1971: COOLDAD Interview & Album Launch @ Mamma Chens 09.08.25

COOLDAD at album launch, image taken by lu.med1a

If you weren’t at Mamma Chens last Saturday night, you definitely missed out. The band room was overflowing with high energy and colourful streamers and stars, as well as so so many people. The gig had completely SOLD OUT during presales. The gig being COOLDAD’s album launch, supported by My Giddy Aunt and The Robbies.

I was able to sit down and talk with Will Anderson, frontman of COOLDAD, all about their new album, 1971, where the inspiration came from and the unusual stories behind the songs. But, I feel it would be crazy not to discuss the album launch night itself as well!

COOLDAD performing at album launch, images taken by lu.med1a

Collage of album launch gig photos

If you don’t know, COOLDAD is a three-piece rock band from Geelong, made up of Carly Jorja, Kade Baker and Will Anderson, and their friend Jack Meredith joined them on stage playing the keys and harmonica. In their description on Spotify, their introduction starts: “Geetroit Rock City’s most colourful act COOLDAD are bringing stadium shows to the pub scene”. I know it’s a bit of fun, but I also think it’s such an accurate description of their band. I think COOLDAD is one of the most perfect examples of why people enjoy and or create music, for fun. In everything they do, from their song themes, compositions, bright colours, performances and crowd interaction, there is always 100% energy and an intention to have fun playing their music and performing to a crowd. For example, their crowd interaction engrossed everyone in a really entertaining way, whether it was through making them play Simon Says, performing their news segment This Week In The Scene (TWITS) or handing out handmade awards to the support acts and Will’s father - more on this later! And the crowd interacted right back, keeping up the high energy. While performing one of the new songs off 1971, Take Me Back, the crowd at the front threw bananas on stage during the lyrics “Take me back to when I was just a Chimpanzee. Somebody get me a goddamn banana.”

As well as an exciting performance, COOLDAD are excellent songwriters lyrically and compositionally. They really took their time with the album and ensured everything was exactly what they wanted, I got the idea maybe even a little longer than they had anticipated. Their music matches their fun and exciting energy, easily getting people dancing to classic rock-inspired tracks and at the same time relating to the lyrics about youth and figuring yourself out. There are a few slower tracks on the album too, but we’ll get into that later! Because their new album is inspired by Will’s father and his life, the last song of the night was a cover of Parklife by Blur sung by Will’s father, Brent Anderson.

My Giddy Aunt

The Robbies, image taken by Jeremy Jessen

My Giddy Aunt really helped set the fun and exciting atmosphere for the night. It sounds odd, but their performance and music had a warm summery or spring vacation feel to it. The songs were so upbeat and their use of incredible vocal harmonies, bright guitar harmonies, lively trumpet adlibs and catchy melodies just made the songs so exciting compositionally, especially on top of the instrumental twists and turns I didn’t expect but loved. My personal favourites from the night were Bugs, Dorian and It’s Rude to Stare, which is coming out soon, I believe. I also thought their cover of Vampire Empire by Big Thief summarised all these points too, performing the song within a full rock band and more so emphasising the anger within the song, giving it its own My Giddy Aunt twist. 

The Robbies also opened, which is actually a band I play in. So thank you again to COOLDAD for having us on the lineup for such a fun night! And Ed and Cait killed it as per usual :)

I haven’t gone into heaps of detail about the COOLDAD album or music itself because of the interview! But definitely don’t miss out on either COOLDAD’s or My Giddy Aunt’s next gig for a really good time, which, you can avoid missing out on by following and staying in touch with their accounts linked below!

1971 by COOLDAD

Inst @cooldadtheband - Bandcamp - Spotify

Inst @mygiddtauntband - Bandcamp - Spotify

Inst @_therobbies_ - Spotify

INTERVIEW: Will Anderson

Why 1971? 

Well, the simple answer is that's the year *THE cool dad was born. 

(*THE cool dad being Brent Anderson, Will’s dad)

He was born in good old 1971.

Your name is also kind of inspired by your dad, right?

Kind of accidentally. 

Kind of accidentally?

We may have been listening to a song called Cool Dad.

