Dear Seattle come out to play on regional Australian tour

Following multiple international runs across Europe, the UK and Asia, Sydney’s Northern Beaches punk rockers Dear Seattle are hitting the road for a regional Australian tour.  Showcasing new material from their latest album, TOY, the tour kicks off at the Prince of Wales in Bunbury on Friday, August 28, before hitting Indian Ocean Hotel in Scarborough on Saturday, August 29, and continuing around the country for nine more dates. Ahead of the tour, NEVE PEARCE spoke to Dear Seattle vocalist Brae Fisher about the new record, broken pedalboards, their dream regional gig, and what fans can look forward to when they hit the stage.

Shall we begin with a warm welcome home! You’ve just returned from touring Europe, the UK and Asia, and now you’re taking your new music across regional towns in Australia. What made you want to take this tour outside of the major cities, and what are you most looking forward to about playing these regional shows?

It’s the same reason as a band that we love going to Tassie or Perth: there’s that extra level of gratitude for it. It makes the energy of the shows so good for us. We love playing the cap city shows and love playing Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but they feel quite different from a regional show. They’re both great, but they’re two different worlds, so it’s fun to get out there and have a bash at local pubs.

US band Seahaven are joining you for the entire regional tour. What are you most excited for them to experience in Australia, and how did this tour collaboration come together?

That’s a really good question. It’s nice for people from the US to experience the Australian way of life, because I think there is this expectation that the US is very similar to Australia, but I feel it is actually really different. I’m excited for them because they’re from California. So if there is anywhere in the States, California is probably the most similar to Australia, but I’m really keen for them to experience it and see what they think of it.

I’m just so excited to have them on [the tour] as well, because as a band we grew up listening to them. Honestly, Dear Seattle probably wouldn’t exist without Seahaven, as well as so many other bands in that scene at the time. The fact that they’re doing their Winter Forever tour at the moment around the world, I’m very excited because I can assume that they’re probably going to have a lot of those songs in their setlist. Winter Forever was one of my favourite records growing up, so it feels like a weird full-circle moment and a nice experience for us to live that nostalgia again.

In terms of how it actually came together as a tour, last year we brought out a band called Heart Attack Man and toured with them in the US through Destroy All Lines. It all went really well, and both tours were awesome, and I think they just hit us up saying, ‘Hey, we actually have a band who are keen to come out to Oz. Would you want to bring them out and do a regional run with them?’ When they told us it was Seahaven, we were like, ‘Oh, yes, 1000%.’ We would be idiots not to.

Last year, TOY achieved an impressive milestone by debuting at #4 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Then you re-released the album in February with the addition of Bedroom Pacer and I Can’t Make It Right. Can you share why you felt this was the right time to include these songs and what they bring to TOY?

A big part of it was probably that we had just done that really big US tour. We were over there for about 10 weeks, and it was like 45 shows in 70 days, so we had just been exposed to a whole new group of people. To foster that, we did an audio tree session, which came out around a similar time. And so it was just a bit of a no-brainer that we had these two songs that we really love that only just missed out on making the cut of the original album to use as a little extra now, because there are more eyes on us and new ears that are waiting for stuff, and rather than waiting for a whole new album cycle, it made sense to get something up. And we loved the songs, so it felt like there was no reason not to.

You recently wrapped up a tour through Asia—was there a particular show, city, or moment from that run that has stayed with you?

I reckon the show in Singapore was the hottest show we have ever played in our entire lives. We were playing at nine or ten, and it was still 33-34 degrees with 95% humidity. It was a sold-out show, so there were 200 kids in the room, and the venue was basically an office space, eight storeys up in an industrial area with no air-conditioning… It was so hot that it literally broke our guitarist’s pedalboard because there was so much water in the air that got into it, and it actually broke.

So it was one of those moments where A: I can’t believe that I’m even surviving right now and not passing out on stage, but also B: I’m in Asia with a room full of kids, playing a set… I don’t think I ever expected to be here and be taking this in. I feel like that excitement offset the struggles.

You’ve now had the chance to tour extensively overseas as well as around Australia.  What’s the biggest difference between touring in Australia and overseas? Was there anything about playing internationally that took some getting used to?

I think it’s really hard to say because it’s very different depending on what country you’re in. So I think that was probably the biggest thing that I learned just from this Asia tour. Honestly, it was one of our favourite tours we’ve ever done. It felt so different showing up to the airport each day and basically having to fly every day between countries. The promoter would pick you up—they were a local from the area—they’d take us to their favourite local food spot, we’d go grab some beers, and we’d go back to the hotel, check in, and then play the show.

You’d be up until 2am, and then you’d get up at 5am for the next one. It was go, go, go. But having that local there taking you around and treating you so well was the thing that made it so special, which doesn’t really happen in Australia. It was five shows in seven days, so we didn’t have much time to check things out. But having someone there to take us around really made us feel like we got to see a lot in the short amount of time that we had.

Tying back to why we love doing regional shows, it was a tour of a lot of places that we haven’t played before. We’ve toured Australia so extensively now that we have played most of the venues within our size in the capital cities, so sometimes it can get a little bit rinse and repeat, although it is still awesome, you lose that fresh new element to it. When touring regionally or touring overseas, you have no idea what it’s going to be like, and to me, I feel that is a really exciting part of those shows.

You’re taking your upcoming tour to all corners of Australia—if you could dream up the ultimate regional Dear Seattle show, where would you be playing and who would you have joining you on the bill?

My favourite place to play is Tasmania. I would say Rage Against the Machine would be one band, Blink-182 as the second, and let’s go with my favourite artist of all time: Bon Iver. Oh, and we are definitely the opener so that I can have beers and watch the bands afterwards.

I am sure you are looking forward to a well-earned rest, but following this tour, what’s next on the cards for the band?

We’ve been touring a fair bit overseas, but we have definitely been writing, so new music will be on its way. We’ve just finished up our current record deal and are looking at a couple of options there which will really dictate what happens next. I don’t think there’s a lot that I can necessarily say right now, but there’s a lot of very exciting stuff in the works…

Dear Seattle play Prince of Wales on Friday, August 28, and Indian Ocean Hotel on Saturday, August 29, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from destroyalllines