#1 Dads

#1 Dads live at The Louisiana, Bristol. Saturday, 16th March 2024

Tom Iansek is one of today’s best singer/songwriters – Atwood Magazine
A gentle, intimate meditation on life, love and embracing brokenness – Apple Music

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. 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 in his home country, 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.
50 million+ streams
#1 Australian Independent Charts
#5 Australian ARIA Charts

Back in 2010, in between domestic tours with Big Scary, Iansek enrolled in an audio-engineering
degree. His early solo work was almost a by-product of testing his developing studio skills, but the

result was his first LP Man Of Leisure under a new name ‘Dads’.

In the following years Iansek worked with many of Australia’s up-and-coming acts as producer or
engineer, fostering a community out of a converted Fitzroy milk bar, affectionately known as Mixed
Business. The community gave birth to ‘Pieater’, a record label Iansek formed with bandmate Jo

Syme and manager Tom Fraser.

Having honed his audio skills, Iansek took on the producer role for Big Scary’s 2 nd  LP Not Art (2013).
This album went on to win the prestigious Australian Music Prize (AMP) and receive ARIA
nominations, plus see the band sign to U.S. label Barsuk with international touring to follow.
Needing a breadth of musical expression, Iansek returned to his solo project for album number two.
With his name challenged by a pre-existing US band, Tom thought “why be ‘Dads’ when you can be
‘#1 Dads’?”… The new album About Face (2014) was a leap for Iansek – broadly shared via friends
rather than marketing dollars, the slow-burner of an album saw #1 Dads sell out 5 consecutive nights
at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory (where he’s still the record-holder). He also won the AIR award for

“Breakthrough Independent Artist”.

In the years since About Face, Iansek released a fifth Big Scary LP, created experimental electronica
duo No Mono, who released two self-produced and mixed LPs, and became a #1 Dad himself (x2),
released a third #1 Dads album Golden Repair, AND now calls London home.