Creative Research Project

The main source of inspiration for my project was the album haha by The Garden who, according to their label Epitaph, are a “neo-punk” band that represents a “youthful punk scene in California with their DIY principles, [fashion style] and a list of pick ‘n’ mix influences that stretch far beyond The Minutemen” (Epitaph).

The Garden is a band of twin brothers from Orange County, California, Wyatt and Fletcher Shears, who started the band in 2011. Unlike most bands, the Shears twins do not have a consistent sound or genre across their albums and EPs, playing bass and drums as well as other experimental audio cues including singing and talking to create a distinct feeling across their songs, despite the vast differences between them. Rather than being defined as one specific genre, the brothers created the expression “Vada Vada” in 2011. This is their definition of art; the freedom for the artist to share their voice “without boundaries or guidelines of any sort” (The Garden).

If one needs a reference for their sound, WIUX tries to define it as having “metal and punk influence, but the songs pop around so much with sound experimentation… putting a label on it would be restricting.” (Even the person defining them admits that it is not possible!)

One specific song on the album that has the biggest similarities with what feelings I wanted to capture in this project was the album’s first track, “All Smiles Over Here :)”. This was my first ever song belonging to The Garden that I listened to and it is the reason I continued listening to them. The best way to describe it in my own words is that it’s really, really, really, REALLY strange. The lyrics are repeated several times and the instruments as well as the sounds involved create this unmatchable feeling of comfort, discomfort, and mystery. The song even seems to allude to John Carpenter's 1988 movie They Live with the verse “Take your sunglasses off and then put them back on again”. This creates an extra layer of surrealism within their song with the dystopian nod to the sunglasses that hide subliminal messages hidden throughout the world. This possible reference also manages to make my inspiration more complex and in line with the horror aspect of my website. Of course, the lyrics have much more than this (that also make the reference stronger), such as “I look past this all” and “Shape shifting everywhere”, creating the image that nothing is what it seems (Epitaph).

These factors helped me to create my piece in my own, strange style to explore a town that has something not quite right going on behind the scenes.

The meaning and vibes of each song change so much that I find them to be an easy band to start listening to and draw inspiration from with so many songs with their own unique sounds and wide variety of themes. This freedom they introduce via Vada Vada is something that I am particularly a fan of since it means that I should experiment with my writing and try out different genres without allowing myself to be pressured by outside influences to write as someone I’m not. This website is an example of that; this is my first time working on a surreal project like this where I am not held back by word limits or a specific writing structure. I do not know if I will continue honing my craft in this specific gothic horror-esque style, but I am very proud of what I was able to accomplish with the wisdom planted by The Garden.