Ireland is a conveyor belt of new talent currently, with Fontaines D.C., The Murder Capital, Inhaler, whenyoung and CMAT all emerging over recent years – NewDad have the talent to become the next big thing from ‘The Emerald Isle’.
What was your highlight of 2020, musical or otherwise?
The whole year has been such a highlight for us with all the support we have received for all of our releases so far. We really weren’t expecting to reach so many people with our music, being such a new band, and we have been so overwhelmed with the love we have received. The biggest highlight for us this year was getting to play a live set for Steve Lamacq over in BBC Radio 6 and really for all the love and support he and the BBC have shown us.
Can you tell us your plans for 2021?
It’s quite hard to make plans at the moment with everything going on in the world, but we are very hopeful for 2021. We will be releasing our debut EP early 2021 and we will even have physical copies available which we are so excited about! We also have plans to do a small Irish tour and we’ll be playing at The Great Escape festival in May, so hopefully we will be able to play some live music for the people who have been supporting us very soon.
What’s the best advice you’ve received as a musician?
“Big beats are the best, get high all the time.”
Which artists are on your ‘Ones To Watch’ list for 2021?
There are a load of amazing artists that have emerged from this crazy time in quarantine that we love – Skullcrusher, Pretty Sick and Lowertown, to name a few. We’re very excited to return to a bit of normality and hopefully get to play at festivals and showcases alongside some of these great emerging artists.
There’s a really strong Irish contingent coming to the fore at the moment, does the success of fellow Irish bands give you inspiration and confidence that you can be the next one to breakthrough?
Yeah it definitely does inspire us that there are such successful young Irish bands at the moment. It always seems like such a fantasy that people can make it in the music industry, so seeing that young people with similar backgrounds to us are doing well really does give us confidence.
There’s a real maturity to your sound, the lo-fi production elements reminding me of Clairo or Arlo Parks even, have you been making music for a long time? Do you feel confident?
Thank you! We have been playing together as a band and gigging for about four years, but we held off on releasing music until we were confident with our sound and that’s when we decided to release ‘How’ [our debut single]. We’ve definitely become way more confident over the past few months while working on our other tracks like ‘Cry’ and ‘Blue’, and with the lockdown we had lots of time to work on our production skills.
You each put together Spotify playlists containing your individual influences, right? Whose playlist is the best, and how crucial is social media and streaming platforms in increasing that connection with your fans, allowing them to see what music you’ve been listening to instantly?
We all have very different Spotify playlists and we each think our own is best, but I suppose that’s just down to personal preference. Different people with completely different music tastes could visit our Spotify profile and find something they like in our playlists and that’s what we try to emulate in our music.
Things like Spotify, Instagram and Twitter are really important because not only can the fans see what we are listening to, but they can also get a good idea of our personalities and humour and we think that’s very important in creating a bond with our fans.
Listen to NewDad on Spotify and Apple Music. Check out the band’s curated playlists here, and decide for yourself whose is best…
