[CULT TALK] The Growlers Take Everything And Nothing Seriously Almost All Of The Time

(photo by Taylor Bonin)

 The Growlers talk a lot so I have to keep this intro short in the interest of the almond-sliver-sized attention spans that make up our readership (I tried to include a lot of pretty pictures, okay?). Most of what I knew about The Growlers before this interview was gleaned from attending a few shows where their fans were a secondary spectacle in and of themselves: bejeweled and crazed, like a flock of gypsies on molly, eyes rolling back in their heads while their hands alternately reached for the sky and towards the band (I later learned this was known as “swan hands”). I also vaguely knew there was something called Beach Goth, a scene that spawned a thousand Instagram names, as well as a festival by the same name, which is in its third year and takes place this Saturday, October 25th. This year The Growlers play alongside DIIV, The Drums, Bleached, Joyce Manor, Chelsea Wolfe, and about two dozen more bands.

Now I know a lot more and it mostly involves Brooks’ sister being hot, some sexual exploits I chose not to print, and that the band is now free of scabies and other communicable diseases (so they say). I also learned that they formed their sound in a “jocky” cave away from the outside world, which might be why their current sound, which taps into garage rock, psych, and surf, while also flirting with disco and reggae, is so broad in its influences. (You can hear this most evidently on their latest release, Chinese Fountain. The band seems to take both nothing and everything seriously all at once, which actually makes them more interesting than the sum of their hangovers. They learned that I am a professional journalist who does extensive research. Now you learn:

 

Hi.

Matt Taylor: This is Matt Taylor from the T Tops. Not the Gaylors.

Brooks Nielsen: This is Brooks from the Gaylors, not the T Tops.

 

This is very sweet.

Brooks: Hi I’m Kyle Tyler. Ky Ty.

 

Great. Okay let’s begin. So this band started with just the two of you, being best friends and doing best friend stuff.

Brooks: Just the two of us…

Matt: I used to finger bang his sister.

Brooks: That’s a lie. I don’t know actually, I could just be finding that out right now.

Matt: No I’m just kidding I never did that. I wanted to though. I was in love with her.

Brooks: She’s a very pretty lady and take it back. She’s going to read this.

Matt: I just like fucking with this fool.

 

You like fucking with, what is it, Gummy Bear? Is that right, Egg Head?

Brooks: Whoa.

Matt: How did you know that???

 

I did research, okay? I’m a journalist.

Brooks: Wow. You really are.

Kyle Tyler: What’s your name?

 

Yasi.

Kyle: No, I mean, what’s your crew name. What’s your rave name?

 

Bunny.

Matt: (blows a horn he inexplicably has with him). Ohhh Bunny. Bunny is good. Sweet.

 

Not sweet. Bunny would cut you.

Brooks: Bunny Cuts! That’s your name.

 

Sounds good. Okay, next question. Does anyone in the band still have scabies?

Matt: Nope.

Brooks: Holy shit you are good. You are fucking up to date. That shit is fresh.

Matt: Kyle still has his cream on.

 

Gross.

Matt: I have scars.

Brooks: The road is rough.

Matt: Actually no one got it but me. It was a pretty shameful thing. “I have scabies, guys.”

Kyle: It’s not that big of a deal.

Matt: Yeah it is bro. It’s a big deal bro.

 

You just have to like burn all your clothes. No big deal.

Matt: That’s a good nickname. Scabies.

Brooks: Scabies is a funny thing. It’s not something you do, it’s more about the people you surround yourself with.

Kyle: If you surround yourself with scabie-ish people you will get it.

Brooks: You didn’t get it from us. You got it from the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn…

 

Question. I read somewhere in my research…

Brooks: Yasi! With the research.

Matt: It’s Bunny Cuts. Don’t be calling her Yasi no more.

 

Yes, Bunny Cuts does her research. What were you guys doing with your lives before magic brought you all together into The Growlers? I read you guys had pretty good jobs.

Matt: I was getting hammer-smashed with Brooks’ roommate, taking sailboats around the harbor.

Brooks: We were jocking out pretty hard. I mean, we didn’t have like Scarface posters but we were in San Clemente, surfing, skating, beer bonging, taking mushrooms, trying to play music, and we all worked good jobs.

 

What were you doing?

Matt: I had a high paying job.

Brooks: I did water fountains. I built them.

 

And what point did you guys quit your jobs?

