DMA’s: “There are a lot of similarities between country and Britpop”

Following the release of their self-titled fifth album, DMA’s guitarist Matt Mason has spoken to NME about returning to their roots and channeling the spirit of 2016 debut ‘Hill’s End’. ‘DMA’s’ was released on August 21 and marks the third UK Top 10 album in a row for the Sydney trio, completed by vocalist Tommy O’Dell and guitarist Johnny Took. It comes in the wake of a 10th anniversary tour of ‘Hill’s End’ that saw the group celebrate the record across the UK, including two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton and two nights at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse. Making ‘DMA’s’, Mason told NME, was an exercise in stripping things back to the “imperfect” and DIY-minded energy that filled their first record. “You start to pick things apart more as you mature as an artist and I don’t think that’s always a good thing,” he said. “So [it was about] putting ourselves back in the headspace where we weren’t doing that and we weren’t trying to perfect things.” He continued: “There are a lot of vocal takes on the album that are just the demos. We would go back to re-record them and it would just completely kill the vibe. So we just tried not to overanalyse everything, even though I am a bi...