Why did Grizzly Bear reunite after eight years? 'We needed to see who else we were'

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Twenty years ago, Grizzly Bear emerged as unlikely torchbearers of the early-aughts indie rock boom, a moment when the genre still felt like a testing ground for young adulthood. Ed Droste, then in his early 20s, began the project alone in a Brooklyn bedroom, and as Chris Taylor (bass, vocals), Daniel Rossen (vocals, guitar), and Christopher Bear (drums) joined, their twilight psych-folk came to reflect that fragile in-between stage of postcollegiate life: a period defined by experimentation and risk, shot through with both hope and ambivalence.

After an eight-year hiatus, the members of Grizzly Bear return as middle-aged men with separate lives and evolving expectations. Playing a