{"id":2104180,"date":"2026-08-21T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104180"},"modified":"2026-08-21T07:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:51:10","slug":"we-know-what-we-want-with-a-new-recording-studio-and-label-deal-dmas-are-just-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104180","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We Know What We Want\u2019: With a New Recording Studio and Label Deal, DMA\u2019S Are Just Getting Started"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tFor the past decade, DMA\u2019S have lived the dream. The Australian alternative rock band has amassed an enviable fanbase in the United Kingdom, their spiritual home. They\u2019ve landed spots on the biggest stages. Awards have come their way, including an ARIA for best group in 2023.<\/p>\n
See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tOne thing, however, is strangely missing. A No. 1.<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe trio has got ever-so-close, on multiple occasions. Their most recent album, 2023\u2019s How Many Dreams,<\/em> opened and peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart, and No. 3 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. Its predecessor, 2020\u2019s The Glow,<\/em> also peaked at No. 2 in Australia, and No. 4 in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith their self-titled fifth album, a fresh start. DMA\u2019S<\/em> arrived Friday, Aug. 21, the product of recording sessions at the band\u2019s own studio, and released through Wonderlick and Sony Music, their first through a major label machine.<\/p>\n
\n\tBandmates Johnny Took (acoustic guitar, backing vocals),\u00a0Matt Mason\u00a0(lead guitar) and\u00a0Tommy O\u2019Dell (lead vocals) recorded the collection in their studio in Sydney\u2019s Glebe, a space that was established by rock\u2019n\u2019roll legend Col Joye, and hosted sessions with\u00a0David Bowie,\u00a0Bruce Springsteen\u00a0and the\u00a0Bee Gees. The DMA\u2019S found the studio on Facebook Marketplace, buying it from Australian Music Prize winners Hermitude. <\/p>\n\n
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\n\tThe LP was largely self-produced, with contributions from Lach Bostock of Mansionair, Norwegian duo\u00a0Jimi Somewhere\u00a0and two-times Grammy Award nominee Styalz Fuego.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe did try with a producer overseas and it didn\u2019t work out,\u201d Mason tells Billboard <\/em>over a Zoom. \u201cWe tried a few things out. It didn\u2019t work. It solidified what were thinking, should we do it ourselves? F\u2014 it, let\u2019s just go home. We\u2019ve got our own studio now. We produce music for other bands. It\u2019s album five. We know what we want, you know? Let\u2019s just do it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
DMA\u2019S<\/em> is the sound of a band that knows what they want. It\u2019s an album with big songs, style and swagger, born from Britpop, raised in Australia. The trio boast an impressive following in both countries, but no Britpop frontman had the lungs of O\u2019Dell, who shows off his natural talents on the singles \u201cMy Baby\u2019s Place,\u201d\u00a0\u201cHeatin Park\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cKilling Time,\u201d and across the new album\u2019s 11 tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe sessions were \u201cbasically free because it\u2019s our studio,\u201d Mason says. \u201cYou\u2019re the one creating the deadlines, you can go on forever. It did take a long time because it\u2019s just up to you. At least we can say that we love it. It\u2019s my favorite album that we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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\n\tRecording the album took roughly a year to complete. \u201cIt did take quite a bit longer than usual. Just because we had the luxury of just spending as long as we can,\u201d Mason admits. \u201cYou have this unlimited sort of potential to just experiment as long as you can and to have that luxury was like something that we haven\u2019t done before. Some records I can look back on and say, f\u2014, I wish I could\u2019ve switched in an extra day or two for that. Yeah. But this album was completely happy with every single segment of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSome of the songs geminated at the beginning of their career. \u201cMy Baby\u2019s Place\u201d and \u201cOne & Only\u201d borrow from recordings which the band members retrieved from a rusty old PC.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince the release of Hill\u2019s End<\/em>, which this year celebrates its 10th<\/sup> anniversary, DMA\u2019S have amassed over 535 million streams. Breakthroughs, they can come from the least-expected avenues. In Australia, it was the band\u2019s 2016 cover of Cher\u2019s \u201890s dance hit \u201cBelieve\u201d that got the ball rolling. Their version came out on top of triple j\u2019s inaugural Hottest 100 \u201cLive A Version\u201d countdown in 2023.<\/p>\n\n
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\n\tIn the U.K., a 2016 appearance on the now-defunct Sky Sports show Soccer AM<\/em>, where they performed \u201cDelete,\u201d was an early goal. Mason remembers the experience for several reasons. \u201cPeople liked the song. But the comments on YouTube, people were like, \u2018why are their shoes so dirty?\u2019\u201d It was the first of several appearances. The bandmates are soccer tragics, a love affair that has spawned a merch collaboration with Sydney FC, featuring a jersey, jacket, scarf and wall flag. <\/p>\n
\n\tConversation shifts to that elusive No. 1. \u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said that wasn\u2019t a part of it,\u201d Mason tells Billboard<\/em>, referring to their new major label route. Each of the band\u2019s previous studio albums were released through I Oh You, part of the Mushroom Group. All crashed the ARIA top 10.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the band\u2019s contract came up, \u201cwe were kind of looking around, you know, what\u2019s going to be our next move? I was thinking, I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to be able to find another family or another team that feels like that. Sometimes you just think like that would be impossible to find. A group of people who would be so accommodating and, you know, we\u2019ve found it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve just made the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe U.K. beckons, where the band has already made five return trips this year. There, DMA\u2019S played 10 Hills End <\/em>anniversary shows in February, with multiple dates sold out, including two at the O2 Brixton Academy. From September, DMA\u2019S will play regional parts of Australia, performing sets at triple j\u2019s One Night Stand in Griffith, Yours and Owls Festival in Wollongong the following month, and will end the year at Spilt Milk in Canberra, the Gold Coast, Geelong and Perth.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI feel like this has been a busy year for us,\u201d Mason considers. \u201cThere are a few places we really want to go back to. Italy, we have a decent fan base there and we just love it. Japan would be great. The United States, yep. I\u2019d love to. Maybe next year.\u201d Regular, long-haul travel \u201cis f\u2014ed,\u201d he says with a laugh, \u201cbut there\u2019s a beauty to be able to travel to the other side of the world and have that appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dmas-1800-2026-cr-roman-jody_966373.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard For the past decade, DMA\u2019S have lived the dream. The Australian alternative rock band has amassed an enviable fanbase in the United Kingdom, their spiritual home. They\u2019ve landed spots on the biggest stages. Awards have come their way, including an ARIA for best group in 2023. Explore DMA’s See […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2104180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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