About
The Drop Bears hail from Melbourne Australia and have built their careers playing in the local live rock scene in pubs.
The Drop Bears describe themselves as sonic beat punk and their show and sound like... The Kinks being spanked by Nirvana as The Rolling Stones and The Stooges throw watermelons at them, whilst The Killers and The Strokes Squirt them all with napalm as David Bowie looks on and nods approvingly.
Formed in early 2014 the drop bears came together after singer Pete Vanda was forced away from playing guitar after an accident in 2014 at Bluesfest in Byron Bay, where Pete lost the use of his ring finger. The resulting operation left Pete with less than 20% of the movement in his ring finger, sadly, that's the finger that you need to bend notes and form most chords on a guitar.
Pete's hand in 2014
The accident led to financial hardship and depression, but months later, standing at the Big Day Out Pete had an idea for a band, where he would not need to play the guitar, and simply concentrate on being the frontman, something which he had years of experience with prior to his foray into acoustic blues and percussive music.
Now, it was time to go punk.
Pete called a bass playing friend in Melbourne, who hadn't picked up his instrument in a while, despite also having thousands of live pub rock gigs under his belt and who, coincidentally, just happened to be going through a relationship breakdown of his own. After a cathartic first catch up and with the help of a bottle of bourbon to numb the pain of both their personal lives and Pete's hand as he tried to play a few chords, a handful of songs and riffs were recorded safely on Pete's phone.
Needing a drummer, Pete and John then contacted Mikey, their former drummer from a decade ago, who also coincidentally, and unknown to Pete and John, was going through a breakup exactly the same time.
'The jam sessions from the first day were therapeutic for all of us', says Pete.
Mikey suggested that we call the band 'Cheaper than Therapy' which got a few laughs but was actually a great name. The first jam was funny as all of the drums and amps were covered in dust from not having been used in so long. I think we spent about an hour dusting everything off.
I also had to tune my guitar differently because of my injury, so we kinda had our own sound from day 1,' Guitarists who have played with the band since have had trouble playing the songs the same, until we show them my finger and instruct them to change the tuning on their guitar.' it's kinda become our trademark, even though I play guitar at the live shows on only one or two songs'.
From the Left, Mikey, John and Pete with Mal their former guitarist/Keyboard player in their former band 'The Breed' in the early noughties.
Pete wasn't able to play guitar for longer than about two or three songs before he had to stop so The Drop Bears knew they needed a guitarist or maybe even two.
Enter Craig 'Dirty' Sayer. Craig is one of the hardest working guitarist/singers in Victoria for well over a decade. Having played thousands of live pub rock shows with Mikey in previous bands, Dirty fit The Drop Bears Like a glove, adding skilful songwriting, beautiful harmonies and some fantastic guitar playing and tones.
Mark was the latest to join, completing and lifting the lineup yet again. Mark is one of the most talented rock guitarists in Melbourne, also having played over 2,000 live pub rock gigs for well over a decade. Mark had been sought after by many bands and held off joining the Drop Bears until he was given the 2015 demos, at which point he jumped on board.
The Drop Bears are made up of great mates, and even better musicians with one of the hardest work ethics in the business, who go back over a decade together and who have earned street credibility with a combined 10,000 and a minimum of 1500 live pub rock gigs between them, the majority of which have been played together, making them a live rock band to be reckoned with.
The Drop Bears 2016
