DMA’S Deliver Their Strongest Record to Date… A Bold, Guitar‑Driven Revival
The countdown is finally over for DMA’S, who arrive at album number five sounding refreshed, re‑energised and ready to reconnect. After years of writing, refining and holding onto songs that have lived as demos for nearly a decade, the band now steps confidently into a new chapter, returning to guitars, rediscovering their roots, and embracing the excitement of sharing these tracks with fans face‑to‑face. With preview shows across the country, a renewed focus on Australia, and a global tour already in motion, DMA’S are entering this release with momentum, maturity and a clear sense of purpose. Johnny Took speaks to Rob Lyon about their new album.
Great to be talking to you. This must be the real exciting bit, the home stretch before the album comes out. You’ve got a big smile there, the hard work’s all been done. This must be the real exciting part of the journey now?
Yeah, it’s nice. It’s nice. It’s kind of out of our hands, so to speak, and we’ve held onto these songs, some of them for years because some of these songs, they are demos and they have been around for seven or eight years till they finally made the record now. Then you pass it over to the public, which is actually a nice feeling. I think it’s kind of like they’re no longer yours anymore and then you get to enjoy them with everyone. You get to play them live, which is also a special treat.
It’s been quite a build-up. There has been a lot of momentum behind the release, does that give you a lot of confidence ahead of release day?
Yeah, we put so much effort into it and we took a lot more time on this one. The previous couple of records we’ve worked with producers and you’ve got like a set three weeks to record the album or something like that. But because this was more of a DIY effort, we did it over six months. So it was definitely more of an elongated workflow. It’s also more rewarding because of that and to have worked that hard and to not try and put as much firepower as you can behind it, I think we’d be silly. So we are just stoked it’s going to be around the world and we’re off to the UK on Saturday, so it’s going to be a busy, busy week.
The album is that strong, it must have been a real spin‑the‑wheel moment trying to pick a single to release first. You really could have gone with just about any of them?
Oh cool, cool. Thank you. Yeah, it was a bit like that. For example, El Alamein, which is the opening track, was really high up as a single contender. But we decided to put it as the opening track because you know that opening tracks have a special place in people’s hearts as well. It’s a way you can give a song a leg up without it technically being a single. But yeah, like you said, it was really hard to pick because we’re so fond of all the tracks on the record.
How did you find the fan album preview shows you did around the country? That must’ve been really good just to get in amongst it, meet the fans, sign a whole heap of autographs and selfies?
Oh, it was amazing. I was talking to Mason about it actually because we’ve had three years off, playing a few shows here and there, but we took a bit of time off after How Many Dreams? So to meet fans face to face and to know your why, to know why we’re doing this and who we’re doing it for, it’s really consolidating. Just going, oh yeah, these are the people who are listening and it feels good. It was nice to do something different because we don’t actually do this sort of thing. Did you happen to make it down?
I did, I did, Saturday, the twelve session at The Exeter.
Oh nice, nice. Yeah, cool, cool. Yeah, so it’s something a bit different for us because we’re not really a banter band. So to be able to have a little bit of a chat and give a little bit of a history of where we came from and what our thought process around the album is, it was a nice thing to do.
When you play the album now, what do you think when you look back?
I guess it’s still pretty fresh, but do you know what, I think one thing I do think about is I like the fact that we went back into guitars for this one. I like the fact that going back to a more indie rock guitar‑driven sound as opposed to the kind of dance‑rock sound that we brought on the previous two records a little bit. It feels good because we did do those, we did do a different sound. Like, for example, if from Hills End we’d only done indie rock records, DIY indie rock records for five albums in a row, I don’t think this album would feel as special. But because we went on this trajectory and tried a few different things sonically, I think now coming back to our original sound feels super fresh as opposed to if you’ve just done the same thing for five albums, people will be like, oh, they’re running out of ideas or they’re one‑dimensional or something like that. So I’m kind of enjoying the trajectory of that.
Was it clear in your own mind when you started album number five where you wanted to take it, creatively, sonically, all those things?
Yeah, I think it was pretty obvious. It was a funny thing because of the things I just said, where we pushed a sound for two of our previous records that was a bit different to our initial sound in our nascence. So to come back made sense. But also, I guess the zeitgeist in general, if you look at music at the moment, even in the Top 40, guitars have kind of come back with a vengeance. So it felt right to lean into that again anyway.
Did you even have an inkling that when writing these songs they had a bit of a special quality to them? Or is it too early to tell at that early stage?
Oh, no, I think we definitely knew. We had a lot of demos in the bag and Mason in particular, he did a lot of the writing on this album, and it’s just so nice when you see one of your best mates in a bit of a purple patch with their writing. The WhatsApp group is going off and it’s like, “Hey, I’ve got this new demo,” and you know pretty instantly when a song comes on if it’s got something unique and special to it and that was happening quite frequently, which is cool.