Went Wow. Yeah, that's a really stupid name. 

And then at some point, they were like, your dad's kind of cool.

I'm like, is he? 

And it's like, “yeah, you know, he used to get invited to your friends' parties before you.” 

And I was like, yeah. 

I was like, that'd be a fitting name.

Would you say that maybe your dad has inspired you musically in any way?

Blur inspired merch and Park Life Cover image taken by lu.med1a

I mean yes and no.

Mostly yes. The first ever album he showed me was Blur’s The Best Of.

Which is why we ended up covering Park Life at the album launch with him.

And why we also decided to legally rip off their, uh, design for our merch.

Makes it a real full circle. 

So in a way, he's made a great impact on this moment.

We wouldn't have had a sold-out show without him. 

A lot of the songs in your album are quite retrospective. Did you work with your dad during the album? Or are these just stories that your dad's told you before? 

It’s just stories my dad's told me. 

My favourite one will always be Shakespeare Avenue. 

Because he told me pretty much the entire story except for the ending for like 10 years.

So the real story behind Shakespeare Avenue is that he worked at this bar in Melbourne called The Village Belle, which I reference in the song. 

And he realllllly needed to take a shit mid-shift. 

Like he was desperate for a big old poop. 

So he said to his coworker at the time, “Hey, I need to go poop out the back. Could you cover the front bar whilst I poop?”

He's like, “Yeah, sure.” 

So my dad runs off for like two minutes to take a poop. 

In that two-minute time gap, someone comes into the bar with a knife and shanks the guy at the front bar who was covering.

And meanwhile, my dad's fighting for his life on the toilet.

And then he comes out, you know, after a cheeky flush and whatnot, and he sees his friend just on the floor, bleeding out. 

Which could have been him. 

And that's where I heard the story end for 10 years. 

Until, eventually, one day he went, “oh, by the way, that guy lived.” 

I was like, oh. 

Because in Shakespeare Avenue I definitely play it off as the guy dies.

So a lot of the stories are quite absurd about him in the album.

Is Now That You're 54 more from your perspective or your dad’s perspective?

I think my perspective on him being 54 and what he could have done otherwise if it wasn't for me.

Having a child makes it quite hard to be a famous rock star - but now he's doing it as per Park Life.

Although the song was technically written when he was 53. I just had great hindsight in knowing this album would come out when he was 54, a year later. 

Also four rhymes with more. So it just worked better. 

We already have a poop song, so we can't really do pee and three.

Where did the album cover art come from?

All of the single artworks and the album artwork I had found in this random box of old family photos he had, and I sifted through all of them.

There was a photo of him with an orangutan that was up there competing with the album cover. 

But the album cover was the only one that had his whole family in a relatively close position, where you can fit it in the square format. I got my good friend Rory Willingham, from De Porsal, to add that little COOLDAD 1971 over the top, just to give it the final touch. 

Self-acceptence and self-love seems like a major theme of many songs in the album, such as Take Me Back and Great Dane. Why was this a major focus in the album?

On the album cover, we can see there's my dad, he's got a brother, a sister and two parents. Funnily enough, there’s been so many instances where my dad has been reminded he is definitely the least favourite child. 

One time we went to his brother's house. My uncle. Whose name is Dan, The Great Dan. E. Great Dane.

[My dad] was like, “Oh, I'm gonna read this book you have that, you know, our mother bought 'cause she never gave it to me.” 

So he opens up the book, first page, signed by his mother: to my favourite son. 

It's like, oh, yeah, I'm sure this is a one-time thing. 

Then at his father's birthday, 60th or 70th?

We rocked up and the people there were like, “Oh, who are you?”

And [my dad] was like, “Oh, you know, I'm, I'm Robert's son.” 

He goes, “Ohhhhh, you're Dan!”

He's like, “....No, I'm Brent.”

He goes, “What? But Rob only has two kids. He's got Dan and then he's got his daughter, Kim.” 

…No, he's definitely got three. 

He did get a Facebook comment on his reshare of the album from like a random family friend being like, “hang on, 1971? But your brother was born in 1972. I think they got the year wrong.” 

