Bears in Trees


Bears in Trees are an English indie rock band from Croydon, South London, England, consisting of bassist and vocalist Iain Gillespie, drummer George Berry, vocalist Callum Litchfield and guitarist Nicholas "Nick" Peters. The band tends to reject genre labels, preferring to call themselves a 'dirtbag boyband.'
In October 2020, Bears in Trees announced that they had been signed by Boston label Counter Intuitive Records. The band is no longer signed to this label, and released their fourth album How to Build an Ocean: Instructions independently after rejecting a "major record label deal."

History

2014–2019: Formation, ''Let's Sleep On It, Bits n' Pieces'' and ''I See Blue''

Childhood friends Callum Litchfield and Iain Gillespie met in primary school. The two would later go on to meet and befriend Nick Peters in secondary school after Gillespie discovered that both they and Peters enjoyed listening to Fall Out Boy. The three of them attended an all-boys Catholic secondary school, which they have since described as "intolerant and outdated". They formed pop-punk band The November Criminals alongside another friend from school, recording EP Laughing Gas Smile with the help of George Berry, whom Litchfield had met after transferring elsewhere for college.
Following the dissolution of The November Criminals in late 2014, they decided to form a new band with Berry, naming it Bears in Trees. The newly-formed band wrote and released their first project in September 2015, a collection of ten songs entitled Let's Sleep on It. Their first shows were played in libraries and in car parks. Initially the band members switched instruments for each song, but they settled on Berry as the drummer and producer, Gillespie as the bassist and Peters as the guitarist. Litchfield would play most other instruments such as ukulele and keys, and both Gillespie and Litchfield would serve as lead vocalists. Both Gillespie and Peters contributed lyrics to songs, with the first song to feature Peters' lyrics being the now-Bandcamp exclusive 'Nick's Wild Night In'.
After the release of Let's Sleep On It, the members of the band relocated to different cities across England to attend university, and were only able to meet occasionally to perform shows and make music. Between 2016 and 2019 the band released album Just Five More Minutes, the collection of short interludes Bits n' Pieces, singles Fly Out To Alaska and Sitting Pretty, and EP I See Blue, before moving back to their hometown of Croydon.

2019–2020: ''I Want To Feel Chaotic, Keep Me Safe'' and signing to Counter Intuitive Records

In 2019 the band begun work on their next project, this being companion EPs I Want To Feel Chaotic and Keep Me Safe. These EPs would be released in 2020, releasing one song from the EP as a single each month over the COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK. Many of the songs in this project with lyrics by Gillespie were inspired by the death of their close friend, including lead single 'Ramblings of a Lunatic', which would go on to become the band's most listened-to song as of 2025.  
The band also began posting short videos to video sharing platform TikTok in 2020, partly to promote their own music. Jake Sulzer of independent record label Counter Intuitive Records watched one of these TikToks and decided to sign Bears in Trees as a result. The EP releases of I Want To Feel Chaotic and Keep Me Safe were their first releases under Counter Intuitive Records.

2021–2022: ''Flower Through Concrete'' and ''and everybody else smiled back''

In July 2021, following the release of double-A side single Flower Through Concrete, the band embarked on their first UK headline tour. They would release their debut studio album and everybody else smiled back on 19 November 2021, preceded by singles 'Great Heights', 'I'm Doing Push Ups' and 'Little Cellist'. and everybody else smiled back has been described by the band as "a house party at the end of the world", and discusses the band's experiences through university and early adulthood. In 2022 the band played several tours and festivals, including their first US tour supporting Just Friends, and their first headline US tour, being supported by Chase Petra and Cry Baby.

2022–2023: ''How To Stay Shining'' and rejection of major-label deal

In the summer of 2022, the band was contacted by a "major record label" looking to potentially make them an offer after seeing them play live. The band's final release under Counter Intuitive Records was EP Every Moonbeam Every Feverdream, in November 2022. Despite headlining several festivals and playing many different shows throughout 2022, the label never came to see the band play live. In mid-2023, the label made them an offer: the rights to their next album in perpetuity as well as 80% of its profits. On 7 June 2023 the band rejected this offer, deciding to release their next projects independently. In the remainder of 2023 the band released singles Cassiopeia, Apathy is Boring and Bart's Bike, referring to these three singles as an 'era' named How To Stay Shining, and released single 'No Point Pretending as a collaboration with artist NOAHFINNCE. They would later embark on a US tour alongside NOAHFINNCE and Action/Adventure, as well as joining You Me at Six's Truth Decay tour as a support act alongside The Maine and Waterparks. The tour alongside You Me At Six remains the largest tour they have played as of 2025.

