Teenage Dads at Deaf Institute
Johnny James, Managing Editor
Twisting together the sounds of new wave, synth pop and early 2000s NYC indie, Melbourne-based band Teenage Dads are back with killer new tunes and a fresh wave of dates in the UK.
The four-piece from Mornington Peninsula have spent the last six years building a dedicated following among the Australian indie scene and beyond, releasing one DIY album and a handful of label-backed EPs that absorb the influence of everyone from Talking Heads to Vampire Weekend via The Strokes.
Following their home-recorded, self-released album Potpourri Lake, 2021’s Club Echo EP saw Teenage Dads burst through the crowd with a handful of breezy earworms tempered by lyrical depth, bottling the anxiety of growing up in a world rocked by the pandemic and widespread anger amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
2023’s more carefree follow up, Midnight Driving, saw them move towards layered, synth-heavy arrangements packed with irresistable guitar hooks and driving rhythms, all tied together with singer Jordan Findlay’s nostalgic, Julian Casablancas-esque croon. The joyous singles ‘Hey, Diego!’ and ‘Teddy’ were exercises in pristine indie pop songwriting, helping Midnight Driving to chart at #2 in the Australian Album Charts, and the band to play nearly 100 shows across 10 countries and 3 continents in 2023.
2024 promises to be an even bigger year for the fourpiece (Jordan Finlay, Connor McLaughlin, Vincent Kinna and Angus Christie) who, after winning the Michael Gudinkski Breakthrough Artist ARIA Award, dropped a string of singles including ‘Tale of A Man’, a jangly anthem for the summer to come, along with the oh-so-hooky ‘Speedracer’ and ‘I Like It’. Most recently they released the below track, ‘Weaponz’ — a short, sharp indie-rock banger that conjures the high-octane hedonism of the noughties NYC. This one’s going to go off at their live shows.
It’s hard not to compare Teenage Dads to the influences they wear on their sleeves, but these bright and beatific new songs bring something fresh, something eccentric, something that is their own to the table, hinting at a bright future to come for what we suppose is the album they are to eventually feature on.
To mark the release of this new music, the band are heading out on a tour of the UK and Ireland. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to finesse their live show by now, including as Rolling Stone’s “secret headliner” at last year’s inaugural SXSW Sydney. If reviews are to be believed, we’re in for a treat at The Deaf Institute on 22 May.
