Hockey Dad Essentials

Growing up in Windang, a small beachside suburb of Wollongong, Hockey Dad drummer Billy Fleming and vocalist/guitarist Zach Stephenson struck up a musical connection early–they formed their first band, Abstract Classic, while still in high school, followed shortly by Hockey Dad. Mining the raw rock ’n’ roll and buzzing pop melodies of bands like Nirvana and The Vines–whose “Get Free” Hockey Dad covered in 2018 at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, as captured by triple j’s Live at the Wireless–Fleming’s flailing drums and Stephenson’s thrashing guitar work propelled early songs such as “Babes” and “Seaweed”. It’s a formula they honed further on 2018’s Blend Inn (recorded at the same Seattle studio where Nirvana and Foo Fighters worked), with Stephenson ramping up the emotional complexity of the band’s barnstorming sound by tackling issues such as identity crisis (“I Wanna Be Everybody”) and trying to fit in (“Join the Club”). The evolution continued on 2020’s Brain Candy, with the brooding “Itch”–a song about willingly being controlled by another person–demonstrating a more restrained, atmospheric side to the duo.