NewDad

About NewDad

NewDad started in Galway, Ireland around 2018, when Julie Dawson, Cara Joshi, Sean Hueston, and Áindle O'Beirn were still in school. They were teenagers making the kind of guitar music that somehow manages to sound both heavy and delicate at the same time. Early tracks got picked up by the right people online, and by 2019 they'd signed with Fair Youth Records, which probably felt surreal considering they were barely out of their teens.

Their first EP "Waves" came out in 2019, and it's where they established their sound: shoegaze guitars, steady krautrock-ish drums, Dawson's vocals sitting right in the mix rather than on top of it. The title track got them noticed beyond Ireland. Then "Swimming" arrived in 2020, and that one really connected. "Blue" became their breakout song, the kind of track that sounds simultaneously underwater and crystal clear. It got playlisted, it got streamed, and suddenly they were one of those pandemic-era bands that built a following while stuck at home.

They followed up with "Banshee" in 2021, a four-track EP that showed they could write tight, propulsive songs without losing the dreamy atmosphere. "Ladybird" and "Let Go" are probably the tracks people know best from that release. The production got sharper, the songs got hookier, but they didn't sand off the edges completely. By this point they'd signed to Atlantic Records, the kind of major label move that either launches a band or buries them under expectations.

Their debut album "Madra" finally landed in 2023. They'd been teasing it for a while, and it mostly delivered on what they'd been building toward. Songs like "Angel" and "Change My Mind" showed they could write actual singles without abandoning the textured, layered approach that made them interesting in the first place. The album title means "dog" in Irish, for whatever that's worth. Reviews were generally positive, the kind that praised their potential while gently noting they hadn't quite figured out everything yet.

Right now they're in that middle phase where they've graduated from promising newcomers but haven't quite cemented themselves as established acts. They tour regularly, they've played festivals across Europe and North America, and they're figuring out what the second album needs to sound like. The shoegaze revival has been crowded lately, so they'll need to either lean harder into what makes them distinct or evolve past the comparison points altogether.

The core lineup has stayed intact, which counts for something. They're still based in Galway as far as anyone knows, still making music that sounds like equal parts Slowdive, Stereolab, and something specific to Irish indie rock that's hard to pin down. Whether they become one of the defining guitar bands of their generation or just a solid band people liked in the early 2020s is still an open question.

NewDad shows are tight and unglamorous. The crowd stays relatively still but locked in, listening intently rather than losing it. There's a weird intensity in that restraint. No frills, no banter, just clean execution of economical songs that hit harder in a room than they might on a recording.

Known for Sick Shit, Oh No, Yeah, Breezy

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