THE GROGANS CHAT NEW ALBUM, GETTING CREATIVE, GIGGING AND MORE

INTERVIEW | THE GROGANS by Kayleigh Nickson

Friday, 23rd May and not only is it gig day for Melbourne’s The Grogans, but the day also marks the release of the bands fifth studio album, Stagger. To celebrate the release, the band keep the party close to home with an album release show at the Northcote Social Club. At just 300 cap, the venue allowed the band to get in spitting reach of their most dedicated supporters, allowing fans to hear the brand new album live, in full, for the first time. Ahead of the action, I had the chance to sit down with the band talking all things Stagger, keeping creative, gigging and how “the UK and Australia are very similar.”

Which song from the album are you most proud of and why? 

Jordan – I mean, there’s probably a few for different reasons but ‘Roll Back’ has been a ‘song’ for years. Like, it’s been a riff and a little bit of an instrumental thing that we’ve done for a long time which we haven’t really known what to do with and how to structure it. I’m glad we got there with that one because that had been sitting there for a while. 

Quin – And we spent heaps of time recording that one because there was a lot of weird bits in it but we got through it. I also think ‘Have a Little Dream‘ I really like that song, for me, that one feels really good, it really grooves along nicely for us. 

Angus – I feel like that one is different. When I started running it, it felt different to any other kind of song and I guess listeners may not hear it but personally I felt like it had a bit more of a maturity to it.  

Quin – We were also in Brighton in England when we we slept in this big room and that’s where I wrote that ‘Have A Little Dream‘ bassline. That was a cool little riff.  

In Brighton? 

Quin – Yeah, in Brighton. We were at that festival, The Great Escape, but we didn’t play, we were just drinking.  

Jordan – We sat at one pub and all of our friends bands were playing and they just come to meet us and then they leave, then someone else came. We ended up doing an 8 hour stint at the pub.  

Quin – But it was kind of cool because we were on a really long tour and everyone was playing there so we just went ther for that.  

Angus – So, we actually had three days there and it was kind of sick, we didn’t have access to anything apart from some of the free stuff and there was a bit of free stuff, but our manager was there networking. Everyone else, all the bands here were asking us ‘when are you guys playing?’ And we’re like ‘we’re not, we’re just chilling, we’re hanging, man’. It was sick. 

Which song do you relate to the most? 

Angus – I think for me ‘All My Days‘. Lyrically, it’s about touring and the lifestyle that we’re living in the moment. 

Jordan – Yeah, probably saying ‘all my days are gone’. It just becomes a bit of a blur sometimes when you’re on tour and the ups and downs of it all.  

Quin – Also a good one to finish the record. That’s why I felt like it’s up there. 

What inspired you on writing this album? 

Quin – We’ve said it a lot since it’s come out but we’ve never really done concept albums or anything similar but some albums have sounded in the same vein and fit together but this one was almost so opposite to each other. With some of the songs, ther was this bizarre confusion with them but also coherence in it and that’s why we called it Stagger. So when we were writing it, it was honestly just bits and bobs of things and it fell together. 

Angus – It doesn’t derive from a particular inspiration or state of mind.  

Jordan – It’s a bit all over the shop and from different times and different places and usually we get the cracks of an album all done in a week or two to write the tracks but this one was spread out and we were all over the place. At the time, it felt as though we were just sticking it all together but listening back to it now, we would say that it definitely works. 

Can you tell me a little more about the writing process of it? 

Angus – I think normally, as Jordan just said, for past albums we go away for a week and a half with nothing on the platter already and just go right for it but this time there was a couple tracks. I think that we were playing Splendour and we stayed in Suffolk Park for four or five days maybe and set up a little rehearsal spot in the living room. We’d play through the ones we’d already had ideas for but then also came up with a couple more and then that week passed and we were familiar with some of the tracks but also not really at the same time. Then it was just in other select few rehearsals that we added to it. 

Quin –  I’ll write something but it never feels finished until the other two has had their part on it, naturally, I bring in songs that aren’t finished. Usually, 99% of the bulk writing happens together, lyrics and stuff have been personal experiences a lot. Even Gus and I write lyrics together but you know it’s never a finished thing until we’re all in a room together or the studio and it’s the secondary writing a lot of the time.  

