“We like to say that we’ve slowly formed over time like a bad habit, though it sometimes feels like it’s just a hobby that got out of hand…” Ian Ray, Straw Bear
Last month we received an email that simply posed the question “Do your in-laws dress like outlaws?”, a subject line that amongst the endless song submissions and PR mailouts had us rather intrigued.
Inside said email was ‘Snobbery’, a single from Cambridgeshire five piece Straw Bear, and needless to say we fast became enamoured by their sound, an optimistic alt-country/folk hybrid cut with sharp lyrical wit, which we described as “overwhelmingly cheerful, and distinctively British”.
The quintet have unsurprisingly been championed by pretty much every BBC radio station over the last few months, and we’re expecting big things in the wake of a forthcoming single release, taken from their second album ‘Black Bank’ which dropped earlier this year.
On a hot summer’s evening in Hove, Brighton’s affluent, tree-lined twin sister, we went to the pub with frontman Ian Ray to discuss buzz, Spotify and awkward family encounters.
Hi Ian, lets get acquainted. I know this is an ‘introducing…’ piece, but Straw Bear is a project that’s been around for quite a while now right?
Yes we’ve been around for quite some time, but we have only recently been picked up as a new band, which to be honest is fine by us. We did put out an album what feels like a lifetime ago, but that was like a bedroom recording with only three of us rather than a full band, and it was just massively nerdy basically, as we attempted to produce and layer the tracks ourselves. After that the full band kind of came together, but then I moved to Brighton and it all disappeared so we went off the radar for ages.
I’ve been led to believe you’re all still based in different parts of the south coast today, what made you want to give it a 
go again?
Well after a couple of years off the radar, and some serious illness in the band, we just said “we still love doing this” and decided to kick it off again. As you would expect it’s a logistical nightmare though, and every week we exchange at least 25 emails between us just to work out who’s doing what. I’m down here in Brighton, the drummer’s in Leytonstone, our lead guitarist in rural Essex, and then there’s two other people in Hertfordshire.
Yikes, that’s almost un-commutable for regular meet ups. If the buzz around you continues to grow and Straw Bear get any bigger that’s going to be difficult to cope with surely?
If I’m totally honest we’ve had conversations where we’ve said “has it got to the point where this is as far as we can take the band?” but each time we manage to push on through. It costs a fortune and we’re knackered but it’s great and we love what we do.
We should talk about the buzz, because it’s all been quite extraordinary in recent months, with Tom Robinson to Dermot O’Leary voicing support for you guys, whilst The Great Escape Festival saw you covered by so many more publications…
The Great Escape was a bit of a watershed for us really, because before that everything had just been focused around the BBC. They gave us so much coverage though through BBC Introducing and the radio, and it’s fair to say I’ll never complain about paying my license fee again after the support they’ve given us over the last few months.
Like you said the hype around you guys really began with your most recent album ‘Black Bank’ rather than the bedroom-recorded record we discussed earlier. Therefore, do you see this more as your debut album, as it’s how people were introduced to you?
It is really yeah, as this (Black Bank) was the first album we made together as a full band, which is why we’re so comfortable with the ‘introducing’ tags.
So it all started with just two members, and now it’s built up into a full band. Did you always know where you wanted to take it, or at the time did you just feel like you needed more people to bring new ideas?
I’d love to say it was all pre-meditated, but as the sound started getting bigger and more sophisticated we just slowly added more people into the mix with different people playing on different tracks. It’s such a cliché thing to say, but our development has just been really organic, and we like to say we’ve slowly formed like a bad habit, though it sometimes feels like it was just a hobby that got out of hand.
You’re actually one of the first bands we’ve interviewed where everyone has a full time job, does that take the pressure off you a bit as you’ve already got some security outside of the music?
I’ve got a lot of respect for people in bands who are prepared to go all out and put everything into making themselves successful, but that just wasn’t the way it worked out for us. The thing that I always think is because the band isn’t our full time job or our sole purpose, we’re unburdened by pressure to look cool, and there’s something great about leading this double life of sorts.
As a relatively new band, where do you stand on the recently heated Spotify debate? Do you feel it’s still a good platform for up and comers despite their seemingly controversial payment system?
We’ve definitely benefited from making our music available on streaming services, and as a listener it’s amazing to have all this music at your fingertips. But at the same time, the Spotify debate has really highlighted how much that model needs to change if we want new bands to survive beyond a debut album. I don’t think many young musicians pick up a guitar thinking they’re going to be millionaires any more, but it’s only right that they should be able to start clawing back their costs if they’re getting tens of thousands of plays on streaming services.
The two songs that you’ve sent out to blogs (‘Kitty’, and ‘Snobbery’) have both been extremely well received, is the success of those singles going to influence how you write songs in the future?
Reviews are a funny thing, because they do highlight the aspects of your music that people like, but I feel every review has got to be taken with a pinch of salt, and if you believe the good ones, you’ve got to believe the bad ones as well. One of the main things people have commented on from the singles is the comedic spin to the lyrics, which makes it strange when it comes to writing, as there’s almost a subtle pressure to write something funny.
The lyrics on ‘Snobbery’ were actually what first caught our attention about the single, although lines like “If you and I were married, they’d be my in-laws, they dress like out-laws” must be pretty awkward considering you’re married?
This will sound really excruciatingly pretentious, but ‘Snobbery’ is a metaphor for a situation that everyone goes through when they start seeing someone, and you meet their family and think they’re completely mental and you don’t fit in. I must add however that I’m a happily married man and my in-laws are lovely. I think when you get an idea for a song as well about a snob who looks down on his inlaws, it kind of starts to write itself.
So what’s next for Straw Bear then? (Apart from the endless emails and Skype conferences between the 9-5 job).
It’s all quite exciting actually, in the past we’ve only ever been confined to the south east when it comes to playing live, but at the end of the month we’ve got some shows in Liverpool and Manchester to coincide with the single release. After that I’d like to go straight into an album, as we’ve got so much material built up that I want to get on record. At the moment though, we’re just like the cat that got the cream and it’s amazing to have people’s attention, and to be honest we’re more surprised about that than anyone.
‘Snobbery’ is out today (July 29th) via Oilbug Music, listen to it below: