YOU would be forgiven for mistaking DMA'S for another British guitar band riding the last waves of Britpop, but the reality is quite different.
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, friends Matt Mason, Tommy O’Dell and Johnny Took originally planned to play exclusively to the four walls of their bedroom.
But after receiving radio airplay, they were coaxed into hitting the road - where they have mostly remained ever since.
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Now touring as a six-piece, DMA’S managed to capture the hearts of Europeans through their mix of ballads, rock, a touch of country and a whole load of early Oasis inspiration.
The band released their debut album ‘Hills End’ in 2016 before following up with ‘For Now’ earlier this year.
A sold-out show at the Barrowlands and a slot on the massive Summer Sessions line-up has secured their position as the biggest thing to come out of Australia since Kylie and Jason.
DMA’S grew organically through friends Johnny Took, who was playing gigs across Sydney with Matt Mason, before recruiting lead singer Tommy to give the band the sound they were looking for.
“We weren’t really going to play live for a while, it was more of a bedroom studio kind of band but once we started being played on radio we kind of wanted to start playing shows”, Johnny explains.
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“All three of us have different influences. Tommy’s dad is a Scouser and he’s got an older brother who was listening to lots of British bands when he was a kid.
“Mason was more into guitar bands and I’m into a lot of things. I grew up listening to a lot of country music, Bob Dylan and Jeff Tweedy.
“Our earlier demo’s sound different from the Britpop vibe you can hear now.”
Their debut, recorded in Johnny’s bedroom, gave fans an introduction to DMA’S sound but it was their cover of Cher’s ‘Do You Believe’ that took them to new levels.
Performed on an Australian radio show, the stripped back track has attracted more than five million views and has become a glorified viral hit.
For their second record, the band recruited The Presets’ Kim Moyes as producer and decided to take their time over the whole process.
The guitarist explains: “The first album we did in my bedroom with drums and basic set up, it was much more spat out.
“We got Kim Moyes on the second and we recorded the majority of parts live to give a live feel to the songs.
“We just thought about it a bit more, we weren’t just randomly putting in hundreds of guitar parts for the sake of it anymore.
“We only put guitar parts that we thought were good enough.
“The feedback has been great. It’s opened up our demographic much more and more people have jumped on board.
“For ourselves, we could’ve put one or two more upbeat tunes on it. But it kind of suits the vibe of the album. There is a lot of more albums to be made.
Johnny adds: “Since the album has come out, it hasn’t been as strenuous with touring because with the first album you’re really cutting it just for time.
“This time the tempo has dropped a bit. We get to come over and do the Summer Sessions, the run with Kasabian and Reading and Leeds. It’s only a ten-day stint which is better than a full six months.
“It’s very different touring over here. You don’t really get a tour bus in Australia because it takes 10 to 16 hours to get everywhere.
“I like the consistency of the UK and that you just keep going and you can hit loads of different places.”
It’s not difficult to understand why Scotland has taken so well to a group of Burberry wearing Aussies who tap into nineties nostalgia but for Johnny, their success has a lot to do with timing.
“There isn’t as many guitar bands out there as there used to be I guess”, he explains: “In Australia there wasn’t many bands playing the sound we were playing. It guess people in the UK wanted to hear a band like the DMAs at that time and we got lucky.”
The DMA’S will play Glasgow Summer Sessions on August 25.
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