Monday, October 18, 2010

Spork: An audience with The Growlers

An audience with The Growlers
One minute later The Growlers` http://www.losgrowlers.com/ vocalist Brooks Nielson told me he is "a classic hoarder," he rattled off a number of material he hoards. He spoke too quickly for me hold up, though, so my notes read "old furniture, old machines, piano, surfboards," which is near a 10th of what he said.

"We`re always digging in dumpsters, so after every turn we come back with a lot of stuff," he explained. "We go in a warehouse and every edge is covered." We got to talk about this because I wanted to love more nigh the Costa Mesa, California, band`s sound. They address it "beach goth," which, to my ears, is as exact a categorization as you`re going to find. It`s got the Ventures` twang and driving beat mixed with ghostly vocals and lyrics about death and graves and pale-skinned creepy concerns. They might need to study adding "cowboy" in there somewhere, because there`s a little "Ghost Riders in the Sky" stirred in. And "low-fi," too, because their new album, Hot Tropics, has the gritty tinniness of records recorded decades ago for next to no money, the form you might happen while dumpster diving. It`s a voice they get by recording on equipment from the 70s and 80s. The form of equipment you might happen in a dumpster. "The want of choice in our equipment adds to our sound," Nielson says. "With certain bands, when you carry off the old gear, they`re not as interesting. It`s the like with us. If you put us in clear digital, it`s not as good. I wish it more ghetto. It kind of fills up the sound. It`s not empty. There`s weird scratchy noise in the background."

The Growlers Spork: An audience with The Growlers
Their equipment is always breaking down and that adds to the complexity of their sound, Nielson says. For example, when they made their first album, Greatest Hits, the 4-track they were using broke down midway through. They switched to an older, crappier machine while it was being fixed. When the original, better machine came second from the shop, Nielson says, "It was like, `Shit. We shouldn`t have set it.` It was decidedly a little different sounding. "But I didn`t care," he adds. "I don`t put too much thought into that stuff. If we enter on a cell phone or on tape, personally, I don`t care. It`s not that important. Because when does it end?" When I asked him to make some of the equipment they use, he had to ask their bass player and technology guy, Scott Montoya. Lately it`s been an Ampex MM 1100 8-track http://www.msusurplusstore.com/servlet/Detail?no=2454 and an Otari MNR-100 24-track http://www.blevinsaudioexchange.com/16DAH.html, Montoya said. "It`s from like the 80s," Nielson added, a little annoyed at having been bothered with such details. "And of course crappy mikes and crappy homemade cables." He hates it when they play larger venues with thoroughly sound systems, especially the way the drums sound when they`re all miked up. It feels unnatural to him. He wants The Growlers` music to go the way it does when they`re playing in their warehouse, where they exist in together. They`re housemates, Nielson explains, "so we don`t get to track each other down. It`s our own small universe within a world where we can hold music and party." By this point, ten minutes or so into our conversation, Nielson was getting restless. "This band talks about music too much," he said. "I only need to give the song, record it, and go on. "We`re only making music. This is a weird, stupid business and we`re trying to see it out so we can one day not be broke." -Joe Miller

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