“We’re straight up dudes, we don’t see ourselves as that important. We just write good tunes.”
Johnny Took is reclined, lying across a bench, sipping on a glass of rosé, embodying his claim that he’s not dazzled by the band’s success and fame. Just as the unassuming 20-something, who makes up one-third of the band, finishes his sentence, one of those tunes begins playing over the speakers. DMA’S are fittingly in the air, as the venue prepares for a listening party in honour of the band’s sophomore release For Now.
The album has been hotly anticipated following the raging success of their debut release Hills End, for which the band – Tommy O’Dell, Matt Mason, and Took – became an international name, seemingly overnight.
Though Took is thrilled that For Now has been so enthusiastically received as to get its own listening party, he’s quick to add that the album is potentially a dish best-enjoyed solo.
“To be honest, a party is not the best way to hear the record for the first time. I think the best way is with your headphones in your bed. And to be honest, most of the time people at listening parties, are pretty fucked anyway,” Took says.
He argues this is a near-universal truth for records, but is particularly applicable to the DMA’S’ second LP.
“I think this record is one that you do need to listen to a couple of times to get where everything is sitting,” Took says.
“It’s a little bit more thoughtful than our last record, there’s a little bit more going on at first listen,” he explains. “It’s like ‘Woah’. You have to get your head around it. But if you listen again, things that blend into the background at first glance come around with time, parts that you heard on the first time around still stick out, but you can take in new things.”
There’s a tonal shift from the trio’s first album. There’s not only a more psychedelic sound, but more of a sense of gentleness and maturity. There are many factors to which one can attribute this change, but for one, “It wasn’t made in my fucking bedroom,” Took remarks, as was their previous release.
Part of that shift can also be attributed to the input of the album’s co-producer Kim Moyes, of Sydney electronic duo The Presets. The disco flavour on track ‘The End’ is his handiwork, and his electronic expertise brought new beats to the mix that Took is sure they wouldn’t have come to use otherwise.
“He really pushed Tommy [O’Dell] vocally,” Took says of Moyes’s influence. “It’s quite a big vocal record, this one, and Tommy’s voice is accentuated the way it should be, that was kind of hidden a bit on the first record.
“I think Tommy come into his own on this record, rather than being reminiscent of other people.”
The three members of DMA’S are used to the comparison. Though they have their musical roots in bluegrass, their distinctive Britpop sound has seen them frequently compared to Oasis in articles and discourse around their music. Both Liam and Noel Gallagher have been asked for, and shared, their varying opinions on the trio.
Though there are definitely sonic similarities between the two, Took is quick to rebuke the idea that they are derivative of the ‘90s music mainstays.
“I get the Oasis thing. But I also think it’s a really lazy comparison,” he says. “Me and Tommy are a sucker for Britpop. There’s lots of great songwriting and noisy guitars and pop melodies. And Oasis, they were the biggest band of that era, but it was a huge movement over so many brilliant bands and many years.
“I remember being a 16-year-old kid driving around in a car listening to Oasis for the first time and freaking out, which a lot of people in guitar-driven bands have done. It’s not the worst comparison.”
For all the Oasis comparisons though, one thing they definitely have in common is a British fanbase. Their music was a word-of-mouth smash hit across the UK, allowing them to tour for months on end. Playing a huge number of gigs between dates at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Latitude and two Reading/Leeds Festivals, their extensive touring schedule was a third factor in their evolving sound.
“After touring, and the last couple of years, we’ve had time to think about the band, and I think that shows.”
And although he’s keen to get back on the road – mainly, he laughs, to make money – it’s by no means a glamorous lifestyle.
“It’s not sustainable to live on the road. We learnt that over the last couple of years. Especially after the first time we did it, and you’re so excited. We’re going to tour a bit wiser this time around. You realise just because every time you go to work there’s two cases of beer, two bottles of spirits, and two bottles of wine, doesn’t mean you have to drink it,” Took says.
“I’m not going to whinge about it, because I’m very fortunate to be able to play music for a job. And that makes me want to work harder. Because it can really easily go. I think it makes all of us want to work harder.”
Even though this self-proclaimed straight up dude feels self-conscious about listening to his album alongside a group of strangers, his genuine appreciation for the moment, and all other opportunities like this, is palpable.
“Relishing in moments is good. Playing gigs is great. Take a moment, appreciate it, and pat yourself on the back every now and then, otherwise you’re going to go through this entire life chasing something,” he says, before again lying back on the bench leisurely, and saying with an entirely straight face, “and then you’ll be 70, and you’ll have a fucking heart attack, and you’ll be dead.”
