MORE BODY & MIND
Nightlife Whatever gets you through the night
ACTION
Night safari SO YOU WANT TO VISIT THE ZOO AFTER DARK?
Opened in 1994, the award-winning Singapore Night Safari is the world’s first nocturnal zoo. HOW BIG IS IT? You can explore the 35-hectare area with its seven themed sections from 7.30pm to midnight on foot or by mini-train. WHAT ANIMALS CAN YOU MEET? You can get up close to 137 different species and more than 2,500 different nocturnal animals such as large cats, flying squirrels, birds and monkeys. WHERE ELSE? Chiang Mai Night Safari (Thailand), China Night Safari (Guangzhou, China), Greater Noida Night Safari (Uttar Pradesh, India) and Taiping Zoo (Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia).
OUT NOW
Get out of New York Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste on the benefits of recording rurally and gaining a couple of famous fans Grizzly Bear are an indie-rock quartet from New York. Three years ago there was a lot of hype around the band’s third album Veckatimest. It was a washed-out, brittle album full of scratchy raw pop diamonds – an experimental piece of work that usually wouldn’t have got beyond the critics. Yet Veckatimest shot into the top 10 of the US charts in its first week. RB: Three years have passed since your last album came out. What was it like when you got together to write again? Ed Droste: It was like being back at school when you see everyone for the first time after the holidays. You withdrew to a house north of New York to write the songs. Why was that? In New York you get distracted easily. There are birthdays, pets, concerts. I have to clear my head in order to get the right mindset of writing.
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What’s it like working up there? There are no neighbours for miles around. Most of the sunlight hours we spent outside. In the mornings we would go out into the forest to get some firewood, and in the afternoon we’d start working. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are fans of yours. How did that come about? Beyoncé’s younger sister, Solange Knowles, played them our music and they’ve been supporting us ever since. It’s cool that mainstream artists today like Rihanna and Beyoncé are into smaller bands like The xx or even us.
Grizzly Bear’s new album, Shields, is out on September 18. grizzly-bear.net
WISE WORDS
“ Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut ” Ernest Hemingway, writer (1899-1961)