to reach the U.K. Top 20.