The latest band to arrive from Ireland’s seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of exciting new talent, NewDad‘s new EP is Really Rather Great – so great, we asked them to tell us all about it.
Say it
I wrote this song about when you’re giving someone your all, and they’re giving you nothing in return. The fast pace makes the vocal almost sound like I’m venting, which I like. You can sense the annoyance and frustration of the situation, I think. Unrequited love is something a lot of people have experienced to some degree, even if it’s just looking back at being a teenager and how when we’re young sometimes we get hurt because we tend to take things like crushes too seriously hehe, I like to look back on situations from when I was younger with a bit more clarity and take inspiration from them.
Banshee
‘Banshee’ is the title track and probably my favourite off the EP. I adore the bassline and the main guitar and how they dance around each other. The idea behind the song is that you’re looking at someone who’s struggling, and you see they’ve become a shell of themselves, like a ghost, or a banshee, more specifically. Banshees are from Irish folklore, which I think is cool, and the idea that they herald the death of someone kinda ties in with the idea that this person is on their last legs.
Spring
‘Spring’ is basically about not being able to get up in the morning, how feeling depressed impacts your day-to-day, and how it can be hard to look after yourself. It’s hard to articulate, but that’s the general idea behind the song. I like the contrast between the bright and happy instrumental and the kinda depressing lyrics. I also like how big the chorus gets; it helps get the message behind the vocal across and makes it feel like I’m shouting, almost trying to express those feelings or something.
Thinking Too Much
This song is about restlessness and how anxiety affects your sleep. I’m definitely hypersensitive to everything at night, like every sound puts me on edge, and I think something’s wrong, and, in this song, I try to articulate that. I think over the past year and a bit, everyone has felt a lot of restlessness and anxiety, so I took inspiration from how myself and people I knew were feeling. There’s a lot going on in the track, which I think helps express the overactive anxious nighttime brain thing a lot of us go through.
Ladybird
I wrote the chord progression after watching the film Ladybird, and the chords reminded me of the Dave Matthews song that’s played a few times in the movie, so it was just a working title at first. Then when I was writing the lyrics, which are about the anxiety you feel when you’re away from someone you care about, I realised that some of it coincided with the mother-daughter relationship in the film, and most parent and kid relationships really so I kept the title. Whether it’s a partner, friend or a family member, you tend to worry about people you love when you’re apart, and I talk about the give and take in any relationship under these circumstances.
NewDad’s new EP ‘Banshee’ is out now.
