Growing up in the early 2010s with unrestricted internet access meant Oliver Paul spent a lot of his childhood reading internet horror stories and spooky games. It gave him a thrill, and it also gave him vivid nightmares, especially about a creepypasta called “1999,” which inspired the title of his new single. “Fear Of Bears,” due on October 24th, puts into words what one of those nightmares might have looked like. The 21-year-old from Leicester describes his sound as warm and nostalgic, and the song is the second single from his unannounced debut album.
I have a soft spot for this outcast art-punk genre. These textures, for me, are repression, wide ambient sounds that seem as if they can only exist inside a person’s head, like a person who can’t really express themselves freely and outward, because they feel alienated or picked last in PE. That’s the atmosphere created by Oliver Paul’s enchanting bed of harmony. My only gripe is that I wish it were three times as long.
The song has only four lines, yet it manages to leave a lasting image and tell a cohesive story of vivid dreams and childhood nostalgia. Paul and producer Sam Cook used around 12 or 13 different synths from Logic’s plugin library, many of which play for only a second or two before another takes over, building swells that give the track its ambient feel. Duster, Sign Crushes Motorist and Slowdive were on his mind while writing, and he wanted to recreate the warm, nostalgic feeling those records gave him.
The recording took place in Cook’s home study on the fourth day of a five-day session. The two met at a Black Country, New Road gig in Birmingham in April 2025, bonding over music, comedy and Wallace and Gromit. Cook’s enthusiasm is also why the track exists as a single at all. His mantra during the sessions was “don’t dwell, the sound will come.”
Paul is talking about a full-band gig in Birmingham around January. With a debut album still to be announced, “Fear Of Bears” is a short, atmospheric introduction to where he’s headed next.
