Hockey Dad

Hockey Dad is an Australian surf rock band from Windang, New South Wales, Australia. The band consists of two members, Billy Fleming and Zach Stephenson, and has two full albums and one EP released to date.

The band was founded in 2013, although the members claim to have played together before being an official band with a third member Bailey Carson. The duo cites a band called ‘Abstract Classic’ as an earlier project that fizzled out before they became Hockey Dad. Fleming and Stephenson were both born and raised in Windang Australia and lived two doors down from each other on Boronia Avenue in New South Wales where they still reside. The members met in 1999 at the ages of three and four when they were playing a neighbourhood game of football on the street. Continuing to reside in the same town, the duo spends their time surfing at the beach and skating at the local park.

The name of the band, Hockey Dad, derived from a joke on an episode of The Simpsons. On the episode, Hockey Dad is a very quickly shown video game played between Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten. Stephenson and Fleming claim that the name simply stuck as they could not think of anything else.

Hockey Dad credits the era of ’60s garage as their main influence. The duo also credits their musical inspiration to bands such as Bass Drum of Death, Sparkadia and Band of Horses. Growing up, Fleming quotes that listening to his brother’s collection of ’90s punk music helped develop his musical style. On the contrary, Stephenson indulged heavily into his father’s ’80s Australian punk and rock musical selection. For music videos, they are said to be based on the band’s days growing up in suburban Australia – surfing, skating, and drinking beer.

Be sure to catch Hockey Dad at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2020 on the following dates:

Auckland: Monday 27 January – Albert Park
Brisbane: Saturday 1 February – Brisbane Showgrounds (16+)
Sydney: Sunday 2 February – The Domain
Adelaide: Friday 7 February – Hart’s Mill, Port Adelaide (16+)
Melbourne: Saturday 7 February – Footscray Park (16+)
Fremantle: Sunday 9 February – Esplanade Reserve and West End (16+)

Tickets from the official St Jerome’s Laneway Festival website…