Brown Bear Collective - “Fever”
Even though technology will inevitably be the end of all humanity, there is definitely something to be said for the way it has allowed people to come together, collaborating artistically over great distances. And as we pressed play on “Fever,” by Brown Bear Collective, this idea was driven home.
While their bio is only a few sentences in length, it does reveal some fantastic details about the artist: songwriter and producer Dillon Thomas creates all of his music inside of a garden shed in rural England. For the latest track, “Fever,” he collaborated with Lisa-Marie Kämpf over WhatsApp after they had met on Instagram. When you first hear this acoustically mesmerizing number, you will find that it wastes no time and Thomas’ vocals begin immediately. His voice is reasonably soft, yet it glows with confidence, and when Kämpf joins in to offer her delicate harmonies, the track puts its hooks into all who hear. Listeners will find themselves waiting for the lines of lyrics where the two let their vocals meet, even though they sound just as fantastic apart. We almost feel bad sharing the song’s origin story because we really do not wish to sway the subjectivity of the music, but it’s such a lovely tale that it, much like “Fever,” needs to be heard.
Brown Bear Collective likely recorded this in pieces, separated by a grand geographical distance, with unfinished tracks and ideas being sent back and forth before it ultimately became the gem that it is. With this in mind, it is easy for any listener to imagine both, Thomas and Kämpf, standing in their gardens, potentially entire time zones apart, singing the same song. The magic here is that these two voices belong together and we will be on the edges of our seats until their next release is revealed...
This indie-folk delight was immediately added to our playlist, “Songs at the end of the world:”
-TM