Features Ursa Minor (Little Bear)

Little Bear, lyricist and lead singer with Ursa Bear, tells us a bit about the group - from their roots in house music, to creating a balance between their live act and studio work.

According to the gubbins we’ve got here, you’re ‘influenced by the golden age of house music.’ Anyone in particular?
I could reel off a list of amazing house producers and artists but I think our sound is less influenced by particular people and more influenced by the movement itself. House music is about celebrating freedom. Freedom to honour the uniqueness of who you are and at the same time feel like you still belong to something. The origins of House came from different types of people getting together to dance and have fun, let themselves go wild and free. Often the music was a four-to-the-floor beat with beautiful soulful vocals over the top talking about life & love. That’s what we’ve tried to capture. This element of house is probably the biggest influence on our music but there are definitely other musical influences too. I can see how the combination of typically ‘House’ instruments we’ve used, such as a 303 and a Juno 106 and including things like acid basslines give the idea of House, but you wouldn’t listen to us and automatically brand us as House music. It’s more about the feeling that comes from house music that we aspire to.

What first drew you to dance-y music? Have you dabbled in other genres?
I’ve been into dance music for a long time and I love it but I couldn’t listen to it all the time. I know people who do that. They will literally listen to a variant of dance on all occasions; slow-house for downtime, deep-house when going out, minimal-tech while cooking a Sunday roast, (in fact my flat-mate is one of those people, it’s a constant dance-off in our house), but I can’t do that. If I’m feeling a certain way I’ll want to listen to a particular artist’s voice or sounds or instruments. I guess it all comes down to what the artist has to say and whether that touches you at that moment or not. The draw of dance-y music is that when I’m up and feeling good and ready for wild abandonment, out of every genre I’d say that ‘House music’ hits the spot. I wanted to create that particular feeling for this project so we chose dance. If I’d wanted to create a different feeling I would have chosen a different starting point. It’s as simple as that really.

Are there any particular themes you carry throughout your work?
Honesty is a big thing for me. When I started out on this project I looked at all my favourite artists and tried to establish exactly what is was that talked to me about their music. It’s that thing where a song can seem like it is about absolutely nothing at all but at the same time perfectly sums up a feeling or situation. For me the best artists speak freely about themselves and that’s what the listener relates to.

How do the four of you work together to create your music? Do you have defined roles? Is the work shared evenly?
I create the foundations of each track and we build on the music together. All the lyrics and melodies come from me though.

We’ve seen you say you want Ursa Minor to be a live act. Does that mean you’re not in any rush to create an album or the like?
Being a live act is really important to us but we’re still aiming to create an album. Often people are surprised when they stop and listen to the lyrics of our stuff. I like that. When you’re in the throes of dancing to a song you don’t really appreciate what’s being said and that’s good. Who wants to stop and consider the meaning behind words when you’re out to have a good time. That’s why venue is so important for a live dance-act. We’re there to get everyone dancing to the same beat. However, having something recorded means it is accessible to fans whenever they want to listen to it. That adds a totally new dimension to the music as people have the opportunity to consider it. I think every live band wants that. No one is going to say ‘no sorry you can only hear our music when we say’. That would be ridiculous.

You’ve got your debut single on the way: is there anything you can tell us about it?
Yes. It is called ‘Droplet Affection’ and it is going to be released at the beginning of October of this year.

Fire fly by Ursa Minor/ Little Bear