Hockey Dad

Although the nervy Australian indie rock band Hockey Dad formed in 2013, their roots date back to the early 2000s. Vocalist/guitarist Zach Stephenson and drummer Billy Fleming were neighbours and childhood friends who bonded over sports and surfing. When the Windang duo eventually formed a band, they drew from formative influences—Stephenson had grown up listening to his dad’s ’80s Australian rock and punk records, while Fleming preferred ’90s punk—for an energetic, modern sound. Hockey Dad’s 2016 debut, Boronia, had no shortage of melodic hooks, and it bore the gleefully raw production of a garage-rock classic. The band subsequently landed in the Top 10 of the Australian album charts with 2018’s Blend Inn and 2020’s Brain Candy, with the latter especially recalling the genre-rattling work favoured by Cage the Elephant, The Vines and Superchunk.