Minus the Bear searching genres

Minus the Bear with As Tall as Lions and Twin Tigers

Nov. 18, 8 p.m.

Mr. Smalls

$16

The… Minus the Bear with As Tall as Lions and Twin Tigers

Nov. 18, 8 p.m.

Mr. Smalls

$16

The William Pitt Union Box Office or

www.ticketweb.com/mrsmalls

How can you tell when a band is about to hit it big?Does something in its sound change that makes it just click?Or is it just something that happens that can’t be explained?

Like any other band on the verge of making it, Minus the Bear is trying to figure this out.

For the past eight years, the Seattle-based band has hovered around the indie-rock scene trying to hit it big — and with the release of its new album in early 2010, the band believes it might finally happen.

Minus the Bear formed in 2001, when bassist Cory Murchy and drummer Erin Tate moved to Seattle and met guitarist Dave Knudson through his former record promoter.

The trio eventually recruited keyboardist/sequencer Alex Rose and vocalist/guitarist Jake Snider through mutual friends.

“We all grew up hearing what our older siblings were listening to, stuff like Metallica and The Cure and Kiss for me,” Tate said of the band’s shared love of music. “We’re influenced by things all over the board, everything from Slayer to R. Kelly.”

But Tate can’t begin to define the band’s sound.

“Well, rock ’n’roll I guess. That’s a really hard question to answer, but I think that’s a good thing,” he insisted. “Every band is different and I think we just do our own thing.”

By mixing elements from ambient, techno and indie rock, the members of Minus the Bear developed an individual style that earned them an ever-growing fan base ranging from young teens to middle-aged adults.

Beginning with Highly Refined Pirates in 2002, Minus the Bear honed its indie-rock sound by experimenting with different variations of electronic styles.

“We will start out with something really fast and up-tempo, and then the mood will change and become very slow and mellow. It all kind of changes,” Tate said of the band’s variety.

Over the past eight years, Minus the Bear slowly began to transition away from their electronic roots to a more acoustic and refined sound.

With the release of its 2008 EP, the aptly titled Acoustics, Minus the Bear almost completely transitioned away from its initial electronic-pop style by reworking songs from past albums into acoustic compositions.

“The industry changes,” Tate said. “We started eight or nine years ago, it grows you up. We’ve been around each other more. You get to a point where you can read each other. You start to like things you didn’t like before, and things you did like get old.”

According to Tate, the music became less about the showiness of electronic music and more about meaningful lyrics.

“There’s always a message to be heard,” Tate said. “It reflects the period we were going through in history.”

On the band’s last full-length album, Planet of Ice, released in 2008, Snider saw the growing public interest in the environment and wrote lyrics based on the impressions he got from that, Tate said.

“Jake is a lit major, so each song is like a short story,” Tate said. “He is just inspired by different things, anything, stuff you see on the street.”

As for the future, Tate’s not entirely sure where the band is headed.

“I don’t really know. I guess we hope we sell albums. We all make a living off of making music, so you hope to see some kind of result. We’re doing this 11 months out of the year, you hope to make something off of this,” Tate said.

92.1 WPTS FM and Opus One Productions are hosting Minus The Bear featuring As Tall as Lions and Twin Tigers at Mr. Smalls Theater today from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.