Zeitgeist: The 2 Bears / Curses / Pixelife

The Bears – Raf Rundell and Joe Goddard – first began crossing paths in DJ Booths. Straight Outta Brompton (well, Putney) Joe spends his time away from The 2 Bears as a producer, remixer, solo-artist and one fifth of an obscure outfit called Hot Chip; fellow Sarf Londoner Raf divides his time between club promotion, DJ outings as Greco-Roman Soundsystem, radio show hosting and artiste management.The pairs DJ booth banter, soon led to a shared enthusiasm for house music and vague plans for a musical collaboration. Raf’s existence at the music industry coal face and first hand experience of the business’ financial travails, would make Sade’s When Am I Going To Make A Living a suitably irreverent subject for their first musical foray. So began several months of hanging out, making music ‘for the fun of it’ and ‘portamental’ arguments about obscure synths, that would wind up forming the ‘Follow The Bears EP’.

Characterised by the hitherto untapped vocal stylings of Raf himself (Joe: ‘I didn’t know Raf could actually sing!’), the Bears have already received radio support from Annie Mac, Rob da Bank, Giles Peterson and Toddla T, drawn towards The 2 Bears 21st Century take on house, disco and everything in between.

Curses was originally an Institubes (RIP) artist back in 2009 and to most had disappeared.However, at 6am, November 19th 2012 at an afterparty in New York, Curses came back.

“I was going to a lot of after-hours parties in Brooklyn and loved it. It inspired me to go to the studio and suddenly I had a whole bunch of new songs. Next thing I was djing. It was at that point when I knew Curses was coming back.”

And Curses has hit a nerve with the first single SO GOOD.

He sent the track to a few friends and suddenly the song is being played on Radio 1. Seven times in two weeks. On top of that Heidi asked for a DJ mix for Radio 1 as well as long-time friend Skream.

Meanwhile back in the US, Tensnake was about to begin his first ever full North American tour with Curses in support. A strong friendship was formed and pushed Curses to full-time.

Curses has a slew of massive singles coming out in 2013 and 2014 on various labels.