We’re only into March but it must already be one of the best years for the DMA’s given the announcement of their largest Australian tour to date, release of fantastic singles and preparation for their upcoming British tour. Damian Robinson caught up with DMA’s frontman Tommy O’Dell to find out more.
The lead singles from your forthcoming fourth studio album, How Many Dreams?, have been really impressive. Is this a good indication of the sound of the album?
Thanks, yeah, I think so, there’s some moments of the album which are quiet dancey and some songs that are a bit more rock and roll. Maybe the biggest difference from what’s already out, and what’s on the album, are some ballads. But essentially this is us really trying to be a rock and roll band and put our heart and soul into the songs and I think we’ve managed to do that really well.
So you’re excited to get the new album released and tour it?
Very much so. The last album was affected by Covid which wasn’t helpful but we took our time with this record and we’re really looking forward to getting out and performing these songs live.
Some of the new material sees you challenging what we normally expect from your vocals, are they easy to perform live?
You’re right, but what we want to do is to challenge ourselves and grow as musicians and as a band. So we’re partly rehearsed at the minute but we’ll fine for the tour and by then hopefully we’ll also be better as a band and then ready for the next challenge.
When you played Newcastle’s Rock N Roll circus event last June you seemed to be one of the highest anticipated bands playing the show. Do you feel any pressure with that kind of reputation as a great live band?
Not really no, we always put the challenge on ourselves anyway to make every show as good as it can be and try not to overthink it. We’re a rock and roll band trying to put everything we can into our shows and hopefully that comes across. Touring can be tough but we’re very lucky to play live and play our tunes and we take that seriously.
And anything you’d say about a North East crowd?
I love playing the Northeast and can’t wait to play Middlesbrough again, we played it years ago and we loved the venue we played in which was really friendly and had some great people. I never thought it would take that long to get back again but yeah we can’t wait.
DMA’s play Middlesbrough Town Hall on Saturday 15th April: Middlesbrough. New album How Many dreams is out on the 31st March.