Bears Climb Mountains members Rickey Reyes (lead vocals, electric guitar), Javi Reyes (bass guitar), Dusty Skele (electric guitar), Mike Conrardy (drums) and Joe Fadden (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) were kind enough to invite me into the apartment of Rickey Reyes and Fadden to sit in on their practice, where they ran through the set they will perform at the Mifflin Street Block Party this Saturday.
Even though their rehearsal space in the house is smaller than the average dorm room, the band still manages to practice their stage antics, especially Rickey's dancing and not-too-shabby Louis Armstrong-style vocals.
Bears Climb Mountains got started in that very house when both Rickey and Fadden found they had a shared interest in guitar.
Reyes told Skele and Conrardy, whom he knew from his dorm days. Javi, Rickey's younger brother, ended up tagging along and picking up the bass, and the band was born.
""Once we got the band started, we had to let him play,"" Rickey Reyes said.
About a quarter of their songs were written in the early jam sessions by Reyes and Fadden, when they would sit in the living room with their guitars and pound songs out.
A number of their songs were written by Rickey to take his mind off studying biophysical chemistry.
""You [Reyes] would lock yourself in your room, you were going crazy,"" said Fadden to Reyes.
Since the band's inception, all members have had input on songwriting.
""Sometimes, Javi will come in with ideas, and we'll work off of that, or I'll bring ideas and we'll bounce off of that"" said Ricky.
The band's Myspace page bills them as folk/hip hop/rock, but they humorously bill themselves as ""dub-Disney bro-pop.""
They said their most bizarre performance experience was at the Varsity Theatre in the Twin Cities, which they referred to as ""The Majestic of Minneapolis."" They were initially excited about the gig, as it was their fifth official show, and to play the premier theatre of the University of Minnesota campus was a source of pride for the band.
After sound check, they were greeted by the manager, who asked them if they had any swear words or inappropriate concepts in their songs.
Before they could ask why they had to censor their songs, a small child ran by. The band looked around and saw hundreds of small children.
""We had no idea that it was going to be a kid's show,"" recalls Fadden.
After some quick rewriting of their lyrics, they performed the show for all the children. One of their rewrites involved changing the song ""Smokealotapotomus"" into ""Drink-a-lot-of-pop-omus.""
""Minneapolis was a strange experience altogether,"" said Fadden.
""Like something out of ‘Spinal Tap,'"" concluded Reyes.