As if it couldn't be about him. 

So there's a, yeah, a few songs are themed around that concept of being the middle kid in the family. A few tracks about him being forgotten as a kid. 

Hey, but he's grown, and now that he's 54, he's a rockstar.

When or why did you get the idea for this concept album? 

Originally, we had written Major Sea and had not come up with the concept of doing all the songs about THE cool dad. 

At some point after that, Lovecoin was the next song.

Lovecoin was specifically about my dad and the decision he made and about how my parents met - it's what the Lovecoin Music video is about too. 

[My dad] was working an office job, minding his own business. 

One day, my mother, unknowingly, calls up and is like “Hey, can you help me with something?”

He's like “Sure, I’ll head on down” 

He goes down to Geelong. They hit things off.                 

He's like “Great. That's awesome. Geelong's a good place. I'm glad I'm never gonna have to go there again.” 

Two weeks later or so on April 1st, she calls back up and she goes, “By the way, I am pregnant now.” 

He decided to really be in the picture because of a coin flip.  

Luckily it landed on heads or whatever he had chosen - so that's what the lovecoin is.

And now he has been a Geelong resident ever since.

After writing Lovecoin, I was like, that was pretty good. 

I reckon I could write more songs about his weird life. 

From there on, we got like a whole album's worth out of that.

And Major Sea is in there too.

I was gonna ask about that ‘cause you have a few singles that didn't make it onto the album. So why did you guys choose Major Sea? 

I mean Major Sea is just good. 

Also we didn't put any of the EP songs in because we just wanted to leave that EP as its own thing. 

Kade Baker really wanted Major Sea to be on the ep, and I was like, nah, we're not ready for that. I swear, in two years we're gonna find a saxophone player. We're gonna find an organ player. This song's gonna be wayyyy better. 

So due to my pushiness, we pushed it away until the album.

And I'd like to imagine it's about [my dad] being an octopus man or something, you know, a deep-sea sailor in an alternate life. Yeah.. I'm sure we have navy ties somewhere. 

Part of his intriguing life

The album's very fun, upbeat and I think you're a very fun, upbeat band as well.

Hell yeah. 

But you do have some…

Depressing songs. 

Yeah, a bit slower songs. I think Mary Jane is a standout. From the single launch, I kind of got the idea that you, specifically, wrote it?

Pretty much every song on the album, except for Major Sea and Mary Jane are about my father.

Mary Jane shockingly is about my mother, whose name is not Mary Jane, but it sure is a metaphor. 

I felt like we should get a depressing song on the album. 

Honestly, I had just finished playing the Spider-Man game and so I had the name Mary Jane in my head, and then the metaphor clicked, and then the idea for a song clicked.

I was like. Oh yeah, it's time. Wrote it all at like 3:00 AM.

I went to a grand final footy party that day, and I acted like I knew what sport was whilst I was sitting there in my head, thinking no one knows what I did last night.

I wrote the coolest song. 

And if anyone asks me to play it, I'm gonna kill the party. 

There was one time we tried playing it live before we recorded it, and it was so depressing the entire crowd left.

Everyone was having the most joyously fun time at the front dancing. 

And I was like, “Okay, this is a new one, Mary Jane.” 

And they're like, “Yeah!”

We played it, and everyone left.

What do you want people to take away from 1971 and COOLDAD? 

I just thought, I'll write some fun songs. Yeah, a bit of fun.

I mean, it's up, up to your own interpretation of the stories, I guess.

I'm considering making a playlist of the album in chronological order of the song time. 

And see how different that is. 

So for the official album release version, it's your own interpretation of the story. 

My interpretation is more in the sense of epic dad vibes. *Shakas* 

(It was important to Will I pointed out he did shakas in this moment)


Any last words you'd like to say? 

COOLDAD Merch

Buy every COOLDAD merch you ever see, bootleg or not.

Yeah. Well, I think support Carly and her crafting. But also bootleg, a bit like the slightly ripped-off Blur T-shirts.

Yeah, support Carly 'cause I've heard so many swear words come out of her mouth when the yarn snaps.

All credited images taken by @lu.med1a & @photo_jerm