Angus – I don’t think we’ve ever once been to a studio ready to record the album and it be done note for note or fucking bar for bar. We kind of change it up a bit when we record and just see what happens. 

It’s nice that you actually involve everyone in the writing process because I know quite a few bands that have one person writing the songs and everyone else just plays. 

Quin – Yeah, we’ve never really been like that. Of course with ‘Have a Little Dream‘, Gus predominantely wrote that song.  

Angus – But even still, that bassline and drums and everything that’s another thing as a whole. 

Quin – Jordy’s drums make each track. It’s like no one really makes the melody and the chorus but for us Jordy is such a huge part of writing even when he’s drumming and writing his drums, he’s got a different perspective to us sometimes we get lost in shit and Jordy’s like ‘nah’ which is good because he’s physically writing with us. Writing is so fun and so good the way we do it.  

Angus – It’s always a struggle with starting a song and having an idea and you just can’t fucking finish it on the spot. That’s why we go away and finish it all together. 

Quin – And I always cross my fingers and pray to God the other two have got a good song or something. I’m like ‘please write a good song because I can’t right now’. And a new thing that’s happening and it’s this bastard [Angus], me and Jordy will have no songs and when Gus is soundchecking his guitar, he will whip out a song and Jordy and I will look at each other as if to say ‘I don’t know this song’ and he’s just playing this new song that sounds awesome. 

What song are you most excited to perform live? 

Jordan – ‘Happier Man‘ will be fun. We’ve obviously played the singles live before like ‘Roundabout‘ and ‘Social Cue‘, we’ve only just started playing them live in the last couple of weeks. They were sounding and feeling good on stage. It’s pretty much any of the new stuff because it’s been sitting there – we finished recording it almost a year ago – and we’ve been waiting for it to be out so we can start playing it to people. 

So The Hidden Playlist is an article I do every month where I highlight some of the small Australian bands that I hadn’t heard of before I moved here, you guys were featured in last months. What small Australian bands do you think should be added that you love to listen to? 

Quin – Bones and Jones. In our brains they’re John Lennon size because we look up to them. They’re such an amazing group of people and artists. Stimpies. 

Angus – Ella Ion just released two new tracks that are fucking incredible, she’s from Adelaide. Seriously listen to it. Focus Trio is another one that’s up there. 

Quin – Jack Davies and The Bush Chooks. Mad WA artist. 

Jordan – Frenzee 

Quin – Stiff Richards, there’s heaps. 

Angus – And that’s not us saying that they’re small artists just insanely amazing Australian artists.  

Quin – Steve Bourke. He’s the bass player for Hockey Dad and he’s put out solo shit, it’s really amazing. He’s really cool, super amazing stuff and really cool songwriting. 

So with your album, the one song I didn’t fully understand – which is probably because I couldn’t tell what the words were – was ‘Come Up Go Down’. Could you explain that song so I understand it a bit more?

Quin – It’s actually funny, the understanding thing. I know Gus was saying it a lot when we were writing this, I think he read that article from Julia Jacklin and it was like, a lot of people were picking apart every lyric she was writing and she was saying ‘I don’t have to write lyrics that mean something to you for it to be a good song’ or something along them lines and we experimented with some of our lyrics. We wanted attitude in there, so you know ‘I drive an old yellow rust bucket’. That’s part of it. We wanted it to be more of an attitude-y diva song, aesthetics rather than a story or a theme. 

Angus – A lot of our lyrics aren’t related to us three personally, they’re written from someone else’s perspective about whatever that’s completely irrelevant to us. 

Quin – It’s very youthful, the lyrics are ‘driving an old rust bucket’, ‘been out in the sun’. There’s also parts of it when I’m thinking back to when we were 17-18 doing stupid things and it’s kind of fun. I like that you brought that up because it is an interesting thing and it’s good to question it. 

Jordan – It’s just a fun song.  

Quin – We found we wanted to try and experiment with this one. It came from soundcheck and it’s so fun, it’s so quick, it’s so dirty and its different recorded but that’s also part of it. It’s good to get feedback, it doesn’t mean we’re going to change anything but it’s good to hear. 

I’m not saying that I don’t love it, I just didn’t know what was going on.  

Quin – But it’s also okay if you don’t love it. There’s millions of people who don’t like our music. It doesn’t matter. Not everyone is going to love everything, it’s something that you’re going to get used to. 

