Interview: Grady Wenrich (AKA: Grady Strange)

The word entrepreneur has come to associate itself with the tech industry — tech startups are founded by entrepreneurs and then sold for millions and billions, right? Well, surfing and music have their own genre of entrepreneurs who are much more focused on the creative acts and the communities that surround them.

We introduce to you: Grady Wenrich — better known in the music world as Grady Strange. He runs an insanely great vintage store called Oblivion LA with his wife Mackenzie and because Grady likes to surf its accumulated some pretty unique surf elements. I wouldn’t call it a surf shop — it’s something far better than that: It’s a community hub that sells unique, creative and inspired goods…oh, and surf wax out of a vending machine among other rad surf wares you won’t find many other places.

Don’t get me wrong, they definitely have surf stuff, but they have come to be known for great ceramics, vintage clothing, great gifts and epic events. We held one there a few weeks back and we screened some films, ate tacos off a truck and discovered one of our favorite new bands, Bondo.

All in a night’s work for Grady and Mackenzie.

Grady is one of the kindest, most down to earth dudes we’ve ever met and we asked if we could probe his soul — see if we can learn anything. Turns out we totally can, what a rad dude. Let’s meet him together.—Travis

Inherent Bummer: Where’d you come from?

I come from a faraway land called New Jersey. I grew up in a semi beach town. Half the year it’s filled with tourists and half the year it’s a cold ghost town. I would say for my origin story, I was one part east coast Italian guido, one part musician idolizing The White Stripes and Ozzy Osbourne, one part surf/skate kid wishing he was in California.

My mom and dad surfed and got me into it young, as well as my uncle Mike. He was sort of my style idol on a board and still is. I have memories of him taking me to his friends back yard half pipes and knowing the right spot when the waves got really good. He also exposed me to bands like the Beastie Boys and Devo and the B52s at a young age. I’ve had people come up to me when I’m surfing at home with him and say, “The bald dude’s your uncle?!”. Local legend. My dad is the reason I dove into music. He drove me around to a lot of concerts and showed me tons of stuff from Toots and the Maytals to the Ramones. Took me and my friend Shane to play at open mic nights in middle school and all that. And my mom rips in the water too! Which inspired me a bunch. They all helped to shape my style and what I was into. Them and my pop pop’s Sunday meatballs.

What is Oblivion Los Angeles?

Oblivion is a community hole for anyone in the neighborhood to fall into. Mackenzie and I were both touring musicians for years, but her other passion was digging for vintage clothes and goods. She would sell at markets but her dream was to open a store. I had been talking for years about how there’s no where to even buy wax on the east side anymore. So once we got married, we had a small fund saved up to go on a honeymoon but we decided to instead put it towards opening the store. We have such a huge community of creative friends starting companies, making things in all different mediums, so we decided we would carry everything they made on top of the vintage and surf essentials. The other huge aspect for me was throwing events.

This space is to be used primarily as a canvas to launch any idea that any of our friends have. Whether it’s carrying your pottery or hosting your art opening or showing your films or having your band play or hosting fundraisers for the community.

I think that I love doing so many different things but the one thing I’m actually good at is bringing people together. Mackenzie is great at that too. So that’s at the center of Oblivion. A place where anyone can come feel a sense of community. I also love experimenting with Oblivion brand clothing that my friends and I would wear.

Grady and his wife Mackenzie run Oblivion Los Angeles — a vintage shop with a surf twist in Hyland Park.

What’s “Grady Strange?”

Grady Strange is my solo musical journey — not completely solo though. Mackenzie has been a collaborator on everything I’ve made — whether it’s helping write lyrics, play guitar, sing harmonies. She’s on every song. And at this point the rest of my live band shapes the whole project as well. Gerry (aka Green Gerry) sings and plays on most songs, Mark Morones plays drums on the records and has a lot of great creative ideas as well. And Vaughn Daniels has been on bass since my first show as Grady Strange. As I get older and care less and less about my musical identity I end up having more fun just letting my friends play all over everything. So it’s solo with a lot of help and collaboration.

What’s your current relationship like with music and the “industry?” 

I’ve been in a lot of bands, and music was my be-all-end-all for a long time, but I found that I like my relationship with music more when there’s no pressure around it. Not making anything because society wants me to seem busy to get more opportunities. Not writing songs because people would easily digest and share them. Solely opening myself up to the project when an organic idea strikes me over the head or when someone comes to me with a show idea.

Part of the problem with being a “professional musician” is that most of us can’t take a beautiful pure download of expression from the universe, like music, and try to make a career out of it without becoming a bullshit artist.

Naturally most of us are gonna have to sell out our souls if we wanna buy groceries off of just making music. Music was originally created solely for the purpose of connecting with the spirit world and with each other. For expressing gratitude to the universe and transcending our reality, or at least portraying the beauty of the cosmos to our little minds. But when we put an album timeline and the opinions of 40 music industry people into the mix, all trying to make you more marketable, you lost the point. All that to say, my musical journey is very much alive, but very much so checked out from the normal structure we’ve come to expect from grinding indie bands. When I have the capacity and an idea hits me, I go record it and add it to my album, which is almost done and is still real and will come out someday lol.

Album art from 2023 Grady Strange record See You Later, Separator.

How would you describe your music?

