Alternative Melbourne, 2/98
Form Guide, 3/98
Official Polar Bear bio, 3/98
Official Polar Bear bio, 9/98


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Article published in "Alternative Melbourne", February 1998
Polar Bear

As the Jane's Addiction tour of America finally draws to a close, fans are starting to wonder what original bassist, Eric Avery has been doing whilst all this was going on. Eric declined to be involved in the "relapse" for various reasons, the main one being that he wanted to concentrate on his current band, Polar Bear. After Jane's Addiction split in half in 1991, Eric and guitarist Dave Navarro recorded one album together, Deconstruction, before going their separate ways, and all ties to Jane's Addiction were finally cut. Eric began collaborating with ex-Ethyl Meatplow drummer/programmer Biff Sanders, and Polar Bear was born. They have recently released their first CD, a 5 track ep called "Chewing Gum" and plan to record an album soon. They also hope to tour Australia. I spoke to Eric recently and asked how he and Biff first got together.

I had known him for a long time because of the connection through Carla [Bozulich, previously in Ethyl Meatplow with Biff, and currently in the Geraldine Fibbers] and we were just kinda always on opposite sides of town, but I was working at this place in Santa Monica with another friend of mine and I don't remember exactly how we decided to take the first step, I think we just saw each other and we talked and I told him I was doing the digital stuff, and the ADAT thing and he said "well, just throw me some stuff."

So were you just messing around in the studio anyway?

Yeah, it was a few years ago when I was first just really getting into it, because I'd always been very much like "I know how to drive the car, but I don't know a thing about how it works" kind of musician. So I was actually really making a concerted effort to learn a lot more about the engineering side.

To get your head under the hood?

Yeah, exactly!

Was this before Deconstruction? Because there were some samples and stuff in there too.

That was really conceptually done, but engineered by other people...I really wanted to know how to do it myself, the actual kind of hands on recording and editing of the clips....but I swapped tapes with Biff and I really liked what he was doing to them and I went to see his studio downtown and when I walked in, I just totally felt like this was supposed to be my home, because where I was working was like weird Berber carpets, and grey everywhere, and blond wood and it just didn't really feel much like my soul, or whatever.

So what's Biffs' studio like?

His was great, just like a downtown loft space, like an 80's artist loft and it was over this "Dime a Dance" place and it had this really great feeling, this great vibe about it, and art on the walls and beautiful hardwood floors and in a great old theatre building, so I totally felt more at home, and that afternoon, I actually went back to the other guy I'd been working with and told him I was gonna move.

You're also a painter and have said about your songwriting process that it is more like a visual thing than songwriting so much, in that you add "colours" and take them away. Is Biff a visual person as well?

No, he is one of those people who has such a real particular genius for audio, he does everything pretty much with his ears, like editing and stuff like that. Some guys you work with are really technical and they want to see waveforms and clip and slice everything almost like mathematicians, whereas Biff's not like that. He would probably like to do more technical stuff, 'cause we both enjoy all the 'tecky' stuff, all the toys, but he's very much "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks".

Polar Bear is essentially a three piece rock band, but you incorporate the use of samples and sounds as well. Do you hear things in movies and tape them, or go looking for a particular sound?

Usually what happens is I go to sources where I know there's going to be some interesting sounds, like going to the library, because the libraries have great collections of historical recording on CD's so you don't need some weird wind up gramophone in order to hear something that was recorded in the 30's. I guess it's kind of like selecting your colours, to continue the analogy, but sometimes there will just be a particular film where there will be a a certain sound.

When you're writing and recording songs, do you sit down with all your samples and sounds ready to draw from?

Like I said, it's a real haphazard way of going about it, like sometimes it's one way, sometimes another, but most often we'll write the initial musical parts and just [weave them through], but sometimes it'll be real specific, like I'll come in with a simple guitar thing and go "I wanna hear a really borderline, out of tune violin, do we have one of those?" So we'll look through our library.

How do you play the songs live then, do you work with tapes or just play a more stripped back song live?

It's a little bit of everything really. It's difficult to tell what's what, unless you're a player. We like that idea and sometimes it's very distinct, the difference between the live instruments and stuff, because we have a tendency to just play kind of purposefully sloppily sometimes, like I was very particular to be not interested in making music that sounds like how television looks, I didn't want to make really slick stuff. We don't play with a click, we just play along with our music. I always refer to it as "having some hair on it" like it's just a little rough around the edges.

Polar Bear have been playing in and around Southern California for about 2 years now. Are the fans mainly curious Jane's Addiction fans or have you built your own following?

