Feature – Boy & Bear – Lost Dreams
Ten years on from the release of their chart-topping, ARIA-nominated album Harlequin Dream, Boy & Bear have released their anticipated new EP – the aptly titled Lost Dreams.
Comprised of found songs from their Harlequin Dream studio time, Lost Dreams is a celebration and continuation of the band’s most successful album to date.
Thrilled to have Lost Dreams released for all to consume, lead singer Dave Hosking enthuses,
“The Lost Dreams EP is essentially a bunch of songs that were recorded during Harlequin Dream but never got released. It’s been fun digging through the archives and rediscovering them. They are definitely from a certain Boy & Bear era, but they are full of life and youthful exuberance and I’m glad they’ve come to see the light of day.”
With three new songs retrieved from the Harlequin Dream studio archives on the EP, including the blissful Abraham, the jaunty emotive of Eye Of The Canyon and the neofolk charm of Mexico, the trip down Boy & Bear memory lane was not initially a journey the band had ever planned on taking.
With all three tracks written by the band themselves, co-produced by Wayne Conolly, mixed by Phil Ek and mastered by Greg Calbi, the eventual road to Lost Dreams initially started with actual loss, with the EP’s finished singles seemingly lost in the void before the mastered files were saved and pulled from the depths.
“We were all definitely aware of the songs’ existence,” says guitarist Killian Gavin, “but just like the growing folder of songs we never finish, I don’t think we ever thought they would see the light of day. We couldn’t find the files for the songs so we ended up speaking to Phil Ek (who mixed the album) to try and track down the mixes, then he put us in touch with the mastering team who were surprisingly able to track down the mastered files from 10 years ago!”.
And, as bass player David Symes reveals, the unearthing of the seemingly lost tracks opened the floodgates to the Boy & Bear experience over a decade ago, “It’s like finding an old t-shirt in the bottom of the draw when you move house. Kind of like: wow, remember that!? It brings back memories and feelings from that time, everything from the light that filtered in through the window while we were recording, to the meals we shared at the end of the day.”
Lost Dreams is available to stream now.