Galway quartet NewDad are approaching the release of their debut EP Waves on March 26. We’ve already heard the excellent “I Don’t Recognise You” and today have given us yet another reason to be excited about it with new single “Slowly”. They say:
“It’s a song about a person admitting their feelings for you with no follow through, and the feelings of uncertainty that surround that. It’s one of our more energetic songs, and the whole song moves quite frantically around the drums to convey the feeling of confusion when you go through this. For a song called slowly we sure do play it fast and it hurts Áindle’s hands to play. It was definitely one of our roughest demos but Chris really helped to turn it into one of our favourite songs on the EP.“
Coiling a slinking bassline around the brilliant beat, NewDad immediately recall art-rock legends Pixies in the early stages of “Slowly”, but as it progresses they move into uber-catchy realms that are reminiscent of other 80s-90s greats like Blondie – but with a more introverted edge. The emotions on display are ripe and fully realised, with Julie Dawson trying to remain dispassionate as she admits “I don’t wanna see you / but I still do.” Her true feelings are betrayed by the guitars, which crackle and burn with unchecked passion, which comes blossoming out in the dizzying chorus: “what do you wanna show me / you’re over there and you walk so slowly.” Undoubtedly, being in this liminal phase of attraction where you’re completely unsure of yourself is not a pleasant place to be, but it is a highly sensitive and tense one – and NewDad take those feelings and make it sound utterly divine.
NewDad’s Waves EP comes out on March 26 (pre-save). You can follow the band on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp.
