The Garden turns aging into a punk badge of honor on Bootleg

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Set us as preferred The party had already started by the time Wyatt Shears walked into Turcs.The classic, beachy dive bar right on Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach was a familiar haunt for the Orange County native, but on this random Tuesday afternoon, Turcs was filled with an audience twice the 32-year-old’s age.

A banner reading “Happy Birthday Bill!” hung over a potluck buffet of plastic trays and slow cookers, with the aforementioned Bill and his family and friends all clearly enjoying retirement.While not really at a comparable stage in his life biologically speaking, Shears has grown to appreciate the aging process that so many dread.Having formed experimental rock band the Garden as teenagers, Shears and his twin brother, Fletcher, have grown from being the crazy young kids in the scene to accomplished avant-garde adults without ever compromising on what they’ve wanted to do.If anything, they’re more proud of their success and willingness to get weird than ever before.“I think age can be looked at as a negative thing nowadays with social media and whatnot, but I think it’s actually a badge of honor,” Wyatt Shears says, his tall frame seated at a small dirty table on the patio of Turcs.

“You get that purple heart quality where it’s like you’ve been there, done that, and you’re still going.A band like Motorhead just kept going and going and going, and I don’t necessarily identify with every corner of their ideology, but it was kind of cool and inspiring to a band like us, who’s been going for almost 15 years at this point.” The Garden have certainly earned respect from their peers, elders and juniors since forming in 2011.

Having just released their sixth album, “Bootleg,” earlier this month, the duo have changed up their sound and aesthetic multiple times over the years wit...