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Dec 14, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Newly signed to Counter-Intuitive Records, London-based indie pop outfit Bears In Trees are one of a handful of DIY bands that have seized upon Tik Tok virality this year. Fortunately, their absurdist humor, warm energy, and ebullient indie pop hooks come across equally well on their newly released studio album, and everybody else smiled back.

Described by the band as a concept album, the record draws back to the highs and lows of early adulthood. Together, band members and childhood friends Iain Gillespie (vocals/bass), Nicholas Peters (guitar), George Berry (drums/producer), and Callum Litchfield (vocals, ukulele, keys) unpack the layers of confusion, joy, heartbreak, and camaraderie that come with those days of new independence.

As the band describes, the record was inspired by “walking through university house parties as the world is ending around you and then, the day after, the everlasting love you feel as the lights are fading in your energy-saving bulbs. The results are at turns heartfelt, irreverent, and endlessly charming, pulling together strains of sunny indie rock, glittering boy band pop, and emotive emo confessionals.

The band have returned again following the record’s release with a new video for one of the album’s highlights, “Heaven Sent is a Coffee Cup.” Check out the video below and read the band’s track-by-track guide for and everybody else smiled back. The record is out everywhere now via Counter-Intuitive Records. Stream it here.

Cut Corners on Short Walks

Cut Corners on Short Walks is a retrospective look at my movement through my life and, specifically, my mental health. The intro sets the scene of my eventual rocky recovery, leading to the first verse that expresses my troubles with bullying in school and the eventual defence mechanisms of apathy and detachment, which were only calmed by the music that I would listen to. This lead to a way of life marked by chaotic lifestyles, house parties and the like, marked by the songs we would sing at the end of the night. Then, the way my world was brought crashing down again by a sexual assault that was a result of one of these chaotic nights that broke me down further, but picking up the pieces with my friends and recovering from it all through the love of friendship. - Iain

I’m Doing Push Ups

I’m Doing Push Ups is about my first year at university – falling in and out of relationships in an entirely unproductive and unhealthy way, and not stopping to take any time to work out within myself why I felt like if I wasn’t in a relationship I wasn’t whole. The push ups thing is from a rejected chapter from Catch-22; in an army cadet camp, the main character is told that if they’re seriously wounded in battle they need to do push-ups while waiting for the ambulance to… keep up their strength. - Nick

Baggy Hoodies

Baggy Hoodies is about a night after a Modern Baseball concert, on which a friend and I spent hours intoxicated in my university bathroom, trying to convince each other that we were more than our trauma and deserved to keep living. She got me to sing for her for what seemed like hours on end until the early hours of the morning. - Iain

Heaven Sent Is A Coffee Cup

Heaven Sent Is A Coffee Cup is about the night my partner and I met for the first time – it was at Iain’s house party. She didn’t remember me (and I’m very glad about that, because I was wasted). I wouldn’t meet her properly for another year and a half after that – so I guess it’s about that party more generally too, because it’s the same party where someone started breaking down Iain’s garden fence to make a campfire. It’s mainly about the whole confusion of meeting someone who’s going to become very important to you on that sort of night. - Nick

Keep it Easy

Keep it Easy is about the walks home that sober you up. The night I wrote it, I left Iain on a night out and then they called me at 7am the next morning because they hadn’t slept and had lost their keys, wallet and phone on the other side of London. We went up to London and dived into bins for a few hours trying to find it, all in vain. That story will probably be on the next album or something – two very different nights were had. - Nick

Array of Light

Array of Light is breaking out of the black-and-white thinking that marks depression and mental illness generally. It’s about seeing more to life than what is set out for you by society and your own mind, and about how found family creates the conditions for that, enabling you to escape to a better and more vibrant life that allows for the complexities of existence. - Iain

Mossy Cobblestone

In the summer of 2019, I crashed my skateboard into a brick wall, passed out and woke up in the middle of the road with blood streaming down me. I had to have 14 stitches put into various parts of my face. While I was coming to, shaking and crying on the street corner covered in blood, a lovely man in a van stopped and asked me if I was okay and if I needed to be taken to hospital. I said thanks but someone was on their way – he said he’d been in the same position before and that it was going to be okay. I hope he’s doing well. - Nick

Confidant

Confidant is a remembering and an apology to a very good friend whilst at university. We had what was akin to what is known as a ‘queerplatonic’ relationship. We were each other’s everything for the sake of each other, not our own wants. They moved away briefly to Australia and unfortunately, whilst they were lonely out there, my life continued and my mental health prevented me from seeing my importance. I felt I let them down not being there for them when they came back. - Iain

Little Cellist

This is a story about me and a good friend of mine. She plays cello. She found me in a godawful state, which finally began my treatment journey for my mental health. I was lying on the floor of the student union building; me finally opening up to her allowed her to open up to me and we became each other’s shoulder to cry on. And she kept me safe during some very hard times. - Iain

Sun Machine

Down the road from my flat in university was a Christian youth centre that a close friend of mine did open mic nights at sometimes. One of their members used to hand out free tea outside of my flat during exam season. It was all lovely. I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school, did the whole rigamarole – but the only time I’ve ever wanted to feel close to God was with that community. I could never really quite throw myself over the edge and really believe though. Sun Machine is about that. - Nick

Great Heights

Great Heights was written on a mattress on a hardwood floor at 4am after my friend’s birthday. It’s about those nights that don’t seem to end, where whatever bed you find (pavement/kitchen/outside of the train station waiting for the first train back to London) brings you the most comfort you’ve ever felt. It’s also about the fear that those nights are going to ruin you – you can’t make a bed that doesn’t have covers, and I don’t feel good if I don’t make my bed in the morning. - Nick

If I Just Ask Politely

One of my best friends, James, was the first person to move out into his own place in our friend group. He had this incredible flat in central Croydon (our closest city within a city) with a balcony that had a wonderful view. A lot of nights I can and can’t remember happened on that balcony. It was the only place I ever really felt tied to my hometown in that way. This song is about all of those nights. - Nick

Klimt Painting

This is about one of my house parties at university, feeling like nothing is more than the night you’re on – like the whole world is ending and this is all that’s left. It’s about choices, and about feeling broken and complete in the exact same moment. I feel like it’s the same vibe as Cut Corners, but with fewer words. - Iain