Bears in Trees’ single “Cassiopeia” released earlier this month as the first song of an ongoing album entitled “How to Stay Shining.” Up and coming songs of the album include “Apathy is Boring” and “we don’t speak anymore.”
Bears in Trees is a four-member, genre defying band hailing from South London who avoid traditional labels. The band consists of guitarist Nick Peters, bassist Iain Gillespie, keyboardist and ukulele player Callum Litchfield, and percussionist and producer George Berry.
Since their formation in 2014, the band has explored numerous topics that prove discussion worthy in the contemporary era. These topics include a range of ideas such as mental health – “It gets better in such small doses / Curb every neurosis, you’ll barely notice” (“It Gets Better”) – the endurance of human connection as adjacent to mortality – “But I love my friends / They make me feel alive again” (“Reverberate”) – and even the mundane nature of daily life – “Every morning I wake up / And I drink my silly little oat milk coffee” (“Doing This Again!”).
“Cassiopeia” finds its place with the nuanced meaning of previous songs. Upon its release the band described it as “a song for platonic soulmates.” At first listen, the song is an insightful depiction of the nature of deep platonic relationships, in contrast to the mainstream music scene’s abundant focus on romantic love. In addition, the song’s wealth of literary, cultural and mythological references address an even deeper tie to the quality of humanness, with its limitless ties to empathy, mortality and even brokenness.
Previously, the band’s primary lyricists, Gillespie and Peters, have described their interest in philosophical concepts, specifically optimistic absurdism, and literary references. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the song begins with a reference to James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and the perception of women in Ancient Greece. Interestingly, “Ulysses” is the Roman name for Odysseus, a character of Greek mythology, which creates a paradox in the song’s first stanza.
The mention of the Greek standards for women evokes images of the subjugation of femininity forced by years of patriarchal standards, while “Ulysses” was a culturally acceptable depiction of masculinity in the previous century. The song’s usage of these contrasting concepts overturns the expectations of norms within the classic world that still influence society today and sparks discussion about cultural contributions to our perceptions of relationships.
The abstracted nature of the beauty of “platonic soulmates” is further elaborated upon by the work’s title. The song is a namesake of the constellation Cassiopeia, named for a queen who was punished for boasting of her beauty. Within the song, the concept of Cassiopeia’s beauty is not seen as physical, but as a healing connection to other people as in the repeated line “We mend together, gaze to Cassiopeia.” Just as the constellation’s stars are traceably connected, individuals are seamlessly interconnected by ideas.
Perhaps, the most resonating line of the song is “Because life is beautiful, but life is work / So full of joy, so full of hurt.” These lines present the idea that life is a cathartic reality, an existence shaped by overcoming the “hurt” and finding “beauty” in the existence of other people.
The hardest thing we as individuals encounter is being human. Every “hurt” and every “joy” we experience is merely an extension of being human, and some days grappling with that concept is not easy. However, Bears in Trees phenomenally expresses the importance of those individuals who make being human more manageable, who reinstall molecules of faith in our humanity.