We have a small, deeply disturbed following, at this point and it's actually very separate it seems.

Apparently you've been playing new songs at recent gigs, so does this mean an album is being workshopped at the moment?

Yeah, I'm kinda constantly that way, I was that way in Jane's Addiction too, I just like to keep writing, I don't ever really stop and say "O.K. here's 8 songs" [for an album] so I'm always just pushing ahead, especially because of the fact that now I'm singing, which is a new instrument and learning all this new stuff too, technical stuff, and I really wanna just keep pushing forward. And when it comes time to make a record we'll see where we stand then. I mean, we have so much material already.

So how do you know when it's time to make a record?

In this particular case, we'll know when the cheque gets written (laughs) we're pretty ready ourselves.

Polar Bear have reportedly had interest from several major record labels. Do you think which ever record company you decide to go with will make you leave Biff's studio?

Well actually, we're really anxious to get out of Biff's studio, we're anxious soundwise to get away from the familiar territory. There are certain things you have a tendency to do, like everything that we've recorded there has a certain sonic quality to it, and we'd like to have a different sonic quality. And actually, really give the reins over to someone else to engineer, so it's not just Biff and me...and really get another strong opinion in there, as well, production and engineering wise.

Most people go the other way, they start out with appointed people to help them, and strive to get more independent as they progress, don't they?

I think that both Biff and I aren't really precious about anything, I mean we're precious about ultimately making our own decisions, but we're not precious in the sense that...I always try to be open to anybody's opinion and try to consider everybody, and so, in that sense, especially as I get older, I'm coming to appreciate more and more the jobs that people do. Like when I was younger, I think I had more arrogance, like I believed that I was the one most qualified for just about anything, any of the periferal jobs, be it artwork for something, or direction of videos, or whatever, and I think that as I get older, I'm appreciating more and more other peoples input and just how invaluable that can be for making your work much more multi-dimensional and not just your own precious expression.

Guitarist Thomas Von Wendt recently decided to leave Polar Bear. He joined late in the recording of "Chewing Gum" and has mainly been playing live and writing new songs. So will he be greatly missed?

It affects things, there were definitely things about his writing style that I really liked and that I will miss. But he's not really much on anything that's recorded, so in a sense, the core is still there. The core was, and continues to be Biff and I, but yeah, he'll be missed as a songwriter. As a performer and player, he won't so much be missed because he wasn't really great. (Laughs). And also anytime you have to bring someone else up to speed in a situation like this, it's a bit of a momentum drawback.

How's it going looking for another guitarist?

I actually just talked to my manager just now, and collected together the initial list of people that contacted us and gonna give her a list of names to set up next weekend. It's such a weird process to go through, it's like going on three dates a day or something, like looking for a wife.

You've been responsible for all of Polar Bear's lyrics, and so far, they are continuous streams of consciousness where everyday observations are strung together to evoke a sense or a feeling about something. Are there any plans to release a book of poetry?

Yeah, actually I have [thought about it]. The only problem is that when I collect the poems of my life, they're just not really any good (laughs). What I thought I might do is just collect up stuff and create a website of it, 'cause I figure I would feel better if I wasn't asking anybody to pay for it. I can let the criteria ease a little. But I write these things called riffs - which are basically a page and a half long little essays about things I'm thinking about - and I was thinking of putting them together into like a little booklet or something. But the great thing, and the horrible thing about the web is you can just throw stuff up there and it doesn't cost anybody anything. . . I've been trying to write lately. . . I was actually thinking about this today, as I was driving around, that I actually feel like I'm making a shift these days, like the last couple of songs, really trying to make an attempt to write lyrics rather than poems and sing them.

Why would you want to do that?

Well, just because it's interesting to me to communicate my ideas in ways that are phonetically interesting or playful at the same time. I'm just kind of paying more attention to the rhythm of the phrasing and stuff like that, rather than simply the idea. It doesn't mean that every line is going to end with "pants" and then the next one will end in "dance" (laughs).

Having endured the last few months of everyone wanting to know why you weren't participating in the reunion, and the subsequent rumours of drug use surrounding the band [Jane's Addiction], how does it feel now that the Jane's Addiction relapse is over?

