DMA’S

We sat down with Matt Mason from DMA’S before their brilliant show in Munich. Check out their song ‘Step Up The Morphine‘ & if you just fell in love as much as we did, head over to iTunes, Amazon or your local record store to get their debut album.

You nearly finished your Europe tour – this is the last date right? How has it been?
Yeah this is the last date! We go back to Australia tomorrow. It was cool! I didn‘t really know what to expect in Berlin last night, but it turned out amazing. It was really exciting. And there were lots of German people, which is great and not an obvious thing at our shows. Sometimes we play overseas and it‘s just like… Australians and people from England everywhere! Ha. The shows can be good but you know, it‘s also nice to have some local people there.

How have german crowds been treating you?

Very sensible! Which is refreshing after playing in Scotland and North UK where people are really… intense… apparently throwing urin seems to be a scottish thing to do at shows.

You formed this band five years ago, how did you guys meet in the first place?
Tommy and Johnny went to school together, I was playing bluegrass music in the area we were living in… and Johnny was getting into it. And yeah, basically that‘s how we met.

Your debut album was released last year and I haven’t seen one bad review. What makes an album special for you?

The time of my life that I‘m listinging to it. All my favourite albums that I have are not necessarily the albums that I like most musically, but I listened to them during a time of my life that I might miss now, you know?
Like, that record Marquee Moon by Television. I was living in Bondi Beach for a couple of weeks, and when I listen to that record I can remember how I felt in that time of my life.
Or the first time we went to Japan I was listening to this Dinosaur Jr. album, I listened to that on repeat while we were there.

Photo by Lisa Lovegood, © indie.vidualist

What was the first artist or band that made you wanna start with music?
No one actually!

So you just woke up and were like “Yep, I wanna be in a band.”?
When I was 8 years old or something we had a music day in school and older kids came in and showed us their instruments. And I saw a cello, and I thought it looked really cool. So I was like “Yep, I wanna play that”. And that‘s how I got into it.

What was the most inspiring place you’ve been to?
Tokyo and Prague.

You’re from Australia… I don’t really know anything about the music scene over there… how would you describe it?
Depends on which city you go, but it’s actually quite good. It’s great in Perth and Melbourne, probably everywhere but Sydney, ha! The music scene in Sydney is dying. They’re shutting down pretty much every venue. There aren’t many new bands because the scene is dying and that doesn’t sound very appealing to young kids, does it? No one’s like “Oh yeah I wanna be a part of that thing that’s going down the fucking drain”. But yeah, we’ll see where it’s going. Could be worse after all.

I saw you’re playing with The Kooks at the end of the year?
We are, yes!

They are great, they’re the sweetest people. You’re gonna have fun.
Oh really? That’s great, I’m excited to meet them. Their shows are fucking huge!

And last but not least – which advice would you give to young artists who are just starting with music?
If you’re collaborating with somebody, and you don’t like their idea, just play it anyway. You don’t need to argue about that shit, who cares, in two years time it won’t matter anyway. And be nice to your fellow band members. Don’t kick anyone out of the band. Cause you’ll lose not only a band member, but a friend. And you’ll regret that.

DMA'S ☇ interview coming soon on @indievidualists

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