Hockey Dad On Latest EP ‘The Clip’, Returning To Their DIY Routes, And Recommendations

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We chat to Hockey Dad, discussing their new EP ‘The Clip‘ and the joy of returning to older songs with a fresh perspective

Hockey Dad have released their latest EP ‘The Clip’, although the songs on there aren’t new as such. They are six songs that were written and recorded independently during Covid restrictions, which were then shelved for a later release. Nearly five years later, I met Billy Fleming and Zach Stephenson virtually to talk about ‘The Clip’, the timing of its release and why the band returned to their DIY roots.

We also discussed the sad situation the duo found themselves in having to cancel a UK and Europe tour earlier this year. However, both Billy and Zach were brimming with excitement for this EP’s release and this interview is rife with recommendations and influences, with a pragmatic dose of perspective, which are just a few ingredients contributing Hockey Dad’s longevity in the skate/rock, surf/punk scene.

‘The Clip’, like the interview below, is outright funm and you can feel Billy and Zach’s jovial personalities come through in every track. If I’ve been able to capture a fraction of that in print form, I’ll be happy.

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This is your first independent release in years. What made you decide to return to those DIY roots now, and how much freedom did that give you with shaping this EP’s sound?

Billy: We had these songs recorded for God knows how long, I think it’s probably close of four years now, sitting there collecting dust. And, I don’t know, it felt like the right time just to change things up and I think we were coming off the back of a really big album with release, plans, rollouts and just trying to go down that route. I think we just needed to spruce things up and see how we go by ourselves, just do a fun little EP release.

It just takes the weight off a bit too compared to larger album releases where you’ve got six months roll out planned. And you’ve got this planned- A,B,C to tick off- like, all that stress has kind of just been out the window. We’re probably adding our own stress by doing it ourselves but it’s been fun.

It’s been like a massive learning curve and I feel like it’s something that we’d like to keep doing in the future for sure.

And on the name, ‘The Clip‘, where did that come from?

Zach: I think we were kind of just talking about these old songs we had being stored away. I think Billy maybe you came up with just the visual of those little bread clips, having seen them around the house. They’re pretty interesting and they’re always fun. It kind of came like we’re just letting a clip off on these songs, letting them out into the world.

Billy: In our heads we’ve had these songs bagged and tagged for years you know, sitting on the shelf, and I wanted to go more for like a found object that you do just see every day.

The lead track ‘All Hat No Cattle’ plays with several tones thematically, there’s sarcasm and humour in there but there’s also a touch of guilt in there too. How do you balance different themes and tones in your songwriting lyrically & also melodically?

Billy: I was only going through the footage today from when we were doing the tracking and stuff and obviously no one wants to talk about it, but it was peak Covid. We were tracking at The Grove Studios in Australia and there was a moment there where our bass player got Covid and he had to track all the bass outside the house. It was pretty funny! I feel like that point in our lives, it was definitely just like a little bit chaotic.

I feel like some of our best work has been the quick and easy ones. But I feel like Zach was just writing so many lyrics at that time as well. He had a lot to get out.

Zach:  I think maybe during the time, we had no idea where our lives were going to be within the next year or two years or whether music was still going to be viable. We were asking each other: “can we still keep doing what we’re doing?” And I think just throwing out that kind of doubt and saying, “Oh well, I don’t really give a fuck anymore!” put a bit of fun into the lyrics and maybe a little bit more honesty about our real life situations. Just kind of aggressively tearing them down with a bit of a cheeky swagger, lyrically at least. Just being a bit bratty and sour in the studio.

Billy: There’s definitely a lot of brattiness that’s coming through! Lyrically in the EP, I think it shines.

You can say you got there first before Charli XCX then?

Billy: Speaking of Charli XCX, my wife put me onto her album promo, and she used the fucking bread clip!

Zach: It was Chappell Roan.

Billy: Ah Chappell Roan! And I was like there’s no way that we’ve done this and then sat on it for ages and then this!

Zach: It’s just like, worst nightmare! You’re just about to release it all and then it’s like, “oh no!” Someone just did it a week before!

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When bands have any sort of longevity as you have had, I’m always fascinated to know whether you are connecting with your own back catalogue differently, from any Hockey Dad era. Are you finding that as you release new music or get distance from previous projects?

Zach:  I think so yeah. A few years ago when Steve, who plays bass with us live, joined the band, that kind of gave a new life to a bunch of the older first songs that came out. You go through a bit of a cycle of that. As these records have come along, we’ve changed up some instrumentation or even just going back and starting a new tour we’re like, “All right let’s bring at least two or three random things back into the mix and almost try and tackle them again in a different way.”

