#1 Dads, the solo project of Tom Iansek, has shared a new song and video, ‘Nothing Less’, the latest preview of his forthcoming fourth album Every Little Fire, out October 16 via Pieater. LISTEN HERE + WATCH HERE.

Where lead single ‘Already Something’ leant into pocket-sized Motown warmth, ‘Nothing Less’ swerves into soft new wave territory, built around a riff Iansek wrote on his Juno 106 back in his old Melbourne studio. It’s a song that leans fully into the fun of the era it evokes, rather than second-guessing it.

“Part of this project is following the thread of fun and not self-censoring, and this song really just wanted to inhabit that 80s thing, so I went there with it,” Iansek explains. Fittingly, much of what made it onto the finished track began life in its first sketching. “Many of the sounds are from the original demo, which I just couldn’t unhear and also couldn’t improve upon. I also couldn’t remember exactly how to play the chords I had in the bridge, so what was in the demo needed to stay there too.”

That instinct to leave things be runs right through Every Little Fire. Produced and mixed by Iansek himself across a string of small rooms, including a DIY bedroom studio, the album keeps its imperfections intact: longer, unvarnished takes, tempo fluctuations, breaths and all. ‘Nothing Less’ is a prime example of that ethos in practice, a soft-rock synth number that trusts the demo’s instincts over the temptation to polish them away.

Every Little Fire is Iansek’s most deeply personal record to date, born out of a period of major upheaval: a transatlantic move from Melbourne to London, a growing family, and the particular vertigo of dismantling one life to build another. “It was not an easy thing to do,” Iansek says. “It has been an insane, wonderful, chaotic, intense and joyful period of my life.”

With the album’s release just around the corner, Iansek will head back to Australia this October and November for a run of 23 solo shows, his first tour of the country in six years and his first-ever performance entirely alone under the #1 Dads name. Expect the breadth of the #1 Dads catalogue alongside new material from Every Little Fire, delivered with the intimate, understated arrangements and lyrical honesty the project is known for.

With ‘Nothing Less’ out now and Every Little Fire landing October 16, the Australian dates offer the first chance to hear the new material live. For Iansek, it’s a chance to bring the songs back to where they started, off the beaten path, one room and one instrument at a time.