Hockey Dad – Brain Candy

By starrymag | July 29, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) We’ve once described ourselves as Katy Perry with fuzzed out guitars, which is pretty spot on I believe. [laughs]

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) Between the two of us, we have always had the most diverse taste in music. I’d be listening to Parkway Drive as Zach listens to Loretta Lynn or I’m playing some Carole King while Zach [Stephenson] is patiently waiting to queue up some Beck. It is really fun and interesting being able to combine our tastes, sprinkling different ideas and sounds throughout a song of ours.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Good Eye.”

A) The concept of the song came about when we were on tour in the USA. We rolled up to Philadelphia for a DIY show at these batting cages and immediately decided we should get ourselves in there for some pre-show warm ups. Every time someone missed a ball that night, we would all say “Good Eye.” We then brought that term along with us for the rest of the tour, saying “Good Eye” whenever someone made a mistake, which eventually became a nice memento for all of us.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

A) The song itself is really just about having that confidence to back yourself throughout tricky times. Watching your own back and trusting your own instincts.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

A) We always tend to get the ball rolling with the music first. Generally, either of us will have a riff, chord progression or even a drum beat that would give us that initial spark and from there we will pursue that sound until the structure of the song is close to finished. Zach will then sit back and find a melody for the vocals and work on lyrics that mold well to the overall tone of the song.

 

Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?

A) Our last two albums have been engineered/mixed/produced by John Goodmanson who is incredible to work with. We always arrive at the studio with a bunch of demos that have a pretty solid layout of where we would like the songs to go in terms of structure and tone, although John will always help us push ourselves to try and land on something really cool. Whether it be guitar tones, differing drum kits or even within the song structure itself, it is real fun to pick his brain and almost just let him run amuck to see what happens.

 

Q) What themes are explored on your new album Brain Candy?

A) When we were writing the album, we had a unanimous decision that we would get more creative. We would write a song, then peel it back and think, “What else could we do?” We would try and figure out different little ways that we could spice it up and make each song very different from the next, rather than making it all blend into one.

 

Q) What songs off Brain Candy hold a special place in your heart and why?

A) Every song on the record will always have their own very special place in our heart, although “Keg” paints a real nice memory for us. When we were recording our demos out west in country NSW, we had ourselves a break and went down to the local pub. As we took a seat, in came this character named Keg and that is where the story began. We had such a great time recording out there and the song itself is our very own little time capsule.

 

Q) What do you hope listeners take away from listening to your new album as a whole?

A) We wanted each and every song to trigger different parts of the brain. That’s how we landed on the title “Brain Candy” because we feel there are so many different little things to stumble upon throughout the album. A few sweet treats for the center of thought. To put it simply, treat yourself. Don’t indulge too much though, it may rot your insides.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) We couldn’t thank you enough for all of your support so far. You have all been incredible and we really hope you enjoy the new album!

 

All Questions Answered By Billy Fleming