15 Minutes with Hockey Dad

The following was featured in Tearaway Magazine by writer Hannah Powell. You can find more of their awesome content at tearaway

I sat down with Hockey Dad, the well-loved surf rock sound from across the ditch. On the noon of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, we talked youth, touring, and the Australian music scene.

With Australian band Hockey Dad having just hit the stage St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Auckland, they are now only months away from the release of their third album. Describing their sound as “non-threatening”, lead singer and guitarist Zach Stephenson and drummer Billy Fleming are excited to confirm that the album is finished.

On the noon before their set at Laneway Festival, both are excited to be back in New Zealand. “[It’s] one of the better places on Earth, hands down,” says Zach. “It’s just like Australia, but everyone’s nicer,” laughs Billy. “Better wine, better pies”.

With their “punky, surf-pop, Katy Perry with fuzz guitars” sound, their music captures youth in a way that is reckless, restless, and permanently summer. Their latest release Missed Out is a fun and punchy single, with Zach saying, “it’s different from the usual”. “I think I just liked the riff idea from the start, and I just started playing it. I couldn’t really figure out where else I was gonna go with it, so I just didn’t go anywhere else with it,” he said.

Both from Windang, Australia, the boys have been making music together since their early teens. They both admit they had it “pretty good” as kids. Beginning from when Billy was thirteen, and Zach fifteen, both agree “we’ve kinda always been in the same band”. Since then, they’ve been well-loved local noise. When talking about their youth, Billy describes it as “pretty cruisy”, with Zach laughing “I like to think I’m still there”. Having stayed in the radius of their small town, they didn’t start touring until nineteen.

In New Zealand, there’s a good following of their sound here. “Pretty sporadic when we come here, but fun and amazing shows,” says Billy. “The South Island’s crazy”.

As for the music scene in Australia, it’s described as “very good”. The boys mention that Wollongong is thriving, saying “the whole Australian scene is pretty wild”. Many musicians like to work together, instead of competing against each other. Although their music is heavily influenced by Arctic Monkeys and The Rolling Stones, Wollongong grime-rock band Mother and Son was their role model growing up.

Their advice to upcoming bands? “Have fun, don’t sweat. There’s always gonna be another band”. Be nice to other people, be friends with other bands – “they’re gonna be the people who help you out in the end”. “When you run out of beers, they’ll have beers,” Billy laughs.

For the future, both agree it’d be weird if they weren’t making music. Planning on playing music for a lifetime, Zach explains “I’m not very good at doing anything else”. With an album to be released and a new single to be seen in the next few weeks, for now, they’re writing. “Just writing what we feel like writing,” they say. “If people like it, that’s even better”.