O U R  S T O R Y

Two very different worlds collided to make The Bearing.

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Alfie, born-and-bred Londoner, grew up in a suburban town listening to death metal, electronic music and The Beatles. Alfie is a producer, he writes and plays bass.

Alise, a nerdy hiker from the countryside, spent her early years composing classical pieces and listening to Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Verdi. Alise is a writer, plays piano and sings.

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It started with a kiss… Well no, it didn’t, it was an email. In autumn ’17 Alfie reached out to Alise’s request for a bass player, and it was quickly clear that they had some fundamental values in common. 

Music is our compass. We’re both introspective and reflective, with a passion for doing our teeny bit to tackle global challenges such as climate change and consumer culture. The ultimate desire is to create something that demands attention and earns curiosity, and then to have words of encouragement and a connection with a fellow music-lover.
 
In 2018, together with a drummer and a guitarist, we began burrowing through London’s highly competitive live music scene to perform The Bearing’s debut EP ‘Big Bang’. 
After a year on the circuit, work circumstances unearthed the path that lead us away to the coast in Kent. Folkestone is in many ways the antithesis of London: nature on one’s doorstep, an active local community, and plenty of appreciation for up-and-coming artists. We’d found a real ‘sense of place’ that quickly felt synonymous with ‘home’.

In September 2019, from our modest home studio overlooking a small corner of the sea, we released our self-titled debut album. Meanwhile, experimenting as a performing duo with acoustic duets and click-tracks, we struggled to actualise our produced sound. The Bearing stands for self-improvement, making an impact and pushing artistic boundaries. We weren’t hitting it. 

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Bob Dylan wrote, ‘we are in a constant state of becoming.’ 

So now.. take 3! We’re working on a new electronic live set up, and we’re writing a concept album based upon a post-climate-breakdown world, with stories about the tensions between citizen-led communities forming out at a sea, and larger governing forces left on ever-shrinking land.