DZ DeathraysMega riffs ready to send a festival crowd into raptures? Tick. A riotous celebration of the joys of getting back on the road? Sure. Rock anthems that address the weird place we find ourselves, with personal privacy and the pale blue dot we call home under threat from dark forces? Several.
How about a heartfelt piano ballad that’s a letter to Gen Next, and a woozy psych-pop classic? You might not have seen those two coming but they are also vital ingredients to DZ Deathrays’ Easing Out of Control, fresh textures as contrast to the frenzied guitar anthems their fans know so well.
And how do you set about your making your most varied album yet? As the band’s guitarist and chief vocalist Shane Parsons explains, not knowing you are making an album is one way of keeping your band surprised and energised while navigating the rocky roads of the music biz.
The band – complemented by fellow founder member Simon Ridley on drums and guitarist Lachlan Ewbank – admit they had a few doubts about their place in an algorithm-driven music world. But songs like Warped, the home-recorded gem that grew into the album’s mighty closing tune, convinced them they had much more to contribute.
Parsons explains: “The original plan was to make two EPs but as we put the songs together we realised, just a couple more and that’s an album.”
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Like most of the band’s releases since 2012’s ARIA Award-winning debut Bloodstreams, their latest work is sharp and to the point, about 30 minutes of music. But the decision to carry on and make a complete album was crucial, opening the door for a song like the last one completed, Warped.
It was mostly recorded at Parsons’ home in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales before stretching out under the guidance of album producer Nathan Sheehy.
“We were all looking at where we are and wondering, ‘Could we walk away from it?’” recalls Parsons. “We were seeing friends who had done that; Violent Soho taking time off, Northeast Party House have wrapped up, bands that came through with us pulling up stumps.
“We were thinking, ‘Where do we fit in here?’ Simon and I have been playing since 2008 and there will be a point soon where we’ve been in the band longer than we haven’t been in the band. Like any job or relationship, you change as a person and think about what is next.”
What happened next tapped back into the spirit they brought to the band from the first. Parsons and Ridley met in Bundaberg, Queensland, where they went to different schools.
“We would hang out with each other on the weekends,” Ridley remembers. “We were musos going to house parties to see friends in bands play, then talking about bands. That’s what we still do.”
There was never a career strategy, and no expectation they could reach the levels they have, touring the world, headlining venues like Sydney’s Enmore, three top 10 albums, and three best album wins from the Australian Independent Record Awards to go with their ARIA.
When the two moved to Brisbane they shared a house. At the time Parsons was playing in a different band but keen to explore a heavier direction.
At the rehearsal room at their house, Ridley and Parsons started working on songs. In an early incarnation Ridley played guitar. When a drummer left he switched to behind the kit.
“We didn’t have any grand plans. We just wanted to play a house party,” Ridley says. “Then the next gig. Then let’s try to play a gig in Sydney, then let’s try to go to America and play a gig. Incremental steps.”
Those steps can take you far if you write songs as good as these and still find ways to surprise the band and their audience.
“Over the last decade we have crafted the songs so we trim so much off,” Parsons says. “We needed to have some moments where we jam it out for a bit so there’s noise and chaos, then come back to the more refined rock song.”
For evidence check Warped, built around Parsons’ home-recorded piano with soaring strings and a sonic freakout to conclude, or the accurately titled blast of Demolition.
“Originally Demolition was a song called High And Hypnotised, with a psychedelic kind of vocal in the chorus,” Parsons notes. “It was one of those songs where you do a demo that worked well but when you go back to it you realise something’s not working.
“We re-jigged it with another chorus and a caveman beat. When the mixes came back I was like, I love this song so much now.”
The first single released as an album taster was Like No Other, the kind of electro-rock blast you might have heard from Regurgitator or Spiderbait sending the crowd over the top at a festival, circa 2000. The germ for the song came from a songwriting session with electronic artist and producer Hearteyes, aka Maurice Santiago.
“I came up with the guitar thing and he was putting the handclaps and basic drumbeat there, more in the electro world,” Parsons says. “We played it at all the shows on our tour in Europe last year and it’s so much fun live.”
It is always a bonus to rescue a song that might have fallen through the cracks. Long-time collaborator Luke Henery, Violent Soho bassist, plays on four tracks on the new album. Part way through the sessions Parsons showed him a song called Skyline.
Henery’s response: “That’s a really good song, you have to finish that and record it.”
Until that point Parsons wasn’t convinced the song could make the cut yet it became an irresistible pop-rock track and a single too.
Ordinary Life is another example of creative recycling. The song was first recorded as a B-side at the time of 2023 album R.I.F.F., now reworked with a new vocal. The song is another angle on the album’s existential concerns, a reminder that there is more to life than obsessing with the world you see on a screen.
Parsons is now a father of two, so it is natural he has been thinking deeply about the kind of world we leave to our children.
Real Love is one of the key album tracks and a career highlight, with a lyric that’s a letter to the writer’s children, and himself, in the future.
The song is about unconditional love, something you might not recognise until it stares you in the face. Or sits beside you on the piano stool. The song was written on an old piano at home and it is the first in that style recorded by the band.
“I would sit at that piano all the time with my son and I found some chords where I really liked how they moved,” Parsons says. “It was something I would never do on guitar but they sounded great on piano. We do a lot of rock songs and that’s great but I wanted to get out of our comfort zone so it was a cool moment.
“I'm glad I persisted. I want to be able to prove myself as a songwriter that can move into different worlds but still make it feel like it belongs to this band.”
Pissing In The Breeze considers greed and the environment while the album opens with the title tune, a comment not just on how many people are feeling in general but about the band too, holding it all together against the odds.
For an indie band in Australia to go on and make seven albums in the current climate is something of a miracle.
“I feel music is definitely undervalued now and you are just going to have to work with that,” Parsons muses. “It is expected that you have to do a lot more for a lot less money. When we first started there was one social media platform, Myspace. You put a track up there and a poster online and people bought a ticket to your show. Now you have to appease a lot of different platforms.
“There’s so much stuff, with exponential growth every day of the amount of content online,” he adds. “How do you break through that? We’re figuring it out as we go.
“People will ask you how you keep things fresh but really it has always been about new songs, finding the excitement in the next song.”
For DZ Deathrays, it’s too late to stop now.
DZ Deathrays’ Easing Out Of Control is out today through DZ Worldwide.
DZ Deathrays – Easing Out Of Control Tour 2026
Friday, January 16th – Rosemount Hotel, Boorloo/Perth, WA
With RATSALAD. & GRUB
Saturday, January 17th – Lion Arts Factory, Kaurna/Adelaide, SA
With Molly Rocket & DARK DAZE
Friday, January 23rd – The Night Cat, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
With The Pretty Littles, sleepazoid & OH! Daisy
Saturday, January 24th – Altar , palawa kani/Hobart, TAS
With Legal Noise & RABBIT
Friday, January 30th – Crowbar, Menajin/Brisbane, QLD
With DARTZ, Special Features & KNEE
Saturday, February 7th – Crowbar, Gadigal/Sydney, NSW
With LAHGO, DARTZ & Cammy Cautious And The Wrestlers
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
