Messed!Up
Australian britpop three-piece DMA’s visited Hamburg for yet another show on their “For Now” tour. Taking inspiration from the Manchester sound they became the word of mouth hit with their incessantly infectious melodies. Now, DMA’s have raised their game with their new album “For Now” and crossing the world for a massive tour including several festival shows in Europe.
Messed!Up sat down for a chat with a much relaxed and a bit tired Johnny Took who appreciated a day off in Hamburg the day before the show, a talk focused on their latest album, their Britpop influences and a possible future relocation to avoid exhausting trips back and forth to Europe.
After the enormous success of their critically acclaimed debut album “Hills End” and its Oasis-like sound, DMA’s quickly established themselves in the UK, collecting a sufficient following in impressive time through their lively shows. Already attracting Liam Gallagher’s interest due to the many references to early Oasis, however in a DMA’s configuration, a sound that is much cherished in the UK, the road to success is paved.
On their second album they brought in Kim Moyes, one half of electronic duo The Presets, to record drums on “Dawning” and “In The Air” but he insisted to stay for the full production process because he felt “so hard for all of the material in the demos” (Consequence of Sound, 2018), and contributed to further develop their unique version of Britpop.
The success of their second album has been immediate and it has charted, at this point in time, at the UK Top 100 list at #13 compared to the successful debut album peaking at #36. Johnny explains the work with “For Now”. Johnny explains the work with the “For Now” record.
No “Second album syndrome”
You’ve been on a quite long tour already. How is the touring mood at this moment?
It’s good, it really is. We had a day off yesterday and were out on some party in the harbor and I’m a bit tired today but it will be sorted out to the show (laugh).
“Hills End” was a huge success and got some great reviews in 2016 and critics around the world said that you will be the next big Australian music export. But quite many bands having a similar start as you find it really hard to do the second album, you know “the second album syndrome”. Did you feel any pressure or expectations when doing the follow-up?
No, not really. We really didn’t have that kind of problem, and compared to many dickheads that make ten songs and at most can make a 45-minute set we thought of this from the beginning and wrote something like fifty songs and could choose from those recordings that we could use and develop to the second album.
We also hooked up with Kim Moyes from the Presets. That made it a bit easier, it was the first time we worked with a producer.
How come that you started to work with Kim Moyes?
The reason why we started to work with him at first was just because he was going to record the drums on some songs. We have our own studio and we were still recording lots of the guitars and all the keys, and lots of things on the record because we like to be part of it in that way. We got Kim involved at first just to record the drums and we sent him, what I can remember, “Do I Need You Know?”, “In the Air”, “Dawning” and maybe it was “The End” or something else just to let him hear them before doing the drums and then he was like “I would love to be involved more in this project”.
Has Kim influenced the new direction of DMA’s if you consider that The Presets is an electronic act, quite much club music in a way?
His knowledge of rhythms and beats are really good and he went to the conservatory of music in Sydney and studied percussion there, so he got a really good knowledge and helped us a lot in that regard. And also, we learned much about guitar sounds and wanted to put less guitars on the record, just pick the right guitars and synthesizers and stuff and obviously he come from a background with that, and have good knowledge of that as well.
Kim made it sound a little bit like the here and now rather than just being the guitar-based sound of the nineties although we still have those influences, but the production is brought more into 2018.
Aussie Britpop and the Oasis connection
Although originating half the world away from the home of the Britpop scene, the power of the internet connected DMA’s with the sound that circled the globe when they were growing up and they quickly tapped into the scene, walking a well-treaded path.
As most new bands DMA’s were compared to similar, successful bands at the start of their career. In the case of DMA’s they were hailed as the Australian Oasis after “Hills End” by the British music press, drawing comparisons to the Gallagher brothers but also Stone Roses. NME took no time in hailing the band as the next big thing and Aussie media has swiftly followed. Their single “Delete” became somewhat of a sing-along anthem in a very short time and Liam Gallagher himself twittered “Just heard the new DMA’s record 1 word BIBLICAL”.
The Gallagher support certainly is a help on the way to success and will take a new turn when DMA’s will support Liam at his Finsbury Park show in June, their biggest show so far. However, the new sound of DMA’s is way more than Oasis references.
DMA’s is very much Britpop but you can also hear country and folk music influences. Do you have a common ground in music taste or completely different entry points to music?
Well, me and Mason used to play in a bluegrass band, that’s how it all started, in a different project. “Timeless” was originally a country song written on a banjo and “Step Up the Morphine” used to have a slide guitar in it, it was like a country song. You know, I feel like a good song is a good song meaning that if you change the production and want to put electronic beats and synthesizers on it you can or if you want to put an acoustic guitar and just a tambourine you can do it as well.
Even like the little things like playing a song in G on guitar, it sounds really country but if you do it in normal A it will sound more like rock and roll.
How big is the Britpop scene in Australia?
It’s not crazy, I guess it’s not massive. It’s just that there hadn’t been a band doing that sound for a while when DMA’s came on the scene. They say that music is timing in more ways than one and maybe that got something to do with it which was cool since it was a bit of an opening for us.
