Bearing up

When keyboard player Jon Hart spoke to Fairfax Media to discuss their forthcoming regional tour, the most extensive the band have attempted, Boy and Bear were at the end of a recent British and European stint.

''We started in London, then [went] up into Scotland, and then a few other parts of England and then to Europe,'' Hart says. They finished with a show in Paris, then left the next day for the United States for a month, taking in the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference and Festival.

''There is almost a little bit of trepidation around going to SXSW,'' Hart says of the annual event.

''It's something quite unique, in that it is city blocks closed down and people just walking around. So if you're a band playing a show, you don't have any special access. You walk your gear in through people who are maybe going to the same show, to see you. So it is madness. That is probably the only way to describe it.''

Discussing the number of shows Boy and Bear have been playing while out on the road, Hart says: ''It's really only happened for us once the touring moved beyond Australia, or Australia and somewhere else.''

''You've got shows and festivals happening in the UK and Europe, and America and Australia. It's when you put it all together that it starts to really fill in.''

Hart realised how hard he had be working this year when he sat down with a Canberra girl he had started seeing.

''We were spending a bit of time together, and I was like, 'Oh, I probably should show you this [tour] schedule for next year'. And I sat down and, when I looked at it myself, we started in the middle of February, then were home at the end of May for about two weeks.''

After that, the band are back on the road for another 2½ months. ''I was like, 'Oh, wow, this is beyond a full-time job now, the way the shows were packed in'.''

Although not quite playing the same-sized rooms as they do in Australia, since the Harlequin Dreamers began touring Britain and Europe in 2010, they have really felt momentum building, he says.

One barometer of this has been that on their latest tour they were able to sell out shows outside London. Given all the Australians living there, London can have a bit of a home-ground advantage, so getting outside the capital and still selling out shows was a ''good indicator for us'', Hart says.

As is often the case, though, when a band become this busy, life delivers some new complications. With all their success and time on the road this has bought, it can be more difficult to fill in the hours between shows, Hart says.

When people go to school or university, they are taught to engage their minds, he says. The reality of touring, however, can be such that there isn't much for the brain to be doing while not on stage, ''particularly the further you go along with touring, and the more crew who are involved''.

''Because you'll have a tour manager and people to tell you what you are doing from one moment to the next; you almost don't have to use your brain for a lot of the day, and that is not necessarily a good thing.

''So a lot of us read books. The advent of technology also means you can do things in the tour van maybe you couldn't do 10 years ago. If you want, you can watch movies or we'll play the Trivial Pursuit board game.''

On the positive side, the band have become an experienced, well-oiled musical machine.

''There is no substitute for being new and being interesting and being exciting, but there are big benefits that come with being someone who is a bit more established and who has been doing it for a while, and knows how things work.''

When: Friday, May 23

Where: ANU Bar

Tickets: $41.30 from ticketek.com.au