That must’ve been the really exciting part, seeing these songs take shape and evolve in the studio?
A hundred percent. Yeah, that’s right. But do you know what’s funny, a lot of them, and this happens with particular songs, some songs need a bit more work than others. But say a song like Emailz came together really quickly, and when Mason wrote it, it was written really quickly. A lot of the songs, we actually used a lot of the demo stems because the demos had a candour or a certain quality to them that made us fall in love with them. So if it was good enough for us to fall in love with them, why wouldn’t it be good enough for everyone else to have that similar effect? That’s kind of the way we think of it, rather than them needing to be overly produced.
Did they change much from the original idea in the studio?
A few of them, but most were pretty similar. Heatin Park changed quite a bit. But a lot of them stayed, like there’s a song called One & Only, that was really similar to the live demo we did. We even used Tommy’s live vocal. I think we spoke about this, I can’t remember if it was at one of the preview parties, but we actually used AI in the sense of a stem‑splitter model. We had this live demo, and Tommy’s vocal take was so good, but when we were recording One & Only it was to a click track. So Mason used AI to split the stem, take just the vocal out of the track, and then he had to warp it a little bit so it would fit the click track we were building the song on. I guess that’s one of those things, where they say it’s like fire, you can cook yourself a meal or you can burn your house down. I feel like AI being used as a tool in music is a little bit like that.
At least you’re not using it to write songs!
No, we’re definitely not doing that. In some ways we were using it to be more authentic, just to use the live take of the demo. In some ways it is using it for more authenticity.
Even Tommy’s journey, like I know at the preview party you mentioned he started out as a drummer, and to have someone with incredible vocal stylings like that, it’s great to see he’s getting better vocally. He’s got an amazing voice and he’s incredible on the album. Hard to believe he started out as a drummer.
I agree with you. He’s getting better and better and it’s been great watching him mature as a singer and as a musician as well. All of us, we’ve come a long way since we first started. But when I first met Tommy, he didn’t even consider himself a singer at all. I’ve got a few memories of him at a mate’s place playing The Scientist by Coldplay on the piano, and I remember going, whoa, Tommy’s got an amazing voice and I remember him even in the band, he was behind the kit, and he would ask the lead singer, “Hey, you know in the chorus when it goes…” and he’d be singing the part. I was like, mate, this guy should sing in the band. So I’m just so happy we got to do it. And I agree, he’s just got better and better over the years.
Was that a really difficult process culling it down to the final track list and potentially leaving off some great songs that didn’t quite fit?
It was actually. There were probably a hundred‑plus ideas, not fully formed songs, but ideas, little memos, little demos here and there floating around. I think that got culled down to maybe thirty six. Some of those we tried to join together, like, “Oh, what if we put this idea with this idea?” We call it Frankensteining, where you grab two ideas and transpose them into the same key. So a bit of that happened. But yeah, it’s a good problem to have.
Now with the live show now and five incredible albums. That must be tough trying to work out what to play trying to balance the old and the new?
Yeah, that’s right and you don’t just want to play the same set every time, but there are also some songs you wouldn’t leave out. There are more and more of those songs you just wouldn’t leave out now, which is once again a good problem to have. It’s definitely a charitable side of getting older as a band, every record you release, your hour set or hour‑and‑a‑half set gets tighter and tighter in terms of strength. So once again, a good problem to have and we love touring, so it’s a thing that helps us with our trajectory.
Are you ready for the tour grind?
Well, yeah, we’ll see. We’re doing the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne in late November, and then on December 3 we’re doing Sydney Opera House as well, and Fortitude Music Hall. So just a small one in Australia and then we’ll be over in the UK again in February, which is good. But Mason and I have both just had little baby girls…
Congratulations.
Yeah, thank you. Like literally, she’s three weeks old.
Oh wow.
Yeah. Yes and I’m already going on tour on Saturday, so, you know, lots to juggle there, but can’t complain. Life’s good.
Are there plans for another Australian tour early next year and maybe a bigger stop this time in Adelaide?
Yeah, definitely. We’re definitely going to organise one because there’s obviously a lot of cities that we missed. But I’ve got family in Adelaide. It’s a special, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for Adelaide. But also, obviously nothing set in stone or whatever, but for me personally, I think it’s about time that DMA’S did a few more tours that focused on Australia in general. I live out near Ballarat now and I want to do a little bit more regional touring and solidify our market here a little bit more. That became a little bit more evident when we went to places like Port Noarlunga on the weekend. It just gave me the feeling that that’s something we should do more of Australia‑wide.
Interview By Rob Lyon
DMA’S is out through Sony on Friday August 20, BUY/STREAM HERE
On tour on the following dates, tickets HERE…
