Far Out Meets: How DMA’s triumphed over adversity making new album, ‘How Many Dreams?’
Ahead of his band’s headline show at London’s famous Roundhouse, DMA’s guitarist Matt Mason is in an agitated state. Despite performing to several thousand people in a matter of hours, Mason’s mind is focused on sourcing a charger for his Bluetooth speaker, which is a critical part of the band’s pre-gig ritual.
“I usually wouldn’t be stressed out, but it’s just today,” the Sydney native tells me from a quiet upstairs area in the venue. “I just lost the charging cable for my Bluetooth speaker, so that’s annoying. That’s what I’m stressing out about because I’m trying to find the cable at Argos or some shit to buy. It only takes a really specific one, and I want this because we play music before we go on to get the energy going,” he explains.
“I’ll probably put on some Brazilian bossa nova thing to annoy everybody or some rap,” he says, musing over their pre-show playlist. “We listen to Kendrick (Lamar) sometimes, and Johnny (Took) likes to put on The Chemical Brothers. Just whatever, as long as it’s something and not dead silence. Because when you don’t have the speaker and it’s just silence, it’s fucking bad vibes.”
The late October date at The Roundhouse is the first show of a mini three-date UK tour for the Australian group. Over the years, they’ve gradually increased their fanbase on these shores through incessant touring, and they are now firmly adored in Britain. “It’s just gotten a little bit bigger every year,” Mason reflects. “We just keep coming back. I think this is the fourth time this year that we’ve come over from Australia. It’s funny because we are living on one side of the world, and our work is on the opposite side. You have to travel a lot, but it’s nice to get home and not feel like you’re surrounded too much by work because we’re so far away.”
Although they play similar size venues in Australia to the United Kingdom, Mason explains they may only do “two or three” rather than the 13-headline shows they have planned for Britain in April. Therefore, it’s less intense and allows the band to have more of a normal existence than in the UK.
This particular trip to Britain at the end of 2022 followed a European jaunt supporting Kasabian and an intimate headline show in Amsterdam. At the time of our conversation, DMA’s had only released ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ and ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’ from their forthcoming album, How Many Dreams?, but both singles went down a storm with the raucous London crowd. Although the capital has a reputation for tame audiences, DMA’s fans sang along to every word and bounced as if their lives depended on it.
DMA’s fourth LP is their first since 2020’s, The Glow. The upcoming release is a continuation of the electronically-tinged predecessor on the tracks, ‘Something We Are Overcoming’, and album closer, ‘De Carle’. However, these adventurous releases sit side-by-side on the record next to songs that feel quintessentially old-school DMA’s efforts, like ‘Dear Future’ and the new single, ‘Fading Like A Picture’. While DMA’s aren’t abandoning their roots, they are expanding into new areas, and there’s an assuredness to How Many Dreams? However, making the album represented a challenging time for the band for a multitude of reasons.
“It’s definitely the most confident we’ve been in a record, that’s for sure. It’s funny you say that. We’re really proud of it,” Mason beams. “There was a moment where we were not confident at all. We were a little bit scared, but it all came together in the end. We were in London recording, but we were sort of worried the album wouldn’t be very good,” the guitarist admits.
He continues: “A few things happened. Our producer got Covid-19 and all that boring Covid-related shit. Then we went back to Australia and finished the record with our friend, Kon Kersting, who is a big producer in Australia. He really helped us instil confidence in the record because we only had a couple of weeks to work on it with the guys here (in London),” Mason grumbled.
Adding: “We took about a month off, then went back to Australia, spent a few more weeks on it, and really took our time to finish it. Rushing it works sometimes, we recorded, For Now, in just two weeks, but this time going in there doing it quickly just didn’t work.”
In London, the band worked with Stuart Price, the producer previously at the helm for The Glow, and Rich Costey, who was new to the group. “Rich had never worked with us before,” Mason says. “And it was supposed to be a good match, in another life, in another time, that could have been a really good relationship. But it was just Covid and shit, man. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault that it didn’t work out. It just didn’t.”
DMA’s also suffered from being on the other side from their loved ones with frontman O’Dell also now being a father, and the rest of the band also being in serious relationships. Additionally, the studio sessions came after a lengthy UK tour, and in total, they were away for two months, which Mason says affected their spirits. Despite the dour mood in London, DMA’s have created a record full of hopeful optimism, which Mason says is “because we finished it at home” and “made it happy”.
While DMA’s have extended their sound into new territories on How Many Dreams?, it still sounds uniquely like them. Although the electronic streak to their work seemingly started on The Glow, it’s always been part of their DNA. Mason explains, “We started making electronic music before we released any songs. Something that a lot of people don’t know is we started as an electronic band. When we wanted to play live, we didn’t have any electronic instruments, so we used guitars and pushed back into the guitar world. Now we have bigger budgets for shit and can make electronic music.”
The electronic history of DMA’s is at odds with the group’s early reputation as Britpop revivalists, which Mason understood but also denounced as “super lazy”. However, the guitarist says the comparison to bands like Oasis turned out to be a blessing in disguise: “Tommy (O’Dell) grew up on English rock ‘n’ roll, but I didn’t. I was always like, ‘I don’t understand that comparison because I’m writing half the songs, and it doesn’t influence me.’ It never bothered us, though, because that helped us build a fan base and really helped us feel like we had support here. We’re quite grateful for that comparison, in a way,” he reflects.
Mason’s inspirations and musical leanings tend to be much heavier, but something changes within him when he makes music for the band. “My inspirations for DMA’s are Tommy and Johnny,” he says from the heart. “The music that I’m writing on my own is hardcore punk or metal, so it’s a weird one. But if I write a song for DMA’s, it’s unlike any other music I listen to.”
There’s an innate chemistry between Mason, O’Dell and Took, which has made DMA’s one of Britain’s favourite guitar groups of the last decade, but they’ve also worked hard to earn their position. “It’s felt like forever,” Mason says about his time in the band. “It’s been quite taxing on us, and I remember most of it. It definitely doesn’t feel like yesterday that we started out, it’s been a long time, and we’ve changed so much over that time.”
Another thing that has changed is the music industry’s growing obsession with social media and streaming platforms, which Mason finds intrusive. “I don’t understand TikTok,” he admits. “I understand the importance of it, but I also physically can’t do it, so there’s no point in trying. We get told all the time that people want more personal stuff these days, but I don’t fucking want to do that. I want to spend less time on social media.”
He adds: “There’s almost more talk about social media and algorithms in meetings than anything else. It didn’t use to be like that. I actually had a meeting last night, and we’re talking about algorithms which was really interesting, and I do think everybody should adapt. I kind of hope one of our songs off the record will get big off TikTok, and other people can dance to it, but I don’t know if I will be doing any dances.”
With or without the help of TikTok, DMA’s forthcoming album, How Many Dreams? is a triumph as they forge themselves into the band they’ve secretly always wanted to be. Unlike other albums that originated during Covid-19, it’s crammed with infectious positive energy and tastes like summer in a bottle as DMA’s hit their stride.
How Many Dreams? is out on March 31st through I OH YOU. Visit here to pre-order the album, and buy tickets for DMA’s UK tour.