I see that you’re heading back to America soon for a couple of shows. Is there a big difference between the Australian shows and the American shows? 

Quin – Yes and No. The only thing that’s different in Australia is we have our demographic that’s a large scale in terms of ages and diversity which we are really happy about but in America, different places have different types of diversity. Some shows will be 18-25 year olds and others will be 30-55 year olds which is very different. 

Angus –  Sometimes in Australia, you get people that you think ‘are you coming because you like us or do you just want to fucking throw elbows’ and shit like that but in America, we haven’t got got that. The crowds are always more attentive. 

Jordan – They still have a dance and stuff but its just different. 

Angus – It’s cool to watch them. You know most of the time there’s some shows in Australia where people are going insane. 

Jordan – When we played there, we were supporting Ocean Alley and one of the bigger things that we noticed is on two band bills – only us and them – everyone would get there early, not necessarily to get a good spot, but to see the music on the whole bill. So we had really good crowds for a lot of those shows which we were not expecting. We thought everyone would be going to bars and shit beforehand but everyone rocks up early there.  

Angus – Even on our headline tour over there, we didn’t really get anyone messaging us asking what time we were on whereas over here every night you get lots of messages and they rock up a minute before you’re on.  

Quin – The UK and Australia are very similar in that sense. The pub culture to go out beforehand. Epic pubs in UK and pretty epic pubs in Australia. Whereas in America, it’s so different. So that venue and what you’re doing that night is going to the music, that’s all you’re doing. There’s differences but at the end of the day, it’s a nice thing having music that can bind all these different people together. That’s one thing that I do think about when we’re playing anywhere there’s one thing in common, a fairly large factor that some people don’t notice, but the common denominators is something that we all know. Which is cool, even on the opposite side of the world, people that you maybe would never even talk to outside of music but we are all in a room together, so there’s always a similarity. 

So, you guys have an Australian tour coming up. Tell us about it. 

Quin – It’s gonna be fucking large. 

Jordan – We’re going to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart and then we’re going to New Zealand.  

Angus – We haven’t been to a lot of those places in a while. 

Quin – It’s going to be in August and then New Zealand in the start of September. There’s some really cool rooms we’re playing which we really wanted to play for a while, like the one in Perth, I’m really excited for The Rechabite. Following us the entire time is Caitlin Harnett and The Pony Boys. We really like doing a tour with people for every show. We will be having locals as well. We’ve got Ethanol Blend, Platonic Sex and Jet City Sports Club. 

What is the most memorable moment that you guys have had as a band? 

Quin – We had a conversation about some pinch me moments today, there’s been heaps. I think our first overseas trip to Europe was pretty epic. Like, playing overseas in Europe and playing in different countries every night, it was crazy. But I think they come in different pinch me moments. Like, our first ever sold out show at Cherry Bar which is 200 cap, that was a pinch me, then you know, to sell out bigger venues. There’s a lot of them and I’m really hoping there’s continually more.  

Jordan – I think we pinch ourselves a lot, which makes us happy that we have a lot.  

Angus – Even when we’re playing a festival in the Netherlands or something and we’re like ‘what the fuck’. That’s another pinch me, how did we get here? It’s insane to think that we started doing this and this is where we are at, so we do pinch ourselves a lot. 

Jordan – I think we have a few more pinches in us. 

Angus – Yeah, I’m keen for some more pinches. You never know when your last pinch will be. 

The last question is because we are a UK based magazine, what’s your favourite city in the UK?  

Angus – Newcastle. 

Jordan – I like Manchester. 

Angus – I prefer Newcastle.  

Quin – I really love Sheffield, it’s where the Arctic Monkeys are from.  

Jordan – Bristol. We were supposed to play Bristol, we’ve been there before that. We’re really excited to go back. 

Quin – Outside of one of the venues there was these homeless people but they were just having a sick fire. It was a full on fire. I was literally just drinking, having a fucking good time and then on the concrete, there was this massive fire and we were like ‘oh we should go hang out there later’ but then the fire department came and sorted it out. 

Stagger by The Grogans available on all platforms now. 

Tickets for the Australian and New Zealand tour available here: https://www.thegrogansband.com/index.php/shows/