It’s good to forget how you played songs from five or ten years ago. Those first songs you’re almost just trying to relearn from listening, but you’re never going to get it how it used to be. And I think that’s kind of fun. Everything gets a bit of a second or third life, three or four years down the track.

I read that one of you, at least, had been listening to a lot of country music whilst this EP was being formed and there was a certain guilt attached to listening to that kind of music. Why? And what was the guilty pleasure or pleasures you were listening to?

Zach: I don’t know if I was feeling guilty at all for listening to country music. I think maybe I felt guilty that I was letting it take over my life a little bit and started being a stupid little country boy and take on all that hype! Maybe that’s just myself. Maybe it was just a phase. But there’s no real ‘guilty country’ that I love listening to. I love all the old stuff; Gram Parsons, Flying Burrito Brothers stuff. Anything past 2005 I haven’t touched yet. I’m not there yet.

Billy: Zach was just listening to so much country and it was sending me crazy at that time, but it was funny that it was just coming out in lyrics. Even in the song ‘Lifeline’ is the line ‘Excuse my synthetic, Southern drawl.’ And yeah, that’s hilarious. It might have been a song that didn’t make the EP but Zach was singing with a synthetic Southern drawl and that would have been so funny. I was just anti-country at the time, I was like “come on we’re not doing this yet!” We hadn’t even hit our mid-20’s and I was like “this is too soon.” But it’s nice to slow down the BPM and let heart and soul sing for once.

How do you envisage bringing those songs from ‘The Clip’ to stage with your other songs from your back catalogue?

Billy: We’ve played a couple of the new ones recently. We did a quite a nice show in Sydney, the other week. I feel like a few of the songs, especially ‘Barn Boiler’ and ‘Lifeline’, those more rocky ones, they definitely need to be sandwiched together, because it’s such a big, energetic shift. I think maybe it’s just because we’re so excited to play them and then it just goes into the next level.

Zach: The tempo of these songs is definitely up. You know, there’s a lot of guitars going all the time on a lot of those songs. It’s been fun to just really blast these things out, high volume, high intensity on stage. And then we’ve now hit another kind of intensity peak that we can now drop a little further into some soft stuff during the set and make it a little more dynamic.

Sadly, the early 2025 Europe and UK tour had to be cancelled. Is the intention to tour ‘The Clip’ in Europe and what perspective did that cancelled tour, as sad as it was, give you as a band moving forward?

Billy: We definitely will be back. I think it’s just a matter of when. I think, at the time, we just toured too much and I think we just almost shot ourselves in the foot a little bit financially. I think going somewhere three times in one year depends on how buzz-worthy your band is, but I don’t think we were very ‘buzzy’.

Everyone had seen us, you know, once or twice that year so I think we just wanted to pull on the brakes a bit, chill at home and focus on getting new music out like we’re doing now. It’s been really refreshing for the whole business aspect as well, sitting down and thinking about what we can do to make this new and fresh and exciting. I feel like we’re already so super ready to come back to the UK. If we can sneak in another release before we come back that’ll be even better – come back with a bunch of new stuff and hopefully people are more excited to come see us next time

Zach: We want to go back so bad. I’m so jealous, seeing people over there touring and seeing photos.

Billy: It’s been kind of weird sitting at home feeling like we’ve retired or something, but we’re not.

Are there any Aussie skate/punk bands you could recommend to our readers?

Billy: I think they’ve hit UK shores because Fred Again… has started blasting them over the internet but Shady Nasty are next level! They’re definitely not surf punk or rock but they’ve got some beautiful tones and incredible songwriting. Our good friends Dust, as well. I think they’re gearing up to release an album [‘The Sky Is Falling‘ releasing 10^th October]. I think they just got off the back of a UK Europe tour with Interpol, right? They’re definitely going to be coming back to the UK. I feel like the sound they’ve got definitely encompasses UK, for sure. It’s such a old-school, pretty sound. It’s lovely!

Zach: I’d chuck Antenna in there. Their EP for sure [also titled ‘Antenna‘] is incredible. I smash a lot of that.

I was reading about you a few weeks ago and saw that Bass Drum Of Death were a big influence on you guys?

Billy: They’re going to release an album at a similar time to us! It’s awesome they’re still kicking. We haven’t seen them in years.

Zach: On our first Australian tours they were on the bill with us and another band DZ Deathrays and we just worship them. They looked after us as little kids, it was great.

Imagine it’s 5 years in the future and you’re looking back on this EP. What will you, in the future, be most proud of? Do you remember a specific moment where you knew these tracks were going to be a goer?

