To say that 2016 has been a busy year for DMA’s would be an understatement.
The Sydney-based and currently UK-placed trio have toured virtually non-stop since the release of their impressive debut album, Hills End. Between selling out shows in four separate continents and playing some of the world’s most famous festivals, the local lads have proved themselves to be an internationally adored live act. Now they’re headed home to play their biggest Australian rooms to date.
While the band are known for being cool, calm and collected both onstage and off, their life on the road is full of the rock’n’roll benders one might expect from such a hyped-up act. Speaking to the BRAG from the UK, guitarist Johnny Took reveals he is ever-so-slightly creaky, still recovering from the exploits of the night before.
“I’m pretty hungover, man,” he says, laughing. “I woke up like five minutes ago. If some ridiculous shit comes out of my mouth, you’ll know why. I’m walking to this café called The Grind in Sheffield. Yesterday was bloody beautiful here; it’s like an old steel town. We played a gig last night – it was crazy. The Brits get into it pretty hectic; they get real rowdy at shows.”
Took, vocalist Tommy O’Dell and guitarist Matt Mason have attained a committed European following, something Took explains as a natural byproduct of the band’s own love for a very particular era in musical history. “We don’t fucking hide it: we love that ’90s Britpop era and all of the bands that came out of it,” he says.
“The crowds here in the UK don’t give a fuck that we are from Australia or from a long way away, they just like the tunes and the kick-arse nights. It’s cool to be so far away from home and get that response. To be honest, when it comes to building a career I think the UK has been one of our strongest audiences. They’ve been amazing to us.”
In the past two years, the collective of mates has brought the six-piece live set-up to audiences across the globe – exposure that has led them to appear on various 2016 festival bills including Splendour In The Grass, Fuji Rock, Pukkelpop and more recently Reading and Leeds. Understandably, such relentless touring has the DMA’s looking forward to returning to home soil and focusing on their next release.
“In February, I was so keen for touring,” explains Took. “I was so up for it, but recently to be honest I’ve just been looking forward to getting home. I miss having a home. I miss having a bedroom, somewhere to just dump my shit. Little things like that: organised pandemonium shit. I’m also looking forward to not having to see the five other heads I have to see everyday. That’s going to be a real privilege.” He laughs.
“But in all seriousness, I think we are going to get a studio somewhere. I got evicted from my house where we recorded the album so I haven’t had a studio for about a year. I got evicted on the night of last year’s King Street Crawl. I forgot about late night trading; we had a DMA’s rehearsal in my bedroom and it was so loud. There’s a hairdresser underneath us and he was just a proper real bad dude.”
In addition to relocating to a new recording space, the band’s songwriters are eager to continue their production exploration. Took stresses that though he and his bandmates have always experimented with electronic textures, their plan moving forward relies on completely integrating that sonic element into their new set-up.
“We’ve got so many new ideas but we just need to be home for long enough to have the time to experiment with it,” Took says. “We’ve been experimenting with beats and stuff, bringing electronic vibes into some of the tunes and doing something a little bit different within the whole field. With Tommy [O’Dell], he can bring any melody you fucking want him to. He’s the kind of person that you can play a beat and he can just bring a huge melody on top of it without even thinking.
“I think we will probably make the next album more of an experience,” Took continues. “We were really happy with Hills End and the vibe it has got. It’s a bit vulnerable. Recording an LP in your bedroom means that it sounds a bit shit but that’s kind of cool. But I think we’ll have to step it up for the next album.”
Before settling into their follow-up record, DMA’s are set to take Hills End to the Australian stage. The group are currently preparing for a show at the Enmore Theatre, one homegrown fans have been anticipating for some time now.
“There are these little increments that bands improve by that you can’t get from being in a rehearsal studio for nine hours – you can only do it by playing 60 gigs in two or three months,” says Took. “Now we are at that point with our one-hour set, I’m looking forward to getting home and adding a few different songs to it.”
The support slot for the Enmore show is set to be filled by Adelaide’s Bad//Dreems, one of the contemporary scene’s most electrifying acts. Took reveals he and his bandmates were put in touch with the Dreemers after a chance musical meeting in New York.
“It was about a year-and-a-half ago during the CMJ Music Marathon,” says Took. “We played our acoustic set and Bad//Dreems got up and hadn’t brought enough acoustics so they asked if they could borrow my guitar. They were playing and all of a sudden [Matt] Mason just walks onto the stage. There was a grand piano there and he had learnt ‘My Only Friend’ a week before by chance, so he rocked up and just started playing it with them.”
Given their reputation as a festival staple – they smashed their set earlier this year at Splendour In The Grass – it’s no surprise that the DMA’s will also be making a showing at the upcoming Falls Music & Arts Festival, an appearance Took is anticipating with relish.
“Normally when we play festivals in Australia we have mates playing it too,” Took says. “Splendour was almost weird: we were hanging out at the VIP behind the main stage and I felt like I was just hanging out at the local pub back in Sydney. We had heaps of mates there and my little brother was up there.”
Regardless of their expanding influence on the Australian and international music scenes, Took assures loyal listeners that when looking to the future, the band’s sound and songwriting will remain true to the heart of DMA’s.
“When you think of the songs that have gone well for you as a band, a majority of the songs were written before the band did well,” Took says.
“That’s one thing we are going to remember when we are finishing up the second or third album: that there is certain candour to those early songs that I think people found endearing. I think artists can lose the plot a little bit when they stop writing for themselves and start writing for an audience, or what they think the audience wants.”
[DMA’S photo by Dan Boud]
DMA’s play atEnmore Theatre on Friday October 14, with Bad//Dreems.Hills End is out now through I Oh You.
