The Grogans return to beach hotel

THE Grogans will return to Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel on May 1, as the touring trio continues a relentless run of live shows across Australia and beyond.

Surf garage rock trio The Grogans are known for their heavy touring schedule and energetic live sets, building a following both locally and overseas.

Despite their name being a colloquial surf slang term with less-than-glamorous origins, vocalist, guitarist and bassist Quin Grunden said the band was initially drawn to its nostalgic feel.

“It was used in surf slang in the old days,” he said.

The band came across the term through an older family member, unaware of its meaning at the time.

“When we first started touring, older boys would be like ‘You do realise this means sh*t right?’ and we were like ‘Are you kidding?'” Grunden said.

“It’s been the funniest thing to navigate but it’s just stuck now.”

Comprising Grunden, guitarist Angus Vasic and drummer Jordan Lewis, the band is often associated with surf-rock looseness, but Grunden said their music carries more depth than that label suggests.

“We can sometimes get put in a certain group because we’ve got a funny name, but a lot of our lyrics actually carry weight,” he said.

Their track I’m Not Sure reflects that approach, exploring the uncertainty and freedom of young adulthood.

“It’s about that age between 16 and 19 and having no idea about what you’re doing but actually trying to enjoy that part of your life,” he said.

That mindset extends to Grunden’s broader approach to music.

“Being an artist, there’s no right or wrong way to do anything,” he said.

“You’ve just got to make sure it works how you want it to and be honest with how it is to you.”

The Grogans’ catalogue balances introspection with energy, with streaming audiences often gravitating toward laid-back tracks like Lemon To My Lime, while their live shows lean into heavier, more chaotic moments.

“A lot of our really chilled songs are popular on streaming platforms, but live it’s the heavier stuff that gets people going,” Grunden said.

Behind those performances is a demanding touring lifestyle that has taken the band across multiple continents.

“Touring is the most bizarre lifestyle,” he said.

He recalled travelling on a sleeper bus through North America, where the band would leave venues in the early hours and wake in a different city.

“You finish a show, bus call’s at like 2am, and then you just drive overnight to the next spot,” he said.

On one leg of the tour, the bus crossed from the United States into Canada while the band slept.

“We were asleep the whole time and when we woke up, we were parked up in this new city,” he said.

It wasn’t until they stepped out for a coffee that something felt off.

“As we walked to get a coffee, I was hearing fluent French everywhere and I thought, ‘What the hell, is this some kind of French day?'” he said.

“Then we got into the café, and everything was in French and then I realised that we had landed in Montreal, in Quebec.”

The sudden shift left him feeling disoriented.

“It freaked me out, I felt like I was in a time warp!” he said.

After long stretches on the road, Grunden said returning home requires a reset.

“I have to relearn how to relax when I come home,” he said.

“You switch between two lives.”

That sense of grounding is closely tied to Mallacoota, where his father was raised and where Grunden spent time growing up.

“Mallacoota has always been such a huge part of my music, it’s what kickstarted me into playing,” he said.

Family gatherings often turned into informal performances, shaping his early approach to music.

“We’d do a lot of family gigs and wherever we went there was always someone lugging PA’s and drum kits around,” he said.

“Growing up we were mainly playing old blues and funk, and it was largely improvised.”

“The mindset of Mallacoota and that lifestyle has shaped how I perceive music.”

Despite their growing audience, the band remains closely connected to the community, supporting Mallacoota following the bushfires and COVID.

“I’ve run some workshops in the school, and we also put on a big fundraiser show in Melbourne after the fires ripped through the town,” he said.

“If something hurts in Mallacoota, you feel it even if you may not live there, so there’s a whole gravity pull up there.”

Looking ahead, Grunden said the band is focused on continuing to evolve while staying grounded.

“We want to push our musical boundaries,” he said.

“You’ve got to really soak in what you’ve got at a given time, it’s not going to last forever.”

“But you’ve always got to bring it back to what’s good, and sometimes that’s just going home and being with your people.”

“Always trying to evolve is a huge thing, but we want to keep being us.”

The Grogans will play at Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel on May 1 from 7pm.