The last time a Wollongong band had an album in the ARIA top 10 Toy Story was a box office hit and Paul Keating was Prime Minister.
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The year was 1995 and stoner rock band Tumbleweed’s sophomore album Galactaphonic peaked at Number 6 on the Album Chart.
No other Illawarra group has been able to achieve the same success until this weekend, when two best friends from Windang – collectively known as Hockey Dad – found their second album Blend Inn at Number 6 on the ARIA Top 50 chart, and Number 1 on the ARIA Australian Artist Top 50 chart.
“That’s the craziest thing we could think would ever happen … we’re very stoked, very grateful,” singer and guitarist Zach Stephenson told the Illawarra Mercury. “We’ll probably go find some beers and a bottle of champagne or something and have a good night and chill.”
Fleming was also stoked to hear Tumbleweed frontman Richie Lewis thought it was “cool” another guitar-based band finally cracked the Top 10.
“My hat goes off to them, it’s wonderful,” Lewis said. “They’ve built on their success really gradually and really naturally and really organically and the time is right now.”
His advice was to “make hay while the sun shines” because he said nothing lasts forever and they should try to sustain their success for as long as possible.
Solo artists from the Illawarra have previously had high chart entries such as Cyrus Villanueva and Natalie Bassingthwaighte but no group effort since the ‘90s.
The boys have previously said their dreamy, dirty surf-pop has influences from ‘60s garage hits and ‘70s soul with a mash of ‘90s club hits, but their sound is definitely unique to what Australia is currently producing.
Hockey Dad’s career has surged since playing tiny gigs at Wollongong’s Rad Bar, to major festivals like the Falls Festival and being picked up for the annual showcase of Australian creative talent South By Southwest in Texas.
Jeb Taylor, of Farmer & The Owl, remembers Hockey Dad were “pretty raw” when they were chosen to be the independent record label’s first signing in 2014 but he could see something special.
“They were writing really good songs at a young age and Zach’s vocals were a bit unique and yeah, you could tell there was something there, this kind of soul in them,” Taylor said. “Then when I spoke to both of them, well we all spoke to them, they were just big music fans and just talking about different records.”