Dads out and about

Whether you've been allured by their lullaby, or shared your agony of feelin' no love from your special someone, there's no denying the music by 'Dads in the Park' just hits different. They resonate with the urban youth of Dhaka. 

And from their last trip overseas to the 'Hammersonic festival' in Indonesia, it is safe to say that Dads in Park is fancied by fans internationally as well, because the duo is boarding the flight for their first ever international tour tomorrow!

Dads in the Park, namely Tajwar Ul Islam and Ishmam Salim Chowdhury, will be touring Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore as supporting acts to American band 'Tiny Moving Parts.' This will be their first proper international tour. When it comes to growing internationally as musicians, the ball was set rolling for the Dads when they made the ballsy decision to write their songs in English, in Bangladesh.

"We always wanted to go international. We wanted to make it big from the very get go. We had to sacrifice a lot of local shows just because we didn't sing Bangla songs. But it's all working out well because we are finally making our dreams of growing internationally come true and we are where we wanted to be," said Tajwar.

Not writing songs in Bangla limited their reach to the mainstream audience. However, after four years of struggle, the band is happy with the fact that they are following the very vision they laid for themselves when they decided to go down the track of writing songs in English.

For obvious reasons, the path was not easy. Month after month the band used to DM certain magazines and event management companies and touring agencies abroad; they always wanted to form connections with the world outside of Bangladesh.

That is how their first trip to the Hammersonic festival happened, when the founder of 'Skesh Entertainment', a touring agency for international artists, visited Bangladesh and discovered Dads in the Park.

"We met and the founder showed us his portfolio; it was filled with bands and artists that we grew up listening to. He noticed that our intentions were always to cross our borders and that's how we kind of landed our first tour," added Tajwar.

What is the difference between playing in front of a local audience and the audience they found themselves performing for in Indonesia? If you've ever been to one of their shows, you would know that they bring in their own set of fans and friends, who sing along to almost every line of their songs.

However, for them, it was never about the crowd singing along to their tracks that served as an inspiration.

"We don't think anyone writes songs keeping in mind that every fan needs to sing along to the tracks. It's a feeling that everybody seeks obviously, but we weren't obsessed with making everybody like our songs. What we really wanted was to make sure our songs were being heard by everybody,"

During their 'Hammersonic festival', which was headlined by Slipknot, Dads in the Park made sure that a vast global audience got a taste of their music. Even during their trip they met certain fans and concert goers who had checked the band's music out after coming across the name on the concert posters.

And that is kind of how their current tour came about.

"We were out in the lobby and the band Tiny Moving Parts were also there and we just got to talking. They asked to be present at the venue during their sets and they had also checked us out and enjoyed our music," said Tajwar.

Fast forward a few months, Dads in the Park will be touring Asia as supporting acts to the American band. It's a welcome change because this certain Bangladeshi band won't be performing abroad in front of Bangladeshi communities and labelling it as an 'international tour'. They will be actually performing in a real concert, at real concert venues, filled with real music lovers. Not a community centre rented by expatriate Bangladeshis, but an actual musical enterprise. May that long continue.

The band's origins can be traced back to the premises of BRAC University when the  vocalist and songwriter  Ishmam Salim Chowdhury approached guitarist Tajwar Ul Islam to work with him on a few of his songs. Dads in the Park were officially formed in 2017, the name selected for nothing but the fact that it sounded "cool". They initially worked on 'Lullaby,' 'Afeenolove' and 'Pareidoli'  and finally broke the internet with the release of  'Lullaby' in 2019.