This and all subsequent professional photos by Taylor Bonin
Brooks Nielsen was in The Growlers. There I said it. Now the rest of this piece is to be about everything Brooks Nielsen is beyond The Growlers, which is, as you’ll find, a whole hell of a lot.
Now here’s a history lesson: Brooks Nielsen announced a solo career in the lingering days of the year of our lord 2021. He then proceeded to churn out singles like butter, totaling eight songs in anticipation of his debut album One Match Left, a 20-song odyssey through the life and times of the man himself. With this release came many a revelation. Brooks assumed agency and pulled back the curtain himself, giving us a carnivalesque look at the naked forms in all their truth. Brooks is one full heck of a great businessman who after everything still has a core team of people surrounding him who look out for his interests, even protecting him from anything with potential for nefariousness. He’s found an intense love from family and friends to envelope himself in, and one morning he woke up and told himself it was time for that love to be shared with you. Brooks Nielsen began building the band again.
Brooks saw himself in a very unique position that can be found on fond eyes if gazed upon in the right light. He has the opportunity to rough it out. He’s taken a do-over and turned it into a do-different, going through the process of a new artist with the knowledge of a seasoned scene veteran. He’s using his opportunities and imagination to craft an entirely fresh and exciting perspective to his repertoire. He held some tryouts and got himself a gold bar of talent. The Brooks Nielsen outfit is composed of Jazz musicians and kids who don’t remember 9/11. The band has a competitive nature and to witness it live is to see an entirely new landscape occurring right in front of you. There’s hills and rocks and water and fucking grass and everybody’s a newborn baby and we’re digging it and making sandcastles just to give them up to the tide a moment later. The world and all its goddam time is fleeting and this band braves the layers of all continuum for a sound that taffies the ears with delicious melody. Brooks Nielsen’s name may be on the marquee but it’s never been more about the music. Many a time he just takes a step back and lets them go for it, whatever that may be. No one knows and it shows real nice-like.
When it was announced that Brooks was leaving California and taking this troupe all over the country I knew I was going to the nearest date. That turned out to be Asheville, North Carolina at Salvage Station, a former junkyard where the weirdos still show up from time to time for swap meets. That night I saw Brooks Nielsen for what felt like the first time, even though I’d seen him in past incarnations many times throughout the years. He both had the spectacle of a star and the earth-while nature of a fellow human being capable of approach and understanding. I’d observed Brooks and his company for the entire day. Through sound checks, talking with him and the team here and there, all the way up until the show, which I confidently say was the greatest performance I’ve ever seen of Brooks Nielsen. The setlist seamlessly glides from new and old material with the constant sensation that this shit can go anywhere, even off the rails if it wants to. The unpredictable feel is quenched by the sweat of dedication and fueled by a useful fear. There’s an intense desire within all of the players. A desire to take these songs to a justice like never before. Throughout it all is a reverence for all involved before and after the last note is struck and those lights turn down and the night grows old and you with it. When it’s over there’s still the chance at a ring in your ears and a new sense of your self and those you love.
When the show ended I asked Brooks if he wanted to talk on the record. He hadn’t given words to anyone since his former band became the old band. He later told me he felt comfortable enough with me to take a leap of faith and tell me his story. He fought the urge to assume something ill and he allowed himself to trust a stranger. The second we sat down, before I could press record he was already going. Brooks really needed to let it all flow and it did so continuously. I only asked a few questions. He was ready and had been waiting for me to come along for a long while. Brooks was ready to talk. I feel it is my responsibility to tell Brooks Nielsen’s story to the very best of my ability. Now that I’ve done and will continue to fight for that, Here is Brooks Nielsen, in his own words, with as few interruptions as possible:
It's alright
tell them how it is
Even though it don't make you popular
Sometimes you gotta be a dick
You don't have to roll over
Brooks began with talking about his fans and their proclamations of his music’s often life-saving effects:
“Most people have a story. ‘I wanted to kill myself and then I heard your record’. And it’s hard for me to say the right things all the time. I wanna be helpful, but I’m not a pro. I hope it’s been good. I’ve said the wrong thing, I’m sure. Part of it is I get off stage and I’m high from being on stage and I hope I’m saying the right thing. It’s been some real shit. They recognize, ‘Oh you’ve been through some shit. You can help me’”
I asked him if he thought the shit’s over or if he’s still in it.
“I would say the shit’s over because I made a choice. It was only one guy in my band, and I was like, ‘You’re not a good person and I don’t wanna be with you anymore’. And that was my choice to make. And you know I’m not gonna sit and wait for one person to grow up. I have a family and I need to take care of them. And I need to find out if I want to do it? Do I like doing it? There’s so many times when I’m watching another band that’s just so lame. And I’m like, ‘Is that what I am?’ ‘Do I wanna do this?’ ‘Am I a tool?’ And I decided I’m just gonna start writing and I’m gonna call people I know that just love music entirely. Not like they’re the best writer or they’ve had success. Just a couple of my friends that I know they love making music everyday, that attitude. I want to write again. Before that was me alone, playing piano, writing, trying to play guitar, embarrassed. Like ‘What? I can’t believe I don’t know how to do this.’ Hitting the pavement everyday, trying to write. I had to do that to get that shit off my chest. To let out dark thoughts and dark feelings and stuff I wouldn’t want to put on a record. And then I finally hit two boys of mine I just knew loved making music. And it was like gangbusters. BOOM! Taking off.
