EXCLUSIVE: DMA’s star Matt Mason has teased that the Aussie rockers could be gearing up for a collaboration with Spice Girls legend, Melanie C, after a rather unexpected interaction with the singer
Melanie C could be gearing up for a collab with Aussie rock trio, DMA’s, after meeting them at a UK festival(Image: Instagram/dmasmusic)
Melanie C could be adding another exciting collaboration to her back catalogue. The Spice Girls star bumped into DMA’s backstage at Neighbourhood Weekender this summer, and it’s fair to say that she’s a fan of the Aussie rock trio.
This week, The Voice Aus contestant Cris J performed a cover of DMA’s hit track Delete, prompting coaches Melanie, Ronan Keating, Kate Miller-Heidke, and second-chance coach Tones and I to hit their buttons, securing Cris a place in the competition.
Speaking to the Mirror, Matt said: ” Someone sang one of our songs on the show as a contestant, and Mel C was a judge on it, and she loved the performance. I feel we’re definitely on her radar. We ran into her the other day, and her husband has connections to Sydney.”
When asked whether they had managed to lock in a collab with the star, Matt said: “Yeah, maybe – we’re thinking of doing another cover with Triple J – we really like the song she does with Bryan Adams [When You’re Gone]. I’m sure it will happen, let’s manifest it.” The band are currently riding on a high after their self-titled, fifth studio album landed at Number One on the Australian Album Charts, and Number Nine on the Official UK Album Charts.
” When it first came out, it was a massive relief,” Matt said. He added: “It’s by far, from tip to tail, the longest amount of time we’ve spent making an album.” The group, consisting of Matt, Thomas O’Dell and John Took, all worked behind the scenes on the record, including in the production process.
“There was kind of a lot riding on this one; we put most of our own energy into it,” he said. Matt went on to explain that he and his bandmates had initially been “worried” about how it would be received after spending around a year creating the record, rather than a month.
“Our new label was very generous with their deadlines,” he laughed. And after several weeks in the UK, Matt says landing the top spot in Aus will make the plane ride home “so much sweeter”. While the band are hugely successful, it’s their first Number One record at home. He said: “ We’ve had a few sorts of wins over the years, but we never had a number one. So, to sort of be able to celebrate that with our label, and like that kind of extended team, has been really fun. The label puts in so much work, and you have such a close relationship.”
Rather than working with a larger production team, the trio opted to keep the work in-house, which they considered the “most important” thing. In recent years, the music industry has undergone a major shift, with more artists becoming heavily involved in producing their own material thanks to new technology.
“When they’re demoing their songs, a lot of the time, the demos are used directly on the final album,” Matt explained. He went on to add: “That means that artists are having a bit more control in the sound of their albums.” Kicking off their new album is the track El Alamein, which Matt says is one of his favourites on the record.
The track narrowly missed out on being a single, but the lads felt strongly about giving the track the chance to shine. “It does harken back to our earlier days, so I think it sort of sets the tone for the album,” he commented. The track listing is something all three members quickly agree on. “You don’t want to bunch all the slow songs together, and you want to end on a bit of a high,” he said of the decision.
But while many would assume the decision took place in the studio, Matt explained it was more likely to have taken place over WhatsApp. And another favourite of Matt’s is Emailz, the sixth song on the record. “There’s quite a bit of dissonance in the verse, which is something that we haven’t really done,” he said, adding: “Chordally and like harmonically, there’s some quite jarring moments in there, and that’s not something that DMA’s has done much of and something that I’ve always been a fan of and tried to get through.”
He added: “The fact that that made it on the record, for me, is a nice thing, because I love those sort of sounds, you know, it’s not always appropriate for this band. So I feel like having… It’s almost… there’s sort of almost like some sort of cinematic, kind of jarring moments in that song.”
We caught up with Matt just after the group finished a tour of the UK, performing intimate in-store sessions to just a few hundred fans, rather than thousands. While the band famously don’t really talk on stage, the acoustic shows have been the perfect opportunity for them to get up close and personal with fans and chat between each song.
“That’s been really nice to actually speak on stage, because usually we would just let the music and the songs do the talking,” he said. The band had also considered doing an “An Evening With” tour, speaking about the band’s origins as well as a half-show acoustic performance. Their in-store tour has been so successful that they were forced to add two more dates in January.
Next year, however, they’re kicking off a mammoth tour across the UK and Ireland, starting on February 1 in Southampton, before concluding in Dublin on February 20. “The thing about getting to like your fifth album is that you have such a large amount of songs to choose from,” Matt said of the upcoming tour.
Reflecting on choosing a setlist, he revealed: “ You can kind of go through each album and like, you know, the set becomes like… The set becomes very exciting when you have such a large amount of music to choose from. It’ll be fun choosing that setlist, because we can kind of play some singles from all the albums, and… Yeah, I think it’s probably going to come together quite easily, really, it becomes quite obvious what songs you should play.”
These include singles from their most recent album, as well as singles from previous records. But there won’t be hours in the rehearsal studios; instead, the band will probably rehearse just once or twice. “When the tour gets going, it’ll kind of fall into place. But because we’ve been doing it for so long, it’s all kind of muscle memory,” he said. adding: “We’ll play music together, but as we’re preparing for a tour, we don’t, I think we’re going to sort of take it up a level with the production and maybe get some physical things on stage.”
Looking back on his career, Matt says that while the band are not “completely different”, things have changed due to wives and children, as well as growing up. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is how to capture creativity. How best to take advantage of my creativity and productivity.”
He added: “I’m a much more like chilled, introverted person than I thought I was. When we were starting off, it was kind of just like this big, kind of crazy time, and I’ve just kind of realised that I just actually just need to chill out, and that’s what works best for me.”
DMA’s by DMA’s is available now via Sony and RCA UK.
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