Wyatt Shears (right) : We’re from Orange County, California, but right now we’re on tour with The Growlers until Oct. 17.
Fletcher Shears (left) : Together, we started our band, The Garden, in 2011, but we’ve been playing music since we were really little. It’s a family thing, so we just started playing around with the instruments that were lying around the house—it’s in our blood. I play drums and Wyatt plays bass and sings.
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WS : Our genre is a little hard to describe. We call it Vada Vada—we made it up. It’s really our own universe…it’s hard to say if it’s punk or rap so we just gave it a new name.
FS : You kind of have to see it to understand. We have a new album coming out, too—probably by the end of the year. I feel like the audience can also come up with their own idea of our genre from hearing us.
ON TOURINGWS : We’re over the really grungy kind of tour life…we make sure we have hotels and stuff now. We wouldn’t have come on this tour if we knew we were gonna have to sleep on like, dirt beds and under bridges, because that just sucks after a while.
FS : If you don’t have to live that way, then don’t, seriously. All bands should have to go through that at some point, even though a lot of them don’t these days. It makes you grateful for when things do get good—it keeps you grounded.
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WS : You can appreciate having a couch or a bed on hand to sleep in, or when you have a good PA system, or even a crew to work with.
ON STYLEWS : I look to Geordie Walker for style inspiration. He’s the guitarist for this band called Killing Joke that’s from the UK-he just always has a sleek, slick look to him and I like that. He makes playing the guitar and being on stage kind of effortless and I’ve just always dug that for some reason.
FS : I always try to look like if I was watching a cartoon or something, and I saw a character and was like, ‘That’s a really cool character’ and dressed just like it, but in human form. Specifically, a cartoon called Yuyu Hakusho—it’s my favorite anime.
ON HAIRFS : We’ve only had two people cut our hair in our lives—our mom is a hairstylist and always did it growing up. Now the guy who cuts hair for Saint Laurent will do it sometimes [ed note: Wyatt and Fletcher starred in YSL’s Fall 2013 Menswear campaign]. He’s a sweet guy and we know each other and we’ve met a million times, but I always forget how to say his name. He did a great job.
WS : I still have the same cut that he gave me at one of the YSL things. I actually wanted to get it cut today in New York, but I couldn’t think of a place to go in time and then I kind of ran out of time. The length is cool, but I’m really sick of the black. My original roots coming in are dirty blonde and the black is getting annoying and tangled. And generally I just don’t like dealing with dyes.
FS : I’m actually growing my hair back out. I shaved it all off in March to the point where I was almost bald and I kind of regret that.
ON BEING A WOMANFS : I used to dress like a woman almost every day, but I don’t do it really anymore. For a while, something really made me want to do it, but now when I think about it, it just feels contrived or forced. I don’t make myself look like a woman anymore, because it doesn’t really feel right.
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WS : But the women’s clothing racks at Goodwill have awesome stuff. Right now I’m wearing a woman’s shirt and it looks fuckin’ cool! The only problem is, they’re usually designed for someone with a chest, which we don’t have.
ON ORAL HYGIENEWS : My only beauty tip is to clean your teeth every day or else you’ll get gum problems like I did!
FS : Yeah, Wyatt had trench mouth at one time.
WS : On our first US tour I didn’t brush my teeth enough and my gums started really hurting. When I went to the dentist he was like, ‘This is something that people in World War I and World War II got when they were in the trenches and it’s called trench mouth.’
FS : They wouldn’t be able to brush their teeth because they were hiding in the trenches…
WS : So basically what happened was your gums would just bleed all the time because they’re so infected. I was so embarrassed. Brush your teeth every day!
Wyatt and Fletcher Shears photographed by Brayden Olson in New York.
Source: https://gardencourte.com
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