But it started when we were teenagers and your friends would show bands like Oasis and Stone Roses and stuff like that.
I know that you quite many times have been compared to Oasis, you even hanged out with Liam after a London show, but even if you are compared to your role models in most bands want to be known for the stuff they do, not through comparisons, and I don’t always hear a clear Oasis connection either, especially not on the new album. Rather than ask about your similarities to Oasis, I would ask what is not Oasis with DMA’s today.
To be honest, we were listening to a lot of Air at the time we were doing the record and all that classic kind of vibes. Kim knew how to use a software, synth of the Selena, and went out and fucking bought one which was kind of cool.
I guess there’s a whole of different influences in there and I think if you know that genre of music you know how many important and different bands there were as well, like The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins and stuff like that.
But you are going to support Liam Gallagher at his show in Finsbury Park in June. That must be massive?
Well, it’s our biggest gig we ever played. But at the same time it’s just another gig you know. I think the coolest thing is just to be on the fucking poster. When the gig comes, we’ll play well and it will be fun.
I just try to live the simple life at the moment and very much be in the now, and now I’m in Hamburg and I’m going to enjoy being here, playing the show tonight. I went down to this festival here yesterday, that was pretty fun.
And maybe it’s a way to handle expectations and possible pressures?
Well, you can only play the best you can you know. I think if you can consistently do that for a long time – that’s how you build a name.
A future relocation?
Being from Australia but having most fans in the UK is often a barrier. Many Australian bands and artists try to enhance their careers by moving overseas, in particular to the UK, since the home market isn’t big enough and the distances between the main music cities is huge. Touring in Australia is often about literally losing money for many bands and artists. When you tally up the price of transportation, equipment, production, crew and accommodation, the total cost of a tour can quickly spiral out of control. There isn’t a huge audience or a lot of funding to go around for even the most established artists.
Compared to the UK, which is around 31 times smaller than Australia, you could drive the length of the UK in the same time it would take you just to get from Sydney to Brisbane, and you could play shows at plenty of reasonably-sized venues along the way. How about the future of DMA’s then, with their main music market in the UK?
I’ve had a few interviews with bands from New Zeeland and Australia over the years and they all point out that there’s a problem to come from Australia, especially when people listening to your music live in Europe and America. In fact, many chose to relocate in the end. What are your thoughts about it in the case of DMA’s? Do you feel any pressure about it? Or is Australia big enough even in the future?
I think if it goes well for the “For Now” record we need to consider the future. One of the biggest and nicest things at the moment is to have a second record out now. But I think if it goes down well it would make sense to base ourselves somewhere around here. I just hate that fucking flight, man. I think we did that flight from Sydney to London like six or seven times last year. In Australia you have like six capital cities and you need to fly to all of them because they’re so fucking far away.
In a band that me and Mason used to be in we did this recurring thing in Melbourne, and we’re from Sydney, and together with our drummer in DMA’s, Liam, we played every Sunday in Melbourne. Basically you wake up like four o’clock in the morning and then drive for ten hours or something; if it would have been Perth it would be like four days.
But you don’t play America that often?
It cost us a lot of money to get over there to do that kind of thing. We’re going to go again, obviously for the record. The last time we went we did something like 30 or 35 dates in just over a month and you drove pretty much from New York to LA to stop at Coachella, but this time I think we’re just going to go to the big cities.
How is it different to play Europe compared to being on home turf?
It gets pretty rowdy in the north of England like on the Scottish and Manchester scenes, but other than that most of it is pretty the same. Most people really appreciate the songs, and the songs that helped them in their lives at some point. We’re lucky to have quite many passionate supporters at most shows.
You’re also one of those bands that built a large fanbase on touring and by hooking up with quite many different bands as a support act like The Kooks and Courteeners. Will you continue to be a touring band even when you grow a bit bigger? Many bands have the tendency to cut down on touring when they do bigger shows.
I think you have to be a touring band these days, you don’t make enough money of CD sales, you kind of have to do it to make money.
You have a big set up live and usually are a six-piece on stage. That’s kind of a big party going around the world. Are all of you old friends?
We’re all friends so it’s not any session musicians we bring with us. Me and our bass player Tom went to school together and we grew up playing music and Mason and our drummer have been friends since they were five. We’re all just mates and enjoy travel the world together.
But they have been in the band for a while. You’re not going to involve them as permanent band members in the future?
No, because the three-piece is more of a song-writing kind of collective. DMA’s were writing for more than three years before we played live
How often does it happen that you have a breakdown and end up in fights? Touring have a tendency to get on your nerves from time to time, especially when you’re a big party going around?
To be honest having more people is actually better, there are different people to interact with and you can just go with a different person for a meal or something like that.
Last question, what can Hamburg expect tonight? Will you play Cher’s “Believe”?
I like this venue and we have played here before, it has a good vibe. And no, we will not do “Believe” (laugh). It started with a gig in Cologne during a soundcheck, and Jason was just learning different covers for fun and one day he started playing that and then Tommy started singing it. But not tonight, I promise you (laugh).
Photographer: © Julia Schwendner
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