Bagheera is an American rock band from Saint Louis, Missouri. Years ago, from their haunted apartment in a sleepy, tree-filled neighborhood, Heather and Theodore began writing and recording songs together. What started with two softly strummed acoustic guitars and their intertwined voices quickly turned into a collection of songs reflecting their abstracted curiosity in the surreal, science, space, nature, time, and death. With a tape machine and some thrift store electronics, the two began to expand their sound with fuzzed out guitars, bombastic drums, broken synthesizers and noise accidents. The resulting demo presented layers of texture and melodies pushed around the stereo spectrum with dynamic shifts between dreamy spaced-out pop and punk rock guitar freak outs.
In 2003 the duo signed to independent label Asian Man Records and started working on “Twelves” at Hyperspace Studio. “Twelves” explored ideas of how love, loss, and irrational fears alter the perception of time. With modest college-radio support for the single “Long Division,” the two hit the road-- playing shows across the Midwest, in California, and even a few festivals in the U.K. After a while, it was time to return home and start work on a new set of songs. Instead of heading back into the studio or out on the road, the two set to work building gardens and planting asparagus, beets, and apple trees. They marked time by observing bees, walking under shady trees, staring into the night sky, or attending the funerals of close family members. The many songs that were started during this period were reflections and refractions of these personal experiences.
Their newest album, “Shooting Rockets Towards the Sun,” was painstakingly recorded at home over the course of several years and captures this sorrow, optimism, appreciation and wonder across a wide, sonic canvas using motifs of astronomy and Roman mythology. “Shooting Rockets at the Sun” is a space album that is not really about space. Science Fiction author Ray Bradbury had a way of wrapping very human stories with elements of the fantastical. In a similar way, “Shooting Rockets Towards the Sun” presents listeners with an array of both familiar and abstracted sounds-- dense intricate interwoven melodies juxtaposed against spacious ambiance. At its core, however, are the very human voices of Heather and Theodore, singing in harmony about love, loss, optimism, and well...space.
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