British indie-folk band Bear’s Den will soon land on Australian shores, with a powerful, emotionally rich live performance set for Sydney’s City Recital Hall among other shows. 

Since Andrew Davie and Kenvin Jones formed Bear’s Den in London in 2012, the band has cultivated a passionate global fanbase drawn to their sweeping melodies and intimate lyricism.

Their four studio albums have made them a consistent presence in UK and European charts, while their debut Islands earned an Ivor Novello nomination and recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a striking new duet version featuring Dermot Kennedy.

While Jones left the band in early 2025, Davie remains as the sole permanent member, and his songwriting continues to resonate widely across the globe.

Davie, joined by Marcus Hamblett and Jools Owen, will be playing a special one-night-only show at Sydney’s City Recital Hall in May, in between shows with Boy & Bear in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Ahead of the show, Tone Deaf caught up with Davie to talk about Islands‘ tenth anniversary, what he loves about Australia, and what fans can look forward to when Bear’s Dean lands our these shores next month.

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Tone Deaf: Your last Australian tour sold out quickly. What is it about Australian audiences that seems to connect so deeply with Bear’s Den’s music?

Andrew Davie: I wish I knew exactly! All I can say is it’s reciprocated in a huge way – my wife and I talk about moving to Australia all the time and after our last tour it’s becoming increasingly hard to see why we shouldn’t. It’s such a beautiful country with such an incredible musical heritage and culture.

I’ve been fortunate enough to support amazing artists like Matt Corby and Boy & Bear and it seems like there’s so much great music constantly coming out of Australia. It really means a great deal that the shows are selling well and audiences connect with our music so strongly given how much great music there is in Australia and how discerning Aussie audiences are.

With the ten-year anniversary of Islands, how has your relationship with those early songs shifted, especially revisiting them now with more distance?

I think as you get older, you have a tendency to believe that you get better at writing songs, and in some ways I’m sure I have, but in other ways I really admire how brave and vulnerable those early songs are. I’m weirdly kinda proud of my younger self for writing those words and all of the lads in the band for how we presented them.

Kevin Jones’ departure marked a big change for the band. How has stepping forward as the sole permanent member reshaped the way you think about Bear’s Den?

Firstly, I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to my band mates both Kevin Jones and Joey Haynes have taught me so much about music and about life. They’re both hugely important people to me and always will be.

Moving forward I think I’m just trying to lean into my initial reasons for writing songs and to approach writing and performing with the same kind of sincerity and bravery as I did when I was just starting out writing songs. Before I was even in a band or had decided to pursue this as a career.

Your music has always balanced quiet intimacy with these huge, communal moments. Is that something you consciously build into both your songwriting and your live shows?

I think it’s a happy accident really. I stumbled into writing songs when i was very young and lost and it was a form of therapy. Trying to find a way of communicating difficult ideas that I couldn’t really communicate to anyone in the real world. It turns out that those isolated thoughts and feelings are largely shared by most of us even if we can’t articulate them in person.

After everything that’s evolved over the past year, what does this current chapter of Bear’s Den feel like to you – and what do you want people to take away from these upcoming Australian shows?

This current chapter feels like a new era for the band and one that i’m really excited about! I’ve been writing songs for a new album over the last year and i’m hoping we will record those songs in the next few months. Our live show thrives on creating intimacy but as you said celebrating those communal moments together too.

Getting in the audience and singing our songs with the audience is the dream and I hope that audiences are moved or can find some kind of catharsis in our live show . I’ll be joined by longtime touring band members and some of my favourite musicians: Marcus Hamblett and Jools Owen, and we all just can’t wait for it.

Bear’s Den will play Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Saturday, May 9th. Tickets are on sale here.