For nearly 20 years, Minus the Bear was one of indie rock’s most creative and skilled bands. Formed in Seattle in 2001 by veterans from the city’s post-hardcore and math-rock scenes, they quickly developed a unique identity. Their sound combined complex time signatures, detailed guitar work, catchy melodies, and humorous lyrics, earning a loyal fan base. With six studio albums—from 2002’s Highly Refined Pirates to 2017’s VOIDS—they evolved through electronic and progressive rock, culminating in a farewell tour in 2018.
Now, the beloved band is back. The 2025 reunion celebrates a specific milestone: the 20th anniversary of the band’s influential 2005 album, Menos el Oso. The tour also marks guitarist David Knudson’s second major reunion in recent years following the successful, critically praised Botch reunion. While Botch’s return was a cathartic release of long-suppressed aggression, the Minus the Bear reunion offers a different experience—revisiting a time of creative unity and sophisticated songwriting.
For David Knudson, the 2025 reunion of Minus the Bear is not just a professional milestone but a profoundly personal one. It represents a journey of renewal and a renewed perspective on the shared experience of making music. From overcoming the logistical hurdles of a geographically scattered band to redefining the philosophical foundations of his iconic guitar style, Knudson approaches this victory lap with a sense of gratitude and clarity that was hard-won.
Long-Distance Reunion Logistics
Despite the geographical dispersion of Minus the Bear’s members, their unwavering dedication to their craft and their fans is evident. Guitarist David Knudson is in Washington State; bassist Cory Murchy resides in New Mexico; keyboardist Alex Rose is based in London, and drummer Joshua Sparks is based in Iowa. For a band renowned for their intricate, interlocking parts, this geographical dispersion makes the simple act of rehearsal a significant logistical undertaking. “It’s not like with Botch, where we could all say, ‘Hey, let’s meet up and work on these songs today’ or something like that. We needed to plan this one much more carefully,” Knudson explains.
Preparing for the 2025 reunion tour was a meticulous process for Minus the Bear. It involved three separate 10-day rehearsal windows, leading up to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of their landmark album, Menos el Oso. The timing aligned perfectly, allowing the band to cap their final rehearsal sessions with surprise pop-up shows in Seattle and Tacoma. These warm-up gigs provided a crucial opportunity for the tour ahead, allowing the band to fine-tune their cues with their crew.
Menos el Oso: A Cohesive Vision
The current reunion, focused on performing Menos el Oso in its entirety, demonstrates the album’s lasting influence. Released in 2005, it marked a creative milestone.
“The Oso record was really, if I’m being honest, the first completely cohesive Minus the Bear album,” Knudson reflects. “We all shared a unified vision and sound, and we knew exactly what we wanted to do. It felt like we were on the same page from the start of writing all the way through recording.”
The track “Pachuca Sunrise” ignited the album’s breakthrough. Its shimmering, melodic guitar lines and accessible structure gained popularity, partly due to airplay on outlets like MTV2. “When the ‘Pachuca Sunrise’ video came out and started getting airplay, it really turned the faucet on full blast, for our level of band,” Knudson remembers.
This rise in popularity occurred during the peak of file-sharing networks, which Knudson considers a mostly positive development for a band at their stage.
“It’s easy for people to say, ‘Oh, I like this song,’ and then download the whole album from a peer-to-peer file-sharing network,” he recalls. “People listened and realized they didn’t just like one song—They liked the entire album. For us, at our level as a band, it ended up being great exposure.”
Making the Guitar Sound Like Anything But
The sonic identity of Menos el Oso was heavily influenced by Knudson’s expanding musical range. During this time, he was deeply into sample-based electronic artists like DJ Shadow, Caribou, and Amon Tobin. The creative shift caused by The Grey Album by Danger Mouse, which mashed up The Beatles’ White Album with Jay-Z’s The Black Album, particularly inspired him. He wondered how he could replicate similar, stuttered, loop-based textures with his guitar.
This quest is perfectly aligned with his long-standing philosophical approach to the instrument. “My goal from the very start of Minus the Bear was to play guitar parts that didn’t sound like guitar,” he says. “When I started doing the tapping stuff, I wanted to make my guitar riffs sound like they were being played on a keyboard.”
His primary tool for this alchemy was the Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler. While others used it for echoes, Knudson took advantage of its looping and sampling features to create complex, real-time soundscapes.
“The first song where I really used stuttered loop sampling was on the opening track on They Make Beer Commercials Like This. I realized, ‘Wow, if I can sample it, double the tempo, loop it, or reverse it, the possibilities are really cool,’” he explains. “Then adding a second one, and eventually that grew to the crazy number of four you see now.”
For the anniversary tour, Knudson is committed to authenticity, using the same gear available in 2005. The only modern exception is his tuner.
“I’ve decided to keep my pedalboard as it was on tour, just like on the Botch tours. Part of the fun is true fans and guitar nerds knowing what’s coming next, and I don’t want to take that away.”
Two Reunions, Two Unique Energies
This reunion follows another significant milestone for Knudson: the celebrated return of his former band, the foundational mathcore act Botch. Relearning both catalogs was a physical and stylistic whiplash.
“It was weird and challenging doing this big Botch reunion, relearning all of those songs, and then immediately moving on to Menos el Oso,” he confides. “It felt like a significant stylistic shift, even though it was both my stuff. My fingers definitely notice—the calluses Botch material built up don’t work for the really high-string work in Minus the Bear.”
Although he finds it hard to compare the two experiences directly, he appreciates the renewed connections each has helped create. “It’s been great to reconnect with many of the band members I hadn’t been in touch with for a while,” Knudson shares. “Each band has its own unique energy, so it’s tough for me to compare them. You know, each band has its own special vibe that’s really fun to perform in for different reasons.”
A Clearer Path Forward
Underlying both reunions is a profound personal transformation for Knudson: his journey to sobriety. He openly acknowledges that these tours wouldn’t be happening without this essential change.
“Neither of these reunions would have been possible if I were still drinking,” he states. “I just wouldn’t have been available, physically able, or mentally stable enough, to do any of this stuff—prepare for it, go on the tour—without getting messed up and ruining a show or wrecking a relationship.”
His entire perspective on performance and fulfillment has been reshaped. The reward is no longer found in a bottle after the set but in the experience itself. This clarity was never more apparent than during the recent Botch tour, when he watched his son stage-dive. In that moment, his focus shifted instantly from executing complex guitar parts to experiencing his child’s exuberance—a poignant reminder of what truly matters.
“The reward used to be getting off stage and thinking, ‘Oh, now I can have my reward,’ which was all this stupid whiskey,” he discloses. “Now the reward, as it always should have been, is playing the songs, being with the people, and appreciating the life that we all have, and that we’re together in this room.”
This renewed outlook has infused his creative life with a fresh sense of possibility. “I appreciate all the things I can experience instead of just focusing on one tiny thing that was ruining my life,” Knudson reflects. “It’s increased my creativity; it’s improved my willingness to try new things, and I just appreciate life as it happens now.”
The Reward of Being Present
As Minus the Bear take the stage once more, the focus is on celebration—of a beloved album, a dedicated fanbase, and the music itself. For David Knudson, it’s a chance to fully inhabit these moments, connecting with every note and every face in the crowd with a clarity and gratitude that makes this reunion feel not just like a look back, but a step forward. And after the tour concludes, fans won’t have to wait long for new music, as Knudson confirms his next solo album is on the horizon. “I’ve finished about 13 songs for my solo record,” he confides, and he plans to release the project next year.
