Indie rock band Fat Dads formed less than a year ago, coming together from various other bands to form their own. “I knew Mike and Andy as we were previously in a band called Sugarspun. I knew of Tyee as he was in a band called Kasama, who we’d played with before. Mike knew Alex as they’re currently in a band together called Palo Alto.”
The band has three singles out with a new track releasing this January and future plans for a full album. “We’re also going to a studio near Manchester at the end of January to record our next track, hopefully to be released in Spring. I’m excited for that. It’ll be really nice to work with a great producer and to have the track professionally mixed and mastered. We’ve done it ourselves up until now, and while the tracks sound decent, they do lack sonically compared to big artists. Can’t wait to do an album, but it’s years and years away. We need to keep building the fan base first.”
Lyrically I think Filthy Animal is the winner of their current songs. However, there’s no denying the lead singer was giving something special when recording Taking Our Sweet Time.
They found a tweet naturally on their timeline from a band they used to follow. Fans of Louis Tomlinson who were on stan twitter in October of 2022 will be familiar with the hat bro and his tweet slagging indie bands for touring with Tomlinson and playing at his festivals because Louis is part of One Direction, one of the biggest boy bands of the 21st century. Fat Dads had a lot to say about the incident:
“We followed each other at the time. I even looked up to them in a sense, I saw them as a band that was going places, playing big festivals, and selling out venues, that’s what every band wants, isn’t it? Since realised he’s just a massive caricature and we’ve since unfollowed each other.
Basically he’s slagging bands for playing with Louis, saying it’s lame and he’d never ever do it. He’d never ask you that’s why, you nit. Anyways I thought fuck that, I’m going to tweet about how we’d love to go on tour with Louis and somehow all the Louies found us, not exactly sure how haha. Our followers have gone up by over 3,000 since then, and all people who seem genuinely interested in what we’re doing, so we’re well happy with that.”
Once Louis’ fans connected with Fat Dads they did more than follow them. Interactions between the band and Louies (both solo and Larries alike) on stan Twitter, complete with discourse. “A couple [of solo Louies] have threatened to kill us, or told us to kill ourselves haha, but it’s a small percentage. We try to engage with everyone, regardless of race, age, gender etc and that’s what we did when Louies found us. But the ‘solos’ didn’t like us engaging with ‘Larries’ and started sending us threats. Very odd behaviour. I’ll say it again, but we’ll engage with anyone who wants to come along for the ride, all are welcome. If that offends some people then they can go and fuck themselves.”
Readers of No Stunts are good company with Fat Dads as most of us have had a tweet find its way into solo territory. We know what it’s like to get torn down by solos, it’s one of the reasons we are so protective of each other and Louis. Fat Dads has seen this first hand, saying, “You’re a very passionate fan base, I’ll give you that. I wouldn’t be able to comment as to why though, I’m unsure. He’s very, very lucky though.”
The best way to support a band is by streaming their music and buying their merch. You can also connect with Fat Dads online where they’re happy to engage with people and sacrifice their own happiness for fans. Recently they went so far as to eat olives, “Demon food. Rancid taste, texture. I just can’t stand,” on a Livestream for 1000 retweets.
Prior to a petty person posting a petty tweet and bringing us all together, Fat Dads hadn’t listened to Louis’ music. Since then they’ve become fans themselves, saying, “I really really like Faith in the Future. It’s very DMAs in places, who I’m a huge fan of, so it’s right up my street.” The band has engaged with the fanbase, learning terms, theories, how to push buttons, and how to get fans excited. They have even been brave enough to post spotify receipts online
Make sure you add Fat Dads songs to your streaming playlists, (seriously check out the voice in Taking Our Sweet Time) because you might be singing them live at the next Away From Home Festival. We are rooting for a few select bands to get a spot at the 2023 festival and Fat Dads is definitely one of them. When the time comes, remember this hashtag to help them out #FatDadsAFHF2023
