A decade ago, Jon Philpot could have made any kind of record of he wanted. Hestarted Bear in Heaven as a solo project back in Atlanta, and although he andWills were friendly, the two never thought they'd wind up playing together.After moving to Brooklyn, Philpot continued doing the one-man bedroom-popthing, recording songs piece by piece on his computer. Eventually, he startedjamming with Adam and two other friends, and the four found themselves writingnew material, rather than trying to recreate Philpot's solo recordings. After a well received first record, the band gained a "Best New Music" tag from Pitchfork Media, which opened the doors to world touring and public recognition.We asked Jon a few questions about the way the band operates in the studio and live.

How much of your recording is done at home versus in the studio? 90% was done at our practice space and my apartment. The rest of it was done at East Side Sound with Eric Elterman.

Is there a piece of equipment that you find particularly inspiring when recording at home? The Moogerfooger (pictured). Seems like I keep finding new ways to use that thing. It's fun and random.

What about live? The Roland ps-404 rules because it can load a long sample directly from the compact flash card. It's small, cheap and it runs on batteries which makes it perfect for touring. And, the FX are fun and crazy.

Do you have a particular recording style that you aim for? What techniques do you employ to recreate it?I don't have an era I'm trying to replicate. Tho, I love the way old drum recordings sound. I usually just end up running things thru pedals an amps to give them their own quality.

Who determines the direction and style of your recordings? Money decides that. Which means, I do because I sort of know how to record...

Is there a person outside the band that's been important in perfecting your recorded or live sound? Eric Elterman at east side sound really helped us out. Amazing amazing engineer. Roberto Lange helped with mixing. He's a super talented musician and mixer. And the last key ingredient is our mastering engineer Joe LaPorta at the Lodge. He took that record and made it sound so much more amazing than I ever thought was possible. As for live sound, we've had the good fortune of working with Aaron Treptow on the Cymbals Eat Guitars tour. We bring him out for shows as much as we can.

Would you say that your live show informs your recording process or that your recording process informs your live show? Both? Neither? We're going through a switch right now. Our recordings were the only thing we focused on. Live was second. Now that we're playing so much we're looking at life the other way around. It's fun.

With bands doing more of everything themselves these days (recording, performing, self-promoting, etc.) and the evermore multimedia nature of the world, how much effort do you put into the visual component of your band - fashion, styling, photography, graphic/web design, etc.? Do you do these things yourself or is there someone that the band works with? We try to do as much as we can. We made videos for our last record, Sadek put the album art together but Laura Brothers is responsible for the artwork. It's something we're always asking friends to help out with. Especially clothes. We need awesome clothes. My jeans are worn out.