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Sophie
Hey! I'm Sophie, I'm 22 and live in Leicester.

You can usually find me at a gig in the photo pit or shopping for another new outfit which definitely won't fit in my wardrobe.

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Interview with Tommy O'Dell (DMA's)

DMA's are an Australian band, formed in 2012. They are quickly moving up in the music scene, proving to be very popular in the UK, their For Now tour selling out. The band have been compared with the likes of Oasis and have a great sound that fans of those legendary bands will love.

Made up of Tommy O'Dell (vocals), Johnny Took (bass) and Matt Mason (lead guitar and backing vocals), the band released their second album, For Now, earlier this year. The album was a hit, including lead singles For Now, In The Air, Break Me and Dawning. My personal favourites are Warsaw, Do I Need You Now.


DMA's stopped off at Leicester as part of their UK tour and I had the chance to watch their show and chat to lead singer, Tommy. Supported by Rosborough and Neon Waltz, the crowd were buzzing. When DMA's came on stage, the reaction was outstanding (I got a couple of pints of beer over me in the photo pit).

Throughout the performance, the crowds response was the best I've seen. They were shouting lyrics back at the lads and getting on each other shoulders. At one point, I counted about 20-30 people on shoulders singing back. Pints of beer were being thrown everywhere and a couple of people even tried to crowd surf (only one being successful).

Before this hectic gig, I spoke to Tommy.

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You're midway through your UK tour, what's been your favourite moment so far?
Probably the Barrowlands show. We've only played five gigs yet so we've got five left. The Barrowlands show I guess.


Your tour sold out and you've definitely proven to be popular in the UK, what makes you stand out from other bands?
I don't know, I guess we're from Australia - that's one thing, and we've travelled so far to get here so it's a bit more special when we play here because we're on the road. Our sound is a bit of a throwback to some. Music that people wanted in their lives and haven't had it in a while.


You get compared to people like Oasis a lot.
Yeah, not as much any more. People that are into those kinds of bands like to hear that kind of stuff.


Which track do you think is the star of the show on your recent album, For Now?
I think Do I Need You Now is probably the best song.


I like that one.
I think maybe the best production is In The Air on the production side of things. But yeah, they're a couple of my favourite ones.


Do you like performing those ones live?
Yeah, I like playing In The Air. It's a cruisey song, easy to sing. Time and Money is also good.


What was your inspiration when writing the album?
It's hard to kind of pinpoint what the inspiration was. The songs were written like so many years apart from each other. I guess every song has a different sort of inspiration behind it. There's a lot of love songs on there, there's a lot of songs about breaking up, a lot of songs of just, kind of like, trying to get on with things with life and not taking things too seriously when you've kind of been bogged down.

It's not really a concept record, there's no particular inspiration behind it all, it's just every day stuff. Like one of the songs was written before the first album was released and another song was written like two weeks before we went into the studio. It's just a wide range of songs written at different times.


It was very good, I loved it!
Thank you.


Are you making any new music at the moment? You're on tour quite a bit so...
Yeah, we're always trying to make new music, we're thinking about the next record I guess. Being on tour does make it hard.


Have you got any plans - have you written any songs or anything?
Yeah, we've got like 80% of the album ready and written.


So you're thinking about an album next year?
Yeah, yeah, for sure! We've just got to fine tune some things and spend some time on the lyrics and parts of it. I think we'll have music next year, I hope so anyway.


I hope so! There's lots of different things coming out next year, it will be quite interesting.
Everyone releases music so frequently at the moment because people's attention span is so fucking small.


I agree.
Yeah, there's so much music coming out, getting thrown in people's faces, you need to keep up I guess. It's a good thing for everyone, the more music the better it is.


It's nice to take it slow sometimes though.
Yeah, there's a fine line I reckon. Taking too long to bring out new music and rushing it.


The thing is if you rush it it's not going to be your best work.
We're not going to take like three years or anything, we should have something out next year. We're not too precious about it. Some bands like to zone in on things and take like three years to write a song and all that. It's not really our vibe.


You've supported some amazing faces, I'm quite jealous! What's been your most enjoyable moment out of everyone you've supported?
Probably hanging out with the Kasabian guys in Ireland. I think it was Dublin. They've been a favourite band of mine since I was young so to play a gig with them and then also have some drinks with them after the show - that was quite memorable for me personally. Yeah, there's been some good stuff. The Finsbury Park show was great. Leeds and Reading were good.


Yeah, you played your third year this year was it?
I think so, yeah. This is by far the best!


I wish I could have gone, it looked amazing! Hopefully I can go next year. So when you were first starting out as a band what were your expectations and aspirations that you had and how have they changed?
I guess when we first started we wanted to show as much music as we could we just enjoyed recording it ourself. We haven't really changed too much, I guess now we have more to think about as far as live gigs compared to when we first started. We never played any shows, we were more of a recording group. I guess now we think more about the live set and that kind of thing.


Is there anywhere you really really desperately want to play?
Brixton Academy would be good.


There's some great names that have played there.
Yeah, any big old theatre would be cool. Anything like that I'm always up for. Ah you know what, there's a venue, is it in Manchester? Called like, The Bowl, or something? The Manchester Bowl? Do you know that Robbo? Manchester Bowl?

Robbo: The Castlefield Bowl. That's like near the canals.

I'd really like to play that but it's like 10,000 people so I think we've got a bit more to do!


You'll get there one day!
Hopefully! That would be great! That's somewhere I'd like to play.


If you could only listen to one album for the next few weeks, what would it be?
Ah fuck, I don't know. I'm enjoying the new Rolling Blackouts record, their debut record. Probably Blackouts Costal Fever, they're an Australian band. They're doing alright over here. Something cool I've been listening to recently.


Are there any smaller bands and artists that you feel deserve a bit more recognition?
I don't know about recognition but more people listening to them I guess. There's a girl called Hatchie, she's Australian. She's working on an album now.

Who else? There's an artist called Shogun and the Sheets, he was in a band called the Royal Headache. He's probably one of the most underrated musician's I've come across. He was in a band called Royal Headache. Worth watching the scene.


So when you're flying, what are the three necessities you always take with you?
Headphones, obviously. I have these Berocca things and you have them in your water, one sip every three hours in the air stop you feeling sick. So I usually try and remeber to take them. Nothing special and nothing fancy or anything.


Anything else?
Erm, fuck, I guess you need your passport.


The most important thing to get out the country! So you've just been kidnapped, the characters or people from the last TV show you've just watched are coming to save you. Who's coming?
Fuck man, I don't know. Who would you chose?


Well the last thing I watched was the news this morning so Piers Morgan and Suzanna Reid.
What was I watching? Erm, I was watching Ozark. You know Ozark that show?


Yeah, good show.
So I guess the people from that.


So, we're possibly expecting an album in 2019 and I'm assuming you're going to make the festival rounds.
Yeah, next year but 2020 will be more the festival scene.


What are your plans for next year then?
Well we've go a couple of festivals, we'll not festivals. We're playing a gig in Ireland with Noel Gallagher and Blossoms and then we're playing a show with The Courteeners at Heaton Park. We've got Australian summer festivals to do and then get in the studio and get some music out.


Sound good! Thanks for talking to me.
No worries!

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So that's it, there will definitely be more music out next year! I'm looking forward to it, are you? In the meantime, you can stream their recent album on Spotify.


Until next time...

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