DZ Deathrays continue to obliterate all and sundry, superseding their Death From Above aping, house party playing origins to become a true dominant force, able to incite a crowd to lose their mind at their whim. The duo – Shane Parsons on guitar and vocals, and Simon Ridley on drums – are a veritable party powerhouse, their incendiary live shows highlighted with electricity, vitriol and good-time ridiculousness all very much in the red. They are always a joy to watch, and Parsons believes that their ethos of holding back on the amount of hometown shows and spreading the love around plays an integral part to their success.

“We had to pull back on doing preview shows (overseas) and even shows in Australia to try and focus our time everywhere else,” he explains. “That's what a lot of last year was about – playing all these shows overseas whilst fans in Australia can't see you, and then when you come back everything is tighter and more in control and everyone is more excited to come and see you play and have a good time. Just getting overseas was such a great thing for us. We'd been overseas before but not that rigorous touring schedule, yet when we got to the end we felt we could definitely have done more. We felt we could have spent more time in the US even though we were there for three months; we are planning shows in Europe for May even though we spent some time there too. There is always more work to be done.”

Such incessant touring has left an indelible mark on DZ Deathrays, the benefits of which Australian audiences will experience during their upcoming series of shows. Parsons believes that the stories and experiences he and Ridley have taken on board have helped the band become a tightly coiled machine.

“We look back on the Bass Drum Of Death tour fondly because we had never done that many dates over that length of time before, thirty-two shows over six weeks, straight after doing twenty-something shows in the UK, so fifty-odd shows straight pretty much, and it really conditioned us on what we could do,” he smiles. “But we also got to do some awesome shows in Europe, like a show we did in a castle opening for The Killers and Temper Trap, these big-name bands, which was just nuts. And we got to play the Reading and Leeds Festivals, where some of our favourite bands are playing at it. That kind of stuff just doesn't happen in Australia.”

One memorable DZ show did happen in Australia – their Splendour In The Grass set last year was smack in the middle of a freak hailstorm, which saw their amiable Friday mid-afternoon crowd become a seething horde of revellers getting out of the wet and into the band's potent set. Funnily enough though, it's not one Parsons particularly remembers – at all.

“It was definitely one of the more chaotic shows that we've done, in terms of things going wrong but still having everything come together okay,” he laughs. “I was shitting myself because there was water all over the stage, but I was pretty high on adrenaline because of all the water, everyone seemed to be inside of the tent, and we just had to go for it. I hardly even remember playing it to be honest; it was a complete mindfuck the whole time. With everything going on onstage, plus we could barely hear each other, hoping every minute that my amps wouldn't cut out because water was running through them… There are gigs where you remember every single part, then others you come off not remembering playing certain songs. It's gone down as one of our most memorable shows though, just not for me!”

Their debut long-player Bloodstreams hit less than a year ago, yet it feels like a veritable mainstay due to its growing success across the globe which led to the band winning both an ARIA and an Independent Music Award.

“We have this new single (Teenage Kickstarts) to come out, and then we can move on,” Parsons states. “We still see the average life cycle for an album to be eighteen months, and Bloodstreams continues to go all right so there is no rush (for new material). Especially for a band where people are just starting to find out about us. With the ARIA, we didn't even expect to be nominated, and then we were up against The Amity Affliction who are pretty huge. Plus we are an indie band that just happens to be heavier than most other indie bands.

“So we were on tour when we heard about the win, so it was a weird experience where we were both like, 'Oh, that's nice!' We didn't really know what to do – we were in the middle of a tour on the other side of the world – so we didn't really celebrate or anything. When we wrote the album we were just happy that we had an album that was finished, to be done with those songs and move on, so those kinds of things are unexpected but help for more people to get into what we do, which we are really happy for.”

That said, Parsons and Ridley have been spending some of their precious little downtime writing and recording new material at local uber-producer Magoo's studio.

“We've been spending time on our own taping demos, writing new stuff for this new record that we can hopefully get out as soon as possible,” Parsons enthuses. “It's great to have such a big reaction to our songs, but we are just as keen to get out and get some new material under our belts.”

There is no rest for the wicked though – after their national tour on the back of Teenage Kickstarts, there is the support slot with The Bronx, a privilege that Parsons cannot talk highly enough of.

“When we first started the band The Bronx and Death From Above were the two bands we held up; we were like, 'These are our influences!'” he reflects. “From that there are many different bands and sounds we took into account, but those two bands are at the centre – they are our favourite, favourite bands. We've seen The Bronx play so many times, in the UK, the US and in Australia, and have always been blown away by their live shows, and we have been emailing about getting a support since we first started; every time they came to Australia we'd send an email off. And we finally got it!”

DZ Deathrays will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 4 April - Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley QLD
Saturday 6 April - Good God Small Club, Sydney NSW
Friday 12 April - Rocket Bar, Adelaide SA
Saturday 13 April - Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 25 April - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Friday 26 April - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 27 April - Groovin' The Moo, Maitland Showground NSW
Sunday 28 April - Groovin' The Moo, University Of Canberra ACT
Wednesday 1 May - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 2 May - Fowlers Live, Adelaide SA
Saturday 4 May - Groovin' The Moo, Prince Of Wales Showgrounds, Bendigo WA
Sunday 5 May - Groovin' The Moo, Murray Sports Complex, Townsville QLD
Tuesday 7 May - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Friday 10 May - Capitol, Perth WA
Saturday 11 May - Groovin' The Moo, Hay Park, Bunbury WA