"Where I was being daddy all day: good night, tuck you in, smooch, and then going downstairs and being by myself. You know, your vocabulary is like hanging out with a toddler all day. And then you go downstairs and you’re like: how do I do this? I light a candle, say a prayer basically, and I pay attention to myself, I start thinking again. And it was rapid fire. It was like oh my god! You know what it is? I like writing songs! I enjoy it. I love it. There’s a passion. And the next day is like, I gotta get up and take the kids to school and give a bit of a report to my wife. And sometimes you fail, you don’t make anything out of it. And that’s not a good report, ‘Ah I just sat in front of my desk and didn’t do anything’. Well that’s how I am. You have to go every night, hit it, and see what you can get. Like a diver or something, scan it and see what you get, show up every night. And it started to pay off.
"I loved mining through my mind. At a certain point it got from like 30 songs to 40, 50, 60. And like, I could hit a hundred. And that was my goal. Believe me it lost quality, but that was a goal I had. And there were people believing in me. That I could do it. That I could do it with anybody. That feeling, you know? And through the record-making and at the end of the record the next thing was like: we should just go and play! Otherwise, what are you thinking about? I’m not looking for help or people to amp me up or whatever. The only world I know is just go and play and share and be yourself, as much as you can on the road. So it’s been that way. This whole time.
…And you haven’t even asked one question.”
I prompted him to tell me who Brooks Nielsen is if he can’t tour, if he can’t release music.
“A really happy, chill person. I’m getting to relive shit through my kids. My son is taking it on. I’m not forcing it, I would never do that. We skateboard, we surf, we make music. He’s a natural musician. It’s all good. I love being alone with my wife. Because I’ve been with her this whole time. And I’ve been leaving her, you know? So it was a breath of fresh air to be home with my family. So there’s no complaint there. But at some point I realized, well, what am I doing with my life? I need to find out if I like this. And goddam I just love making something from scratch with people that you love. It’s a very happy thing. To be honest, family life is very hard work compared to the road. The road is easy.”
I asked him about how now, in his very own solo project, he’s putting more emphasis on the band than ever before. I compelled him to speak to that effect.
“That was a goal immediately. It was something that felt like suffering for me, to be the only one that was serious and always cared, always thinking about the audience and knowing what I do for a living. I’m here to perform. To entertain. It goes both ways. The reason my old band was cool was because we didn’t know what we were doing. At the same time, fear will stop you in your tracks. You cannot improve. You can’t do better. If you’re afraid to go on stage and know your thing, know what you’re doing, then you start to self-medicate. I’m now in the mindset to not be surrounded by people like that. We made that conscious choice. At what point are we rock and rollers or jazz players? I wanted people that were more confident in what they do, and so jazz players just sort of naturally happened. It makes a massive difference. If you go up on that stage scared, it’s going to affect everything. How to have a good time, how to make that hit the audience in the front row and the last and the next row. There was some planning to that, and I can’t believe how good it worked out. Because I have a whole new love for people that care about what they’re doing. They came here for a reason. They wanna play. They wanna perform. They want to entertain. That’s very special.”
I asked Brooks Nielsen how he’s able to turn fear into a motivator.
“I first learned about fear from the ocean. And the ocean is terrifying. And there is a group, and you want to trust people. You can be good at some things, you can be good at riding a wave. But you might not be good when the swell rises up so high it’s death-defying. There’s that pressure, and I just kinda went with it. I would ride waves I didn’t want to ride. If shit gets scary, you gotta put one foot in front of the other. You gotta go. It’s also hard to talk about because that’s long gone for me. There was no talking about it. People were scared and they made life decisions that had nothing to do with me. Now the fear is gone and there’s a natural and immediate conversation that makes music quickly on stage translate to an audience. It’s a shame. I loved things early on, hiring people that have no idea how to play an instrument just cus I liked them. But they actually suffered. Because I didn’t realize they were going through hell. And they had to self-medicate and things to deal with that. Now I know I don’t wanna put someone in that place. This band worked hard to be in this position to where they don’t think about it. And so they don’t stress me out either. I get to come up with this confidence that I’m being supported. And I enjoy it. I really enjoy it. We got this rhythm that I never knew. I feel like I earned it. Because it was not fun for a long time. They were like ‘Can I see the setlist? Are there any surprises?’ Surprises? We checked all our shit. These guys are like ‘Should we do something new?’ It’s huge. It’s huge musically to approach it that way. I made this band because I wanna be the weakest link. I wanted all these guys to be really good, and to make me rise up. And it’s definitely been that way, but it’s just much more loving.”
Now the conversation and with it our piece was reaching a conclusion. I asked Brooks if he had anything he would like to say to end the page. He felt the culmination of his time with old bands and the events which surrounded them in the wavering public eye. He had been honest with me and we’d built a trust in such a short time. He could see a point of closure in himself and the past with our conversation. Upon this realization he wrapped up our time together with this:
“So I’m back out here, starting over. And I like starting over. I remember starting from nothing, and I want to start from nothing. I don’t wanna do anything but play. And I think I’m old school but can we maybe just play shows? If you build it, they will come. But I’ve been a little untrusting to do any type of interview because we fell into some circumstance that was out of my control. I met you earlier. I saw you in the crowd. I’m gonna be trusting again. I don’t wanna be some weird, dark, antisocial person. I’m not like that.
But I’m glad you’re cool
and thank you.”
This is it, the tail end of the beginning for Brooks Nielsen. He’s juggled the fear and trust onto terms he can understand, those that which are his own. This first tour was a trial, a way of seeing if this ship can float. Well, he has now embarked on his second tour, the ship’s even going overseas. The flag is flying real high now. Now’s the middle of the road. Less fearful but uncomfortable and uncertain in its own way. There’s a clear fork in it and it's up to you which way it takes him. Brooks Nielsen finds his comfort in you, performing his music on stage. He’ll be here on Friday, April 14th at Terminal West.
Come hear what he has to say.
Published by Record Plug Magazine April 2023