Billy: Yeah, I think we’ll definitely be looking back on this with a lot of happy thoughts. It’s been so weird with that little gap in between recording and releasing where normally you’re just straight off the bat recording. And after recording you’re putting it out and it’s all one big blur. But because there has been such a big gap between now and what we did back then and the choices we made, production-wise and energy-wise, we were super stoked with how it went.

In five years’ time, I feel that will be even more happy that we decided to put them out and not let them collect dust for another five years. And like I said before, it’s definitely been super fun trialling out the whole label independent side of things. It’s been a challenge. In five years, who knows what we’ll be doing? Hopefully heading over to label executive status, we’ll see! We’ll see how this one goes first!

Zach: I’d say we’ll be thinking back, feeling pretty proud of the fact that we’ve done it ourselves and we just got it out and committed to this little thing. It’s a fun way to release music, really. To leave it for four years and then you listen back and it’s almost this nostalgic thing, thinking about those times when you were recording it.

It’s been nice to listen to the mixes for this and remember the fun times and remember funny things we did in the studio. And then they become more fresh playing them live, because we got to go back and figure it out all over again. I think that’ll be the fun thing I’ll be remembering in five years. Maybe I’ll record some stuff now and shelf it for a few years and get that out later!

Can you remember either of you bringing a particular creative habit or quirk to the studio when you were making ‘The Clip’?

Billy: I do remember when we were tracking the songs for this EP, it was actually the first time we played to click I’m pretty sure. It was a major learning curve for me. I was dead against it. But it turns out I was playing horrendously for the first six years or so. I’d just be up and down in tempo and with our live shows, just looking back, it’s like “Wow! Who let us on stage?”

We had to let our guard down to make it more professional. Looking at it now, that was such a good thing to do because we play to click live now and we’ve got backing tracks and all that kind of stuff so, I suppose, that was a big thing looking back. I’m pretty happy that we decided to go for that.

Zach: It was pretty weird that Steve basically had to record the bits where he did live takes of most of the songs, getting drums, bass and the guitar, and Steve’s not even in the room playing with us. He’s a hundred metres down the road and plugged into headphones and stuff. So it was really weird trying to track those songs and get that connection between us all when he’s literally out of the room and far away. But it kept it interesting. There’s some major vocal parts that Steve just sung in the back garden into a 57. It was a bit rough around the edges but it was also really fun and kept it rolling, in a bad situation.

Billy: I think we kind of sent ourselves a bit loopy too because we were only allowed to be there for the duration of the recording, as well. So, we went and did a massive grocery shop and then we just locked in for two weeks. Towards the end of it we were just going so silly with the overdubs. There’s a song on the EP called ‘Backyard’ where there’s a percussion break and we recorded my car horn. We must have had been having a good time!

Looking into the future, we definitely had the most fun recording those sessions. And I guess with it being an EP too, it’s a little less stressful in general. There’s not that big album stress of, “It needs to go well and sell physical units”, we just put it out online and hope for the best.

What non-Hockey Dad song would you most like to add to the EP or a live set?

Billy: This song has only just come out, but I adore it. It’s by our friends White Reaper called ‘Blue 42’ and the production is so nice; the kick just punches you when you’ve got subs going. It just punches through to the skin, it’s so epic! I feel like ‘Barn Boiler’ and ‘Lifeline’ kind of have that sticky kick, real thuddy; even if you listen to it through a phone speaker, you could just hear that kick coming through. I guess that stems from me listening to a lot of punk and hardcore growing up. So, ‘Blue 42’ by White Reaper, I wish that was on our EP!

Zach: I only just found this band but it’s Water From Your Eyes. They’ve just put a record out called ‘It’s A Beautiful Place’. The second song ‘Life Signs’ is probably a little heavier than anything we would do but it’s got a really frantic, almost experimental rock sound. I don’t know whether it would fit on our EP but that’s been a new avenue where I’ve been listening, and it’s been perking my ears up.

Billy: ‘Life Signs’ is kind of funny because we’ve got ‘Lifeline’ and then we’ve got ‘Road Signs’ on our last record, so it’s kind of a weird hybrid.

Zach: Back in the day we covered some Clash songs. It’s good to have one up the sleeve at all times. I think you need to have one in case of an emergency. We did ‘Train In Vain’ and I would happily cover ‘Train In Vain’ every night for the rest of my life. People get it. It’s perfect. I always say “we wrote this one – it’s a new one of ours.”

Billy: The Clash are going to come for us now!

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Listen to ‘The Clip’ here:

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