Brooks: I think we were always a little self-conscious about them. We wanted to be fun and cool, and throw shows. We paid attention to every detail of how cool we were being and what we were making. But it wasn’t until we really proved ourselves that we thought we were a real band, and quit our jobs.

Matt: I remember at our first practice we were like “we’re going to do this, we’re going to be a real band!” Full motivation voice.

Brooks: I was 21, and Matt must have been about 16.

 

Did you graduate from high school Matt?

Matt: No, I dropped out.

 

Because of The Growlers.

Matt: Yes.

 

Way to go Brooks.

Matt: Yeah he would get me all fucked up on drugs and liquor and stuff, and take me to Mexico. And I’d be like all right I’m going to ditch school. And I ditched school…forever.

Brooks: Whatever, you were straight edge when I first met you.

Matt: I was 13!

Brooks: Yeah I mean when we started we were kind of jocky, you know? We’d get drunk and we didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t know anything about music or anything.

Matt: I had one CD called Creative Underground, and it had Captain Beefheart, and some weird shit on it, and like Shel Silverstein. Then we ended up playing a show with The Acid Test (who became Crystal Antlers), and they were like “you guys sound like Johnny Kidd & The Pirates” and we were like “What’s Johnny Kidd & The Pirates?” We were getting thrown into the category of garage music, when we weren’t really trying to be that…

Brooks: It’s just cause we we sounded so shitty. When we found out about garage music we were so stoked. Like people would tell us “there are all these other garage bands in Laguna Beach,” and this was when it was The Epsilons, Ty Segall’s old band, and the Moonhearts, and stuff like that.

Matt: We went down there to check it out all bonkers on acid, and the scene totally wasn’t like that. It was just kids who loved to make music. They were very sober, and very straight forward, and we were like “uhhhh nevermind.” We thought they were so rad but we felt so out of place, because we were so cooped up and nerdy. We didn’t know about anything.

 

That’s pretty interesting actually. Forming that sound outside of a scene.

Matt: Yeah I mean we had my dad’s old classic rock records, but that’s about it. I remember after we got into old garage music finally, we met Alex Knost from Japanese Motors, which is Tomorrow’s Tulips now, and he said, “You guys sound like The Black Lips!” And we were like “Who the fuck are The Black Lips?”

Brooks: It was more about our stage shit I think. We had the echo mic, and the sampler, and then when we finally heard them we were kind of jealous. Like, oh these guys are the shit.

Matt: Yeah that same night we played with a Doors cover band. Like that’s where we were at.

 

So in San Clemente, were you guys playing with other bands that you were friends with?

Matt: There were no bands. We didn’t meet bands until we moved to Long Beach, then we met The Acid Test.

Brooks: The only person I remembered was Warren Thomas. He had a band called Grand Elegance, and that was the first ever live shit I saw, at The Booby Trap.

Matt: I used to go hardcore shows, and Grand Elegance would play, and the guitar player Kyle Mullarky, was my brother’s best friend growing up. I live with him now, actually. They were the only rock n’ roll band in our area, and they moved to Long Beach, and so we were like okay we need to get out of here too.

Brooks: Long Beach is still that tough little scene that’s like fuck LA, fuck Orange County.

 

What are some other bands that you would tell people to listen to?

Brooks: Listen to your parents. Your teachers.

Matt: Stop listening to Dad music like 13th Floor Elevators and The Doors, and listen to future music, like Primal Scream, and Happy Mondays.

 

What about your friends’ bands?

Matt: Oh man I don’t know. All our friends’ bands suck. (Laughs).

Brooks: Sick!

Matt: Just kidding. I really do like The Abigails. And the Neo Globs.

Brooks: We just toured with The Garden. They’re so good.

Matt: Oh yeah the fucking Garden! Their recordings suck but they’re so good live.

Brooks: You haven’t heard the recordings.

Matt: Dude they just sent them to me on the road over here. And we looked up on Spotify.

Brooks: You want her to write that their recordings suck?

Matt: Yeah! I’m gonna tell them. It’s going to come out anyway when I’m drunk. Oh, obviously the T Tops.

Brooks: Shannon and the Clams. The Cosmonauts. Conspiracy of Owls.

Matt: Gap Dream.

Brooks: The Congos. Early Bob Marley. 70s reggae. 70s punk. That’s pretty vague…

Kyle: Listen to the word of the Lord.

 

You can find The Growlers on , annoying me with a steam-punk horn, and at Beach Goth fest this Saturday. Get tickets HERE.