We first met The Garden – a two piece band made up of twins Fletcher and Wyatt Shears from California – earlier this year. In Australia recently for their first tour here, we caught up with them again to discuss all that’s been going on in the meantime.
It would be simple to classify The Garden as post-punk, however, just like their androgynous style, the striking identical brothers prefer not to definitively restrict themselves. With their eclectic sounds and influences, and their refusal to be tied to any particular genre, they’ve coined their music Vada Vada. It’s also this liberal attitude that caught the eye of Hedi Slimane and resulted in them becoming models and ongoing muses for Saint Laurent.
We sat down to discuss their spontaneous music process, a surprising taste for rap music, being twins and their thoughts on sexuality.
How are you liking Australia?
Fletcher: Pretty good man! It’s been pretty wild at every show. I didn’t know what to expect.
Wyatt: I mean, honestly it’s surpassed what I thought it was going to be.
You’ve called the music you play Vada Vada. Can you explain?
Wyatt: Instead of a world, it’s more of a mindset. It’s kind of us moving forward musically without genre placement, without boxing ourselves in and enabling us to be creative. Vada Vada isn’t just music. We’ve done it in public before, doing different things. One time we created this creature that had a devil mask and a horse body and my friend and I walked around the whole city. Basically people were just reacting to us do our thing. That’s kind of what our music is like, we’re just going on our own path and people react to it. That’s Vada Vada. It’s doing your own thing.
Fletcher: It’s just purely creative and progressive without boundaries to hold you down. Open to whatever you feel and being genuine to yourself.
Your music videos are often quite surreal and incorporate weird characters. Where do you come up with these ideas?
Fletcher: Honestly for the most part, it’s like how we make our music. It just comes out and it doesn’t take a lot of thinking or planning. We kind of throw out an idea and it means something to us and we’re like, ‘okay cool’. That’s what it is. If it feels right to us, we’ll use it, if not we don’t.
You guys are 21 years old. In the spirit of the age, have you done some reckless things?
Wyatt: I don’t know! I think when you turn 21, the most cliche thing would be to party, get drunk and have a great 21st birthday. We don’t drink and we never have, so I guess we kind of forfeited that. I just bought a moped (laughs). That’s pretty reckless of me!
Fletcher: Of course there’s been reckless moments. Nothing I’d probably want to talk about out loud!
How would you characterise your style?
Wyatt: Like our music it’s constantly changing. Inspiration comes from different places and my brain wants to go in different directions all the time. I think my style constantly changes and it’ll probably continue to change. I hope to look way different as an old man.
Fletcher: It’s always changing. I’m interested in new things all the time. Something may feel right but as soon as it feels boring, I end up naturally gravitating towards other things.
You often cross dress and wear make up in your music videos and at gigs. What drew you to this?
Fletcher: Honestly, I was going through a really hard time when I started. I started being interested in this a lot earlier, like around the beginning of high school and middle school. I didn’t really do anything with it. I kind of just felt it. Then, after high school, I was feeling a lot of things and I just started dressing like that everyday. I wasn’t dressing like, ahh I like some girl clothes, I was trying to make myself look like a woman. I wanted to look like a woman. At that time, it was really important for me. I don’t know why, it just was. It was something I felt I needed to do.
Like a part of discovering yourself?
Fletcher: I guess, yeah. I didn’t really find anything out about myself necessarily. It felt right and it felt good. It felt like what I needed to do right then. So I did that for like a year and a half. I still wear women’s clothes all the time, I just don’t wake up everyday and try and make myself look like a woman. It’s just because I feel like I don’t really need to do that anymore.
What are your thoughts on gender and sexuality in regards to the new generation of young people?
Fletcher: I think honestly, it’s really simple. I can’t speak for anybody else or tell anybody else what to do, but for myself – it’s to be a progressive, free thinking person. I think being open minded to everything is the best thing you can do. It makes you feel happy and without problems, issues or judgement. Just let people be who they want to be. Don’t let anything stop you from doing that.
Wyatt: At the same time, you can’t expect a big world peace because people are raised and brought up differently and have these mindsets that they can never let go of. Sometimes we get weird comments because people think we’re gay, which isn’t even close to something weird in my mind, but to somebody else it is.
Fletcher: I don’t really like to consider myself a person that’s anything. I like to be open to whatever. I just like to keep my mind open. There’s a lot of things I don’t know and so why should I say, ‘oh that’s not me’ when you’ve never done it before. Maybe I would like something, maybe something would be interesting to me.
Wyatt: On top of that, you don’t know what people have to go through, why judge?
Fletcher: A lot of young people are getting involved, or at least trying to.
I’ve read that your goal with making music is to redefine punk and conventional genres. Could you elaborate?
Wyatt: I think we don’t know where we are placed in society or the music world necessarily. I’m looking at a lot of music genres and movements going on right now. Some I think are on the right track. They’re moving up and progressing. With others, rock and roll for example, there’s not much unique going on at all. For us, we just want to expand and be versatile and being that way, we can do all kinds of things and not just play with rock bands. It’s almost liberating in a way, but I also like playing a show when it’s all just rock bands around me too.
Fletcher: It’s fun to play drums while he’s playing bass and play like a normal The Garden song. But then afterwards to get up and dance like I’m in a hip hop group and MC in the same show. It’s nice to have that freedom.
What artists are inspiring you at the moment and currently on your playlist rotation?
Wyatt: I listen to a lot of mainstream rap like Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, Rich Gang, A$AP Ferg and even 2 Chainz sometimes if I’m in a certain mood. I listen to a lot of trap and rap and I also listen to a lot of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass too. But then again I’d listen to hardcore bands. It’s really up and down, but a lot of trap lately.
Fletcher: Sometimes I listen to my own music for a few days.
We have to talk about you working with Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent. You walked and starred in the brand’s campaign a couple of years ago and you also just appeared in their show this year. What’s it like working with him and being a part of such an iconic fashion house?Wyatt: As far as the fashion house goes, I think it’s taken us a while to realise what it was all about, the history of it and how important it actually is. As time went on, we began to realise how much of an honour it is to keep being asked back to do his stuff. Every time, it hits me more and more. It’s a big honour. Our respect just keeps on going up for the brand. They’ve been the first to do things, like the first women’s suit and so many cool things. So, to just be a part of it and to be part of that legacy is pretty special. It’s something I’ll be telling my grandkids.
Your faces were everywhere with those first campaigns back in 2013. How did you guys feel about it and do you think it helped you build your fans?
Fletcher: It was kind of weird and a little surreal because it was like an overnight thing. We were playing shows two years before that even happened – shows where people showed up, but nobody gave a shit really. Now, like everybody from our hometown has modelled for Saint Laurent. Hedi has picked so many kids from Orange County and the Burger Records scene to do it. At the beginning though, it was like, ‘what the fuck how did you do that?’.
Do you have any other upcoming projects you are working on next?
Fletcher: We got The Garden album coming out October 9th and then we’re both releasing our own side projects, Puzzle and Enjoy. We both have our next full LP Vinyl releases coming up on Burger Records. A lot of new material is on its way out.
Wyatt: It’ll just be a big tornado of touring.
Lastly, describe each other in 3 words.
Fletcher: Stone Aged Man.
Wyatt: Buck Daddy Manner.
Credits
Text & Images courtesy of Darren Luk