Nestled amongst the sea of Australian psychedelia that currently finds itself infiltrating the UK are a group of guys that are certainly flying the flag for modern day rock. DMA’S have seen their stock rise rapidly over the past year and the release of their debut album Hills End has certainly done no harm to their blossoming reputation. We caught up with guitarist Matt Mason to talk about the band’s comparisons to Britpop and their plans for the future.
The relation to bands such as Oasis has been relatively frequent since the group’s formation, however it’s something that Mason has no quarrels with and he states that it’s definitely not something that happens intentionally. “Jonny and I listen to a lot of American bands and when we write, we write with an American accent in mind,” he said. “There’s only a bunch of people who can pull off singing with an Australian accent, as it’s not particularly musical. The standard creative process involves us two writing pop songs and then Tommy comes in and chucks the English twinge on it.” Mason also attributes the supposed Britpop sound to Tommy as he confesses he rarely listens to British music. “Tommy’s a huge fan of British bands, whereas I personally have never really listened to what you’d call your regular ‘British bands’ – maybe The Smiths and Joy Division a little, but the whole Manchester scene that we get compared to a lot was never a thing for me,” he added.
When quizzed about the state of music in his homeland, Mason points out that they’re one of only a handful of rock bands that seem to be experiencing some form of success. “In terms of the Australian scene, there’s not many people who’re doing what we’re doing right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of psych bands, which is sick and it’s huge – especially in Perth. There’s a big Aussie hip-hop scene, but that doesn’t really leave the country. We don’t really fit it into a scene in Australia, we’re just doing our own thing.”
In an age where musicians are being wrestled by their record labels in order to produce music that suits their own commercial needs, Mason says it’s refreshing that complete creative control has been handed to them. “The best thing about our labels is that we have so much control over making our own music,” he said. “We met up with a bunch of major labels in the US, and I’m talking big fucking labels, and it was just not a good vibe. There would have been a lot more money and stuff but we’re not fussed about that – we just want to make our own music without being hassled by some idiot.”
The success of their first album Hills End has inspired Mason and co to jump back headfirst into making new material and they plan to build on the success that tracks such as ‘Delete’ have so far brought them. “We’ve already started demoing for the next record and if I’m honest it’s pretty much already written,” he said. “It just needs a bit more playing with and then we can get round to recording it, then that’s that. In terms of the music on it, I can see it being pretty similar although we wanted to do some stuff which was different from the first album.” When pushed on what we can expect from the follow up, Mason stated that “there’s going to be a lot of electronic infusion in the new material and a lot more of jangly guitar stuff”. The trio have come a long way in a very short amount of time and they find themselves currently tasked with outdoing an album that was met with widely positive reviews.
When discussing the position of being an unsigned band in the modern era’s highly volatile music scene, Mason states that getting signed so early on in their career was such a positive thing for them. “I mean we got put onto our British and American labels as a result of our Australian labels’ contacts, so we may not have had the success we’ve had if it wasn’t for being picked up so early – but it’s not even that. If it didn’t happen then we might have just faded off, I see that happen to so many bands that don’t get picked up,” he said. “There’s a lot of great Sydney bands and there are some fucking sick songwriters, who’ve been kicking around for about 10 years. It’s sad because there are so many bands around Sydney who are so much better than us and will never get picked up,” he added.
Mason has no confusion to why he thinks DMA’S got signed in such a competitive industry and he puts it down to a lot of fortune more than anything else. “We just got lucky and I guess it could happen to anyone, I mean we never even had any connections at the start,” he said. “I guess when you go around just shit kicking around for years and playing your stuff everywhere and nothing happens then you just get jaded, because most of these bands that are unsigned genuinely know that they’re good and it fucks you up not getting anywhere – we’re just lucky that hasn’t been the case for us.”
With a string of UK dates lined up over the next few weeks and a full UK tour later this year, it will be interesting to see how DMA’S adapt to the English scene. However it’s fair to say that the Australian trio certainly have the armoury and confidence from which to launch a full-fronted assault upon the UK’s music scene. If you plan on heading to one of their gigs then expect to receive showers of the beer variety and engage in wholehearted sing alongs.