Well, I'm really glad that it's all over with. Because I really wish it had never happened, but it's funny though, because I was wondering that very thing. I haven't talked to David [Navarro] yet, since, but I was curious. I thought to myself, "Well, now how does it feel guys? I mean, how how does it feel for you guys to be, now you're just back to your Porno for Pyros and your [Red Hot Chili Peppers]? Was it worth it? Was it what you wanted it to be? But for me it's just kinda nice because it's just like maybe now, everywhere I go, I'm not gonna be hearing about that girl I went out with a long time ago who everyone keeps telling me about who she's seeing now, kind of. That's really what the experience was like for me. Everybody thought I needed to hear everything about what was going on and it was funny too, because I was fielding phone calls, like this was my little mundane day to day existence, I was like this secret headquarters for all the drama, around that stuff. It was just funny, all these people calling here and I was just sitting there going "There you go...not a lot of surprises there." I was not surprised by anything. It's funny too, because I am so not connected, in the usual sense, to the music industry, I don't go to lots of clubs and don't see bands, or go hang out at all the right coffee shops or whatever. I have not felt an affinity for that for a really long time. It seems like all my friends from Hollywood come out to Santa Monica to have an afternoon where they wanna sit with me and talk shit about how full of shit everyone in Hollywood is, and then they disappear into that world again for a couple of months, until they come meet me for a cup of coffee, to do the same thing a couple of months later.

Polar Bear have tentative plans to tour Canada, Japan and Australia, and in the meantime, the "Chewing Gum" ep is currently available on the Dry Hump label, and a 12' vinyl of remixes is available on Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin label.

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Article in Form Guide magazine, march 1998
Polar Bear - Interview with Eric Avery

Eric Avery may be best known to most people as the bass player for Jane's Addiction, but recently, he's been fronting his own band, Polar Bear. Joining him is drummer/programmer Biff Sanders, who is also well known for his previous band, Ethyl Meatplow. The pair have been playing shows in Southern California for a few years now, with a floating line-up of guitarists, and have just released a brilliant 5 track ep "Chewing Gum". Polar Bears' sound is hard to put your finger on at first, it stems from their musical pasts sure, but also combines Biff and Eric's love of computers, where sounds and samples are woven through the songs to create quite a complex, moody and enticing tapestry. I spoke to Eric about the songwriting process he and Biff have developed.

One of the things I find interesting about working with Biff, is sometimes I like to write the song, bring it downtown. Lay a basic guitar part down and put the vocals on, and then we build on it and then we remove the original guitar. So we take the original structure of it, build around it and then remove that first thing and just leave the peripheral stuff.

The songs on "Chewing Gum" appear to be constructed like collages, rather than having a linear structure, and the process you've just described is how a collage artist will work. They'll draw an initial line drawing, but by the time the different elements are pasted over, that initial linework is gone.

Yeah, it's interesting that you should say that too, because I've said about this process that it feels much more like the process when I paint or do some kind of visual thing rather than songwriting so much, because it is, in a way like adding a little bit of red here and a little bit of black there.

Your songs are also very much like sung poetry, in that they conjure up scenes and evoke a picture for the listener. What do you take most inspiration from, as far as your songwriting goes?

The first thing that comes to mind is just people. An old girlfriend put it really well, she said "You know Eric, I get your work now", and I said "What do you mean?" and she said "You're a list maker" and I went "Yeah, totally I know what you mean." Because, without calling it that, I've always done that. I like to put together pictures at the same time and their juxtaposition becoming the feeling that I'd like to evoke or talk about. So as I go through my day, I see little pictures. I pay attention to people at bus stops and I often have like a voyeuristic feeling, but like a real compassionate, empathetic feeling as well. For the lost or forlorn looking people of the world, or the gestures, just all the human gestures that we do of kindness, or anger.

Is the video you've shot for 'Monkey' going to be released for TV, or is it just for showing on stage?

I don't really know yet. We did it initially for our old guitar players' [John Curry] reel...he's a graphic artist, and so we just kind of did it, The idea, when he told me, I thought it was kinda hokey and I didn't think it was going to work very well and so I just kind of resigned myself to it as being "Well it's something to help out John really, it's not going to be any real use to us," but he was getting like free film and free post time and everything, so we just decided to help out, but I haven't seen the footage yet. Biff saw a rough cut that John put together and he actually said it looked really good, so maybe we will do something with it.

Was it just a live set up, or more involved?

There was a whole story behind it, like a noir setting that had virtually nothing to do with the song...which I always think is funny 'cause I've had experiences of videos that have really made people 'get' a song in a way they didn't get before, but so often it's just totally arbitrary.

You and Biff are both seasoned professionals now, and have consciously moved from larger record companies (with your previous bands), to independent releases. What aspect of the music industry are you most jaded about?

