Last year they had a surprise hit debut album. Now comes the hard part for Galway indie band NewDad as they release the all-important follow-up, Altar
For Galway act NewDad, it may be a case of careful what you wish for.
Just two years ago, the band, fronted by singer and guitarist Julie Dawson, were rehearsing and demoing in their beloved hometown. Maybe they'd get into a recording studio once in a while and the whole time they were playing gigs to build a local profile.
Next thing you know, these four early twenty-somethings were living in London and signed to a major US record label that was once home to Led Zeppelin. They released their debut album, Madra, a record bristling with meaty hooks and Dawson’s beguiling waif-turned-feral vocals, in January last year and spent months touring Asia and North America.
They won comparisons to early nineties shoegazers like Curve and Slowdive and their all-time favourite act, The Cure, and received glowing reviews. Their designer angst hooked a young audience hungry for tales of teenage trauma and young adult confusion. The Galway band are now the new face of maudlin shoegaze indie rock.
And now it is time for the big test - the release of their second album, Altar, and a chance to banish fears of the dreaded sophomore slump.
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Speaking via Zoom from their record company office in Dublin, Julie, who also released her debut solo album, Bottom of the Pool, a year ago, is sitting beside the band’s laid back guitarist Sean O’Dowd, who, along with Julie, plays those shimmering and then seething guitar parts.
"We didn’t have any expectations for the debut album. We were just happy to be putting it out," says Julie. "People always say you have forever to make your first record and a year to make the next one. Hopefully Altar will resonate with people as much as the first one."
NewDad are now a going concern, bursting with commercial promise but they didn’t quite expect it to be such hard work with so much commitment.
Success has also come with a cost. The band’s original bassist, Cara Joshi, quit after the recording of Altar, and drummer, Fiachra Parslow, will not be joining them on their upcoming tour. However, I have been politely asked by their record label not to ask about that.
"That was the thing - when we were back in Galway, we were recording songs and playing the odd gig and we thought this is so fun!" says Julie. "Imagine it this was our job? Then when you try to make it a business, there is a whole other level of pressure. It becomes so much bigger than you.
Does it take the joy out of it? "There can be some things that are totally soul destroying but the highs are so high," Julie says. "It’s the same as any job. We all had this idea that you go and you do music and it’s going to be something you really love but it’s a job at the end of the day. There are some things you don’t enjoy and there are going to be challenges.
"The sacrifices you make, like living away from home but it’s still worth it."
Homesickness is a theme that Julie keeps circling back to. The band have been living in London for the past few years and it has been a bit of a struggle for the singer. As she avers on Altar’s explosive opening track Other Side, "I think of where I’d like to be - anywhere but here", while other songs share a similar sense of restiveness and dislocation.
"Moving over to London and seeing how it is being away from home was something we always wanted to do," says Sean. "I don’t think Altar would have been written without moving away. Madra as well. This album is purely coming from a place of longing. You have to be uncomfortable sometimes to make something great."
Altar as a title might suggest that they’ve gone full goth but for Julie, it has another meaning entirely.
"I think there’s lots of connotations to that word," she says. "The idea of longing for something or praying to a higher power or even sacrifices. There’s lots of imagery that comes to mind and the title Altar was very fitting for the album’s themes."
In fact, she has gone as far to say that she is worshipping at the altar of Mother Eire. "Yes! Pretty much. When I get home and look out on Galway Bay, I sit there and it is so beautiful. I adore it and long for it."
NewDad’s sound has always been bot very vulnerable and very menacing. "Hahahaha! I love that," says a clearly delighted Julie. "A lot of the music we always listened do was always quite menacing and that kind of music always grabbed my attention.
"When you hear something coming into a song and you’re like 'whoa!’ I want to have that feeling every single time we record something. But lot of it is very tongue and cheek. It’s just really fun and freeing to make sounds like that."
Lyrically, Altar goes to some pretty dark places - obsession, addiction, lust - but Julie always sounds like a bemused observer and not the kind of person who is sticking pins in effigies.
"I think there is always going to be a little bit of angst but I want to leave all that behind me now," she says. "Be more confident in myself, be more self-assured. More not feeling I have to hide what I’m saying.
"With Madra, I was hiding a little bit. Altar feels more blatantly honest and I think that’s something I’ve only learnt in the past year. You get the best stuff when you’re writing from the heart."
Altar is out now. NewDad play: the 3Olympia, Dublin on 31 October. Cyprus Avenue, Cork on 1 November. Leisureland, Galway on 2 November and Mandela Hall, Belfast on 4 November.
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