I would describe my music as a snapshot for wherever I’m at at different times in my life. Sometimes it sounds like garage rock. Sometimes it sounds post-punk. Sometimes it’s acoustic, sometimes dissonant, sometimes poppy. Sometimes it’s about being in love, sometimes about grief. It’s usually always about self exploration and new discoveries I’ve made about myself. I think it helps me make sense of what I’m feeling or what my current view on life is. I often know myself better after a song comes to me and I can write out my feelings in ways I wasn’t even understanding in my mind yet. My musics also kind of all over the place because I’m always figuring myself out and changing and getting into different things.

I wonder sometimes if that’s held me back a bit that I never locked into a [musical] genre or found a trick and stuck to it.

That wouldn’t have been honest though so I would’ve ended up hating myself and quitting haha.

Tell us about the community around your shop? It’s inland a bit, but there’s a surf community?

There’s definitely an east LA surf community. Besides a few people in Topanga I feel like the only LA surf community I know of is from the east side. It’s all the people who love surfing but also love being surrounded by different cultures, different communities, creative people, etc. The ocean’s amazing but I would also feel a bit cooked or narrow minded if it’s all I ever saw. We have a ton of people coming into the shop who are psyched that we opened a surf shop out here. Needing small things like wax and ding repair and fin screws. Wanting to talk about boards or show us their Surfline cam rewinds haha. It’s sick. We need a place for that because we don’t have time to do that while we’re on a surf mission. We’re not chilling on the beach because we’re always rushing back to the east side to beat traffic. I think naturally Oblivion has garnered a big music community as well because that was our life before this.

Bondo playing at Oblivion during our surf vid screening night.

But the coolest part about the store is the community that it’s building on its own that’s not related at all to our personal lives. Whether it’s surfers we didn’t know, the kids who come to our parties, ceramicists, painters, vintage girlies or the old ladies who walk down the street every day and pick through the ten dollar rack. There’s a special eclectic scene of regulars who all feel a connection to the space at different times of the week for different reasons and that’s been the coolest part to witness. Some people just love sitting on the bench out front. But it’s growing roots and trying hard to find its respectful place in a community that existed before it was here while building its own scene at the same time, and we’re grateful to be a part of it even though opening a business is scary as hell. I’ve found that we’re bad at making money but great at helping to grow community. So it goes.

Grady with the form.

Do you make any other art besides music? 

I’ve tried painting and photography and video stuff before. I have always loved making dumb videos. Music videos, skate videos whatever. I’m working on an Oblivion edit. I’m working on getting footage of all the homies but my favorite part is writing skits for it. Hopefully coming soon.

Have you ever been in a surf contest?

I surfed ESA contests for a few years as a kid in New Jersey. I would rarely make a Boys shortboard final, but I would always make the Men’s longboard final. All my trophies are for longboard division as a 13 year old against a bunch of old dudes. I think because I would just send it on a big day on a 9’6 and was like 4’8” so it looked funny. Contests stressed me out. Surfing’s always been my release and play time without any pressure, the thing that evens me out after having to deal with everything else, so I think I’m better off surfing just for fun. I would also suck at competing. Style over maneuvers baby

Who/what inspires you?

-Fuck. Everything! The world is insane. I take so much for granted but when I zoom out it’s all so wild.

Nature is unreal, birds and frogs are crazy, flowers are so smart, waves traveling thousands of miles and landing perfectly on a beach for you to enjoy like it’s all so fucked and connected and perfect.

Meditation often opens me up to get struck with inspiration. Music is also so tight, when I hear a good song or see a good show I run home and play my instruments and write songs. When I see anyone being themselves and downloading ideas and being brave enough to put them out I am moved and stoked and inspired to keep exploring. That’s what happened with basketball. I had never really touched a basketball since early childhood and then we opened the store across the street from some courts. One day I saw a kid who was so smooth with it playing by himself and I was just struck with the poetic beauty of it and I needed in. Everything on earth and in space except for the ego inspires the shit out of me. Ego is anti-creation anti-inspiration and anti-universal connectedness. The voice telling you to second guess your ideas and telling you you need to be afraid of everything, telling you you’re different or alone or not good enough, that sucks. Everything else rules.

Frogs are quite crazy.

What do you listen to in your car if you have to run an errand that takes 45 minutes?

If I’m driving for 45 mins I’m either calling homies that I need to catch up with, listening to a Dodgers or Lakers game, or listening to my demos and tweaking ideas. It’s a highly rare occasion if I’m listening to music in the car by myself. I like the OC band Bloom right now. Or the new Kendrick [Lamar]. So maybe that.

Los Dodgers.

It’s an average Tuesday, couple waves around, what’s your day look like beginning to end? 

-Tuesdays are sick cuz the shops closed. I’m waking up early and linking up with a friend to carpool and surf for a few hours. And most definitely stopping for a breakfast burrito or sandwich on the way home. Then thrifting with Mackenzie for the shop in the afternoon. Then maybe going downtown to buy more damn leopard hats to get embroidered. Then going home, getting a few shots up on the backyard hoop while making calls on the air pods, cooking, playing tug of war with my six pound chihuahua, Dolly and taking her on a walk, watching murder shows with my wife n the tv while sports are on my phone. Trying to meditate quickly somewhere in there, begging for my ancestors to help me figure all this shit out. Then a solid 9 hours of beauty sleep.

Who has your favorite styles?

Surf: Ryan Burch, Uncle Mike.

Skate: Kader, Templeton, Spanky, Oski, Andrew Considine

Basketball: Anthony Edwards

Music: Mackenzie Howe