Be Prepared

15 September 2014 | 3:41 pm | Ben Preece

"I feel like we have lots of tunes and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and we’re ready for it, you know?”

The Music calls Johnny Took, he’s at home in Newtown cleaning the toilet, a revelation not too many aspiring rock stars would admit to in a hurry. And that goes a long way to explaining just what DMA’s are about – there isn’t a lot of bullshit within the minds of these three youngsters, an admirable trait for a band that has experienced so much formative, hyperbolic buzz in such a short space of time that lesser bands would undoubtedly implode from ego alone.

“To be honest, I try not to look at music as being anything more than a good song,” Took explains. “Otherwise it tends to become a bit convoluted. A few people have said it to me and I’m starting to see it now, that there is no real right answer.”

As the saying goes, “the song is always king”, and DMA’s emerged only late last year armed with a small cannon of solid gold promises of things to come. The unconventional debut single, Delete, is the perfect slow-burner, something not exactly encouraged by radio typically but absolutely undeniable in its execution, its lyrical sincerity and brilliance.

“We didn’t think it was a single,” Took admits. “It’s none of our favourite song but we have lots of songs that are a bit more ballady or have that kind of tempo, so we thought it might be nice to lead off with something like that, maybe to set a bit of a precedent so people didn’t freak out in the future when we started releasing ballads.”

The debut, self-titled EP quickly followed, as did another killer single, Feels Like 37, and were equally embraced by all, eventually leading to full houses on tour and spots on the country’s biggest festivals.


“To be honest, I try not to look at music as being anything more than a good song.”


“It’s what we’ve been wanting from our first release. It’s still got our kinda sound to it; we recorded and mixed the whole thing ourselves so it’s not too far from all the demos we’ve done at home. Bands can lose the plot a bit if they jump into using a producer too early or if they change something that isn’t, you know, broken.”

Like any band experiencing success, DMA’s don’t come without their fair share of detractors. Their sound has been compared, often harshly, to some British counterparts. Like most, the trio’s references are inhaled and subsequently exhaled with their own flavour.

“There are so many different vibes and attitudes that you take when you write a song. You sit there and you’re writing and you might want a song that can be like a folk tune almost and normally the vibe that comes, comes after the production aspect. I’ve written songs for DMA’s that has ended up on a Little Bastard album, the only difference being there are violins and mandolins going on instead of loads of noise, delays and overdriven guitars. We don’t think about it too much though and I can understand why people think it has that British sound to it. And Tommy’s voice definitely resonates from some of those early-‘90s guitar bands. The group that I hang around with are all into Primal Scream and The La’s and Oasis and Pulp and all those kind of bands.”

Proving their prolific ambitions, DMA’s next release is a 7” featuring two brand new songs – Laced and So We Know. Took, who also leads Little Bastard, says that the “overnight success” wasn’t necessarily so and the constant stream of releases so far is merely the result of being prepared.

“It kinda has moved quickly but it moved really slow at the start there. We were writing together and we didn’t feel like there was any rush to play live  and we weren’t releasing stuff, we were just happy playing demos for our mates in our bedroom and working our own production. We didn’t feel a rush at all; before we had management or had a label, me and Tommy realised we had a fair few songs and some were a little bit better. We’re talking about two and a half years. So that’s the reason, I feel, when things do start to move quick, that we can be prepared. It’s been a hectic year and you can often tell when bands are working, the output slows down a bit. So we’re prepared for that.

“I’m not too sure what’s coming next though. We’re just going to keep writing and writing and doing these live shows and I’m really excited to see where we’ll take it in the New Year. Personally, I’d love to do an album. I feel like we have lots of tunes and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and we’re ready for it, you know?”