{"id":409312,"date":"2026-07-23T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409312\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:04:09","slug":"the-garden-turns-aging-into-a-punk-badge-of-honor-on-bootleg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409312\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden turns aging into a punk badge of honor on \u2018Bootleg\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The party had already started by the time Wyatt Shears walked into Turcs. The classic, beachy dive bar right on Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach was a familiar haunt for the Orange County native, but on this random Tuesday afternoon, Turcs was filled with an audience twice the 32-year-old\u2019s age. A banner reading \u201cHappy Birthday Bill!\u201d hung over a potluck buffet of plastic trays and slow cookers, with the aforementioned Bill and his family and friends all clearly enjoying retirement.<\/p>\n

While not really at a comparable stage in his life biologically speaking, Shears has grown to appreciate the aging process that so many dread.<\/p>\n

Having formed experimental rock band the Garden as teenagers, Shears and his twin brother, Fletcher, have grown from being the crazy young kids in the scene to accomplished avant-garde adults without ever compromising on what they\u2019ve wanted to do. If anything, they\u2019re more proud of their success and willingness to get weird than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think age can be looked at as a negative thing nowadays with social media and whatnot, but I think it\u2019s actually a badge of honor,\u201d Wyatt Shears says, his tall frame seated at a small dirty table on the patio of Turcs. \u201cYou get that purple heart quality where it\u2019s like you\u2019ve been there, done that, and you\u2019re still going. A band like Motorhead just kept going and going and going, and I don\u2019t necessarily identify with every corner of their ideology, but it was kind of cool and inspiring to a band like us, who\u2019s been going for almost 15 years at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Garden have certainly earned respect from their peers, elders and juniors since forming in 2011. Having just released their sixth album, \u201cBootleg,\u201d earlier this month, the duo have changed up their sound and aesthetic multiple times over the years without ever losing the chaotic energy or high-octane performances that have earned them fans in every genre from hardcore punk to hip-hop to artsy electronica.<\/p>\n

With featured sets on the biggest festival stages (including twice at Coachella) and tours with massive artists across genres (including their upcoming arena dates with the Strokes next month), the Garden have found a fairly wide appeal for a couple of guys from Orange County whose music never really fit in anywhere. But even more than the potentially massive audiences the Shears brothers reach during their largest opportunities, they\u2019re both quite pleased with the base they\u2019ve established in bringing their rebellious spirit and often-bizarre world to sold-out venues across the country.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cIf something comes our way or we break down some door by accident, I\u2019m happy to walk through and see what\u2019s over there, but for the most part, I\u2019m very happy with the type of places we play, the crowds we have and the music we\u2019re still making,\u201d Fletcher Shears says, sitting in a chair across from his brother. \u201cI\u2019m very proud to be in this spot I\u2019m at now. If more comes, great. If less comes, that\u2019s great too. We\u2019ll still be doing the same thing regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that people even still find interest in coming to see us \u2014 whether it\u2019s a big venue or a small show in Orange \u2014 is awesome,\u201d Wyatt adds. \u201cThat\u2019s all I could really ask for, because I remember the times when we played and there wasn\u2019t anyone there. To maintain that now in some manner is great. If we can continue to pull up to small theaters throughout the U.S., grab a drink and figure out what kind of ghosts haunt each venue, that\u2019s our vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last 15 years, the party has shifted and evolved for the Garden, but it\u2019s never stopped. Known as much for the raucous energy of their live shows as they are their sometimes otherworldly appearance (not only do the twins do high fashion modeling, but many fans still associate them with the black-and-white jester makeup they have worn on and off throughout their career), the punk rock spirit that flows through the twins has remained one of the few consistencies across their six official albums and six EPs.<\/p>\n

\"Orange <\/p>\n

Orange County twins Wyatt and Fletcher Shears turn getting older into a punk badge of honor, pushing past scene expectations while their experimental band The Garden hits year 15.<\/p>\n

(Jaxon Whittington)<\/p>\n

Musically, the Shears brothers aren\u2019t shy about how their variety of influences affects their output. While they each have their own solo careers as well (including Fletcher frequently serving as the touring drummer for British punk icons the Adicts), the Garden\u2019s discography spans a sonic scope ranging from highly produced electronica to two-man garage rock. \u201cBootleg\u201d is no different, with danceable electronic tracks (\u201cWhite Cadillac\u201d and \u201cBanned from Paradise\u201d), industrial sounds (\u201cThe Mess\u201d) and post-punk flavors (\u201cThe Kockroach\u201d and \u201cFlailing on the Tracks\u201d) all diverging significantly from anything that would fit neatly under any label. Yet across all 14 tracks, \u201cBootleg\u201d still definitely feels like the same band that put out beloved albums like 2015\u2019s \u201chaha\u201d and 2020\u2019s \u201cKiss My Super Bowl Ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201c[The songs] all have the same backbone, which is Wyatt and my personalities, and that\u2019s what makes them feel part of the same world despite being in a different genre sometimes or mixed a different way or whatever,\u201d Fletcher says. \u201cI think people who listen to our music get to know us over time and are really able to put it together, because that personality backbone never really leaves. You can tell who\u2019s making it, even if it doesn\u2019t sound like the last thing that you heard from that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting as one of the youngest bands on the label during the early days of Burger Records (an experience which helped them get their footing, despite feeling like they never really fit in musically or culturally with a lot of the other bands in that scene) and steadily growing and maturing until they were seated at Turcs among the senior citizens, the Garden might not be the rebellious teens they once were, but that hasn\u2019t changed their motivation. They still love both seeing and being artists who are willing to take chances, make changes and upset people, and they\u2019re still just as fed up with the state of the world as they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we\u2019re inspired, angry and willing to learn, we\u2019ll keep making music,\u201d Fletcher says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still inspired,\u201d Wyatt agrees. \u201cWe still feel good. We\u2019re still interested in hearing and making new music. Why stop just because we\u2019re a little older?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The party had already started by the time Wyatt Shears walked into Turcs. The classic, beachy dive bar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1864,11416,164055,116725,7997,25307,14552,131,133,132,330,592,164058,164057,164056,44702,19368,72],"class_list":["post-409312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-audience","tag-band","tag-bootleg","tag-fletcher","tag-garden","tag-genre","tag-honor","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-music","tag-people","tag-punk-badge","tag-shears-brother","tag-turcs","tag-twin-brother","tag-venue","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}