We met Dale and Victoria, "the mama bears of Mama Bear" at the Williamsburg Waterfront on a Sunday afternoon. Snacking on strawberries and grapes, we talked to them about Disney Movies, fried chicken, New York, and where they find their musical inspiration.
Hoopla Hoop: What is your favorite Disney Movie?
Victoria: I'm avid enough fan for both of us, so I'll say Sleeping Beauty.
Dale: I don't know… Pocahontas is pretty sweet.
Hoopla Hoop: We have to ask about the name, we were reading that it was named after Berenstein Bears.
Victoria: No! That's what Urban Outfitters said. I think a couple of blogs actually said that.
Hoopla Hoop: Okay, this is your opportunity to set the record straight.
Victoria: It's a fried chicken place. One day we're talking about fried chicken. There's a place called Mama's that sells fried chicken.
Dale: All sides are served at room temperature. Real home cooking.
Victoria: Me and Dale's girlfriend Lynda were talking about fried chicken, and she was like, "Let's go to Mama's." and I was thinking how cute would the name Mama Bear be. That's it. We'd been going over the names the past two weeks.
Dale: It's like naming a child.
Victoria: No, naming a kid would be easier.
Dale: Really, maybe. I don't know. I guess you wouldn't have to deal with the criticism of picking a bad name.
Victoria: Maybe
Dale: At least public criticism. Your friends won't tell you it's a terrible bad name, behind their back they will.
Victoria: That's its. We're talking about food again.
Dale: Again.
Hoopla Hoop:Why did you move to New York?
Victoria: I fell in love with a boy who lived in Europe, but we ended up breaking up, so I didn't want to move back to Portland. My cousin lived here, so I was like so I was like I'll just move to New York.
Queens has been my favorite place. I love it.
Dale: I moved up with an old band, with the drummer Tim.
Hoopla Hoop: What's your creative process?
Victoria: I like to write songs about things that sound like it's a romantic relationship between two people. But it's not. Like the song "Thick as Thieves", which is on the new EP is about this time my friend and I went into a thrift store and stole a bunch of shit.
There are parts of the song that are like I walk around and no one knows I got you on. The chorus is, "I'll wear you, I'll wear you out."
I like that people can relate to it if they want to but it's really about something entirely different.
I kinda do what Dale does. Sometimes he'll just have one good line, and just try to base a whole song off it.
Dale: Good, I'm proud of you
Hoopla Hoop: What about you, Dale?
Dale: I get inspired by weird things. I'll just be walking down the street and just see a fraction of a newspaper that has funny words or something. I get inspired by stuff that might not come across lyrically but provoked me to write the song. I don't know if that made sense
Victoria: Like a feeling almost.
Dale: Yeah, I'll see something and be like that makes me want to write a song. And then I might not even write about that, but it just kinda comes out of me.
It's nice to be lyrically ambiguous. I guess we want people to find things of their own in our music Ð whether it be instrumentally or lyrically.
Hoopla Hoop: How would you describe your music to other people?
Dale: The EP is out, the songs are more of campfire songs. One voice, one guitar by the campfire, and that's all you need.
Victoria: These songs are more personal and intimate. Some bands you put on when you have a party, you listen to it together. Some albums you listen to in your room. Even though our songs are really catch, it's like a happy internal dialogue.