2024–present: ''How To Build An Ocean: Instructions'', ''Success is Unlikely'' and ''Success is Monumental''

The band began teasing their second studio album, How To Build an Ocean: Instructions, in January 2024, wiping their Instagram page and creating an alternate reality game for fans to solve in order to find the name of the album. The lead single of this album, Things That Look Like Mistakes', was released the same month. The album was released on 26 April 2024, and reached a peak position of #1 in the UK Independent Album Breakers Chart. They played a headline tour in the UK and their first EU shows alongside The Happy Fits, with support from Lexie Carroll for the UK leg of the tour and Walking on Rivers for the EU leg.
At the beginning of 2025 the band began recording their next project, naming it Success is Unlikely. They described the new era as "everything to us. Nothing has felt as urgent or as cathartic or as needed as this."  Single 'Left, Right, Goodnight!' was the first to be released from this project on 1 May 2025, followed by singles 'No Love, No Heartbreak', 'Some Character Development' and 'Heard it in a Dream' later in the year. The project was released as an EP on 20 November 2025. The band recorded a cover of Twenty One Pilots' We Don't Believe What's On TV, for UK music magazine Rock Sound's 10 year tribute album to Blurryface, Blurryface Reborn. They also released single 'Incredible Speed' for Counter Intuitive Records' 10 year anniversary collection.
On 1 January 2026, the band announced the companion EP to Success is Unlikely, named Success is Monumental, to be released on 12 February. Its first single, 'Large Hadron Collider', was released the same day.

Musical influences

Bears in Trees' music is difficult to class as any single genre, owing to the fact that the four members have highly distinct tastes in music that they draw inspiration from. In an interview with Artefact Magazine in 2020, Gillespie mentioned that they were inspired by "early emo like Fall Out Boy and Modern Baseball," as well as "folk music like The Front Bottoms and Ramshackle Glory," Berry mentioned taking inspiration from "indie-pop, that kind of background like The Wombats,” whilst Peters explained that he liked "the traditional band sort-of thing, with a mixture of the electronic elements," and that Litchfield drew from "pure pop music".
Much of Bears in Trees' work, especially Let's Sleep On It, is inspired by the emo and pop-punk scene, given that Gillespie and Peters bonded over a shared love of pop-punk music. They later introduced Litchfield to the genre. Litchfield mentions that the first pop-punk song he enjoyed was 'Oh Well, Oh Well', from Mayday Parade's self-titled album.
In a 2024 interview with Square One Magazine, the band outlined the origins of their individual interests in music. Gillespie described falling in love with music afetr discovering artists such as Paramore and Fall Out Boy through video game Guitar Hero. Peters mentioned the children's karaoke machine he received as a child, using which he performed covers from children's cartoon Bob the Builder, whilst Berry mentioned playing rhythms on saucepans as a child, sparking his interest for drumming. Litchfield traced his love for music back to receiving the album A Present for Everyone by pop-punk band Busted as a Christmas present.
In terms of lyrics, Gillespie has mentioned that they are inspired by the scantion and rhyme structures present in grime and rap music, and has named Jme's 'Man Don't Care' as a song that has influenced them, stating that one of the lyrics "blew mind when heard it."

Band members

  • George Berry – drums, percussion, producer
  • Iain Gillespie – vocals, bass guitar, lyrics
  • Callum Litchfield – vocals, ukulele, piano, keytar, triangle
  • Nicholas "Nick" Peters – guitar, banjo, lyrics, backing vocals

    Discography

Albums/EPs

''Let's Sleep On It'' (2015)

Bears in Trees released their first collection of songs on 1 September 2015. The band has since removed Let's Sleep On It from all streaming services except Bandcamp and SoundCloud, because they say the album doesn't "accurately reflect sound anymore". The final two songs on the album are listed on Bandcamp as bonus tracks.
Track listing: