It’s been almost a year now since Melbourne surf rockers The Grogans unleashed Just What You Want, a stunning debut filled with sincerity - the record showcased a grounded knack for melody through a long standing chemistry. Bearing an eccentric punk spirit, The Grogans returned earlier this week with ‘Dead Weight’, their first single for the year that leans into the frantic and heavier dynamic of their live performance.

From howling vocals to a sturdy display of riffs, ‘Dead Weight’ feels comfortable among the groups louder, garage-rock centric tracks. Finding a place somewhere between ‘No Sleep’ and ‘Conflicting’, there is a brooding quality to ‘Dead Weight’ that combines the band’s raw performance with melodic urgency. Often exploring a unique blend of heavy, acoustic and surf-pop stylings, ‘Dead Weight’ appears as provoked in its sound as it is cleanly considered. With this familiar energy, ‘Dead Weight’ finds The Grogans exploring all of their strong suits - and as a taste of what’s to come, the group sound as confident as ever.

Delving deeper into their sound, we had Quin, Jordan and Gus from the band highlight some of their favourite tracks that inspired the creation of ‘Dead Weight’ and their forthcoming new album.


Death Lens - ‘Bombshell’

We have all been listening to this song heaps, so that kinda naturally turned into the inspiration for ‘Dead Weight’. The guitar driven style of it with heapsa riffage is really cool to us.


A. Swayze & The Ghosts - ‘Mess of Me’

This one is just really sick, the feel of the song is something that we’ve taken inspiration from for ‘Dead Weight’, rather than the sound so much. A. Swayze & The Ghosts are also one of our favourite AUS bands, we’re always keeping an eye on what they’re up to.


The Pesos - ‘Bobby’

These guys are from the US, they play heaps of that 60’s style that we’re into. They’re kinda like the modern day 60’s really… ‘Bobby’ is one of our favourites of theirs and this style has influenced a few other tracks that are in the works.


Bass Drum of Death - ‘Leaves’

Love this early dirty sound from Bass Drum. Jordy went and saw them at The Curtin last year and it was unreal, definitely check out this whole album of theirs. This Bass Drum sound plays a bit of an influence on ‘Dead Weight’, but more on a few other new tracks.


Tame Impala – ‘Half Full Glass of Wine’

This track has pretty much always been on high rotation, just an impossible track to skip. We used to actually cover this in the really early days of Grogs when we were playing house parties! Love this style of Tame too, hope they one day revisit it.


The Kinks - ‘All Day and All of the Night’

You can’t go wrong with The Kinks really… Kinks-esc group vocals can probably be heard through a bunch of other tracks on the album, but you’ll have to wait and see (or hear?). Also, if you’re into The Kinks you should check out The Stinks around Melbourne (once gigs are a thing again), they’re a real dope Kinks cover band.


The Nude Party - ‘Chevrolet Van’

This is just a classic track that most bands can probably relate to in some way or another. It’s a pretty accurate depiction of all bands really.