Much loved local project #1 Dads will be re-re-attempting a return to the stage, after his scheduled Golden Repair album tour fell victim to lockdown/s. 5+ years since the last time #1 Dads got on the road, It'll be worth waiting for.

The quiet achiever

The record holder

The cult favourite

The #1 Dad

#1 Dads is the solo project of Melbourne-based singer, songwriter, producer and engineer Tom Iansek. In March 2020 he released his third LP Golden Repair, a lockdown soundtrack to many people since.

Also known as one half of musical duos Big Scary and No Mono, Tom Iansek is at his most stripped back under the #1 Dads moniker. His direct lyricism, gentle melodies and sparse instrumentation make for homely yet sophisticated pop songs, that have seen him become an unassuming cult favourite, with fans and critics alike.

You’d expect to find vulnerability in lyrical honesty, but although Iansek acknowledges his faults and personal demons, he isn’t ashamed. His quiet self-confidence and thoughtful curiosity has led him to see right and wrong, good and bad, as just choices on a path that ultimately lead to a better version of self.

In the time leading into the songwriting of Golden Repair, Tom bore witness to loved ones’ loss; experienced the mystery of new life created; and practised listening to a universe that would bestow peace and progress upon those patient enough. There are songs of merciless self-confession, songs of accepting limitations, and songs of love. A journey from dark to light, beginning with the swirling '4bit' and concluding with the peaceful paean 'Elizabeth', Golden Repair’s musical contours encourage a space of gentle introspection, to uplift and inspire.

This album Golden Repair is so named after the Japanese artform ‘Kintsugi’, in which broken pottery is restored with a gold lacquer, artfully emphasising the cracks. It celebrates the blemishes, rendering the piece richer and more beautiful than before.

This album has formed part of my own restoration as I have grown as a person and as an artist and continued to peer deeper into myself, not necessarily liking or being able to accept everything that I find. It is thus an album of light and shade, of death and new life, and that path we continually walk towards the latter. It is a conscious exploration of the process of healing, and a pondering on suffering and its role in the process of life. It is the breaking and subsequent golden repair of myself and those closest to me.

40 million+ streams

#1 Australian Independent Charts

#5 Australian ARIA Charts

Tom Iansek is one of today’s best singer/songwriters – Atwood Magazine

A gentle, intimate meditation on life, love and embracing brokenness – Apple Music