I saw this friend of mine on TV last night and I just went "All these fucking people are just selling out, kind of left and right" and what's surprising to me is that it's really...alright, that it just seems to be O.K. for people to do this kind of behaviour that I would've thought ten years ago we would have all agreed would be just heinous, that would have been totally unacceptable.

With that in mind, have you any conscious thoughts on how far you'd like to go with Polar Bear?

Well, not really. The way I feel is that I've already had my time [with Jane's Addiction], in a sense, and so if Polar Bear were to take off and go through the roof, that would be fine and great and I'm up for another adventure, but if not, I'd just like to work for a little while longer and then get out. I'm in a position where I feel like the only thing I wouldn't want to do is desperately hang on and try to do a bunch of stuff that would just like, murder my soul. But aside from that, I'm really just kinda open to whatever life is gonna present. In terms of what to do, I'm only just going to keep writing and I would like to make a couple more records and tour.

Aside from America, why do you plan to release, and promote the "Chewing Gum" ep, in Australia, Japan and Canada, why not Europe?

It's actually just happenstance...it's just how it has transpired...I would be surprised if it did as well in America as I think it would do in Europe, so I'm anxious to get it over there [too].

Polar Bear also plan to record an album soon, and may be visiting our shores in the not too distant future. The "Chewing Gum" ep is currently available on the independent Dry Hump label, and there is also a 12" vinyl of remixes out on the Man's Ruin label.

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Official bio, 3/98...
POLAR BEAR

POLAR BEAR is ready to wake listeners everywhere out of hibernation. Featuring Eric Avery on bass and Biff Sanders on drums, POLAR BEAR creates unique electronic music rooted around a pulsating rhythm section. With the recent additions of two new guitarists, Andy Troy and Dani Tull, the band forms a groovin' electropowered quartet, unlike any band presently in existence.

You already know the originating musicians from their former groups: Eric was the co-founder/bassist for the legendary Jane's Addiction and Biff is of the now defunct leather fetishists Ethyl Meatplow. The newcomers are also local So Cal guys. Dani is a painter/photographer/musician and has played in several other local bands. Andy has played locally in several bands including Sheppard Pratt on TK Records and The Mexicans on Wild West Records before being recruited by POLAR BEAR. He teaches music to kids and disabled teens, and is also the Associate Publisher of a Southern California wine magazine.

Hear for yourself. POLAR BEAR carves psychedelic soundscapes that weave through Middle Eastern tempos while haunting undercurrent vocals permeate throughout. The merging of Eric's rhythmic bass style with Biff's percussion, and electronic exploits create an exciting new sound. Andy and Dani's guitars add even more driving edge to music that is already powerful on its own.

POLAR BEAR has released an instrumental ice blue vinyl 12'' on super illustrator Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin label. They also have CD-5 (EP) of vocal mixes on Dry Hump Recordings available at Tower Records among others as well as your local indie store.

The band has played to enthusiastic crowds and sold-out venues all around Los Angeles and excitement is continuing to grow. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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Official bio, 9/98...
POLAR BEAR

POLARBEAR is ready to wake listeners everywhere out of hibernation. Featuring Eric Avery, Biff Sanders, Dani Tull and Andrew Troy. The band forms a grooving electropowered quartet, unlike any band presently in existence.

You already know the originating musicians from their former groups: Eric was the co-founder/bassist for the legendary "Jane's Addiction" and Biff is from the now defunct leather fetishist Ethyl Meatplow. Besides being a musician Dani is a LA fine artist that exhibits his artwork in galleries and museums internationally. Musically he has fronted his own bands and has also been an occasional member of the legendary Half Japanese, and Overpass featuring George Hurley (Minutemen, Firehose) and Tom Watson (Red Krayola). Andrew has been fueling himself musically since the age of seven and has also played the LA area frequently with members of Sublime, Suicidal Tendencies and new comers HED.

Here for yourself. POLARBEAR carves psychedelic soundscapes that weave through Middle Eastern tempos while haunting undercurrent vocals permeate throughout. The merging of Eric's trademark bass style with Biffs percussive and electronic exploits create an exciting new sound. Guitarists Andrew and Dani create even more driving edge to the music and enhance POLARBEAR'S dynamic live performances.

POLARBEAR has released an instrumental ice blue vinyl 12'' on super illustrator Frank Kozic's Man's Ruin label. They also have CD-5(EP) Titled "Chewing Gum."

POLARBEAR has played to enthusiastic crowds and sold-out venues all around Los Angeles and excitement continues to grow!


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