Brooks Nielsen on growing with The Growlers

The Beach Goth pioneer and effortlessly cool frontman faces the next chapter of the band.

It’s been a few years since Australia last connected with The Growlers – 2019 to be exact. A lot has changed since that Natural Affair not only in the wider world but within the band. Relationship breakdowns in The Growlers headquarters, along with public incidents, and a global pandemic sent frontman Brooks Nielsen into his cave – finding solace in his other leadership role as dad and turning to writing poetry and lyrics outside of The Growlers camp.

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“Me and a couple of the guys weren’t really getting along,” Nielsen says, describing the fracture point with frank clarity. “I took it as ‘okay if you don’t want to do this then you don’t have to. I’m going to continue doing it’.” Then the world stopped. 

That forced pause changed everything. “I quickly learned that what we had was really special and I’m not sure if it’s coming back,” he reflects. In the stillness, creativity became both a compass and mirror. “Once again I’ve got to prove it to myself – ‘is this really what I want to do’ and writing does that. You’re pretty much staring in the mirror for hours.” What stared back surprised him. “Really quickly I was like ‘oh wait I loved this’. I forgot how much I love this, and it was very therapeutic… especially in weird troubling times, I have this, I know that I have this.”

With touring off the table, Nielsen leaned all the way in. “I look back when I go to write now and I have to compare myself to that time,” he says. “The reason I was so prolific during that time – I wrote 100 songs with other people – there was nothing else going on. I could be dad during the day and then at night just focus on music… I really pushed it. I owe a lot to that exploration period.”

Those songs became the backbone of his solo project, built with a rotating cast of collaborators while quietly keeping The Growlers’ spirit alive onstage. The more he toured solo, the more the old songs kept calling. “I accomplished a lot with the Brooks Band and we did a lot of experimental things,” Nielsen says. “Through that I never stopped playing The Growler songs. I kept going back and looking into it.”

That looking back turned archival. Old hard drives. Forgotten demos. Songs that never quite found a home. “I started finding recordings that had never been put out, recordings that didn’t quite make the record demos and I was like ‘oh wait’.” What followed was a creative flood. “I started recording some of them, re-recording some of them and getting cool feedback.” The response was instant and electric. “There was so much excitement about it that I needed to go back… I accomplished a lot with Brook’s – I’m okay putting it on ice and I need to go full Growlers here.”

Enter the Beach Goth Tapes — a loose, loving excavation of The Growlers’ universe, paying homage to both the genre they helped define and the cult festival they built in California. Alongside them came deep cuts ‘Crisis’ and ‘Jack The Knife’, totalling 18 previously unheard originals spanning nearly three decades. “I got addicted to it – we put out so many in a short period of time, just dumping them all,” Nielsen admits. The process felt familiar in the best way. “Everything was effortless and in the old spirit of The Growlers not a lot of planning just going for it.”

This return isn’t about recreating the past, though. It’s about recalibrating it. With original drummer Richard Gowen still in place, the band now includes two members from Nielsen’s solo project alongside fresh faces, ushering in new dynamics and new energy. “Making records with certain people can be really taxing,” he says. “When I started making records for my solo project… I was like ‘This is good!’” The revelation stuck. “I found out you can make art and have a good time doing it. It doesn’t always have to be a struggle.”

Now, with new writing underway and momentum building, Australia feels like the right place to begin again. “I’m excited to write another Growlers record and we are going to start off here, going to launch in Australia,” Nielsen says. “Australian fans feel a lot like the early shows we played in Costa Mesa and San Clementi… It’s going to be fun!”

The Growlers return to the Torquay Hotel on Friday 23 January, supported by The Grogans — a full-circle moment, soundtracked by rediscovery, resilience and a band falling back in love with itself, one song at a time.

Tickets are up for grab here.