DMA’S explain the apostrophe in their band name at Laneway Festival 2020

While at St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Melbourne last month, NME Australia managed to catch up with DMA’S member Johnny Took on everything from their upcoming album to their uniquely punctuated band name. Watch the interview in full above.

Next month, DMA’S will release their third album ‘The Glow’, which they announced with the grand single ‘Life Is A Game Of Changing’. The track pays homage to ’90s rave sounds, marking a shift from the Sydney trio’s signature Britpop sound.

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“Working with [‘The Glow’ producer] Stuart Price was really great, because it allowed us to try stuff that was different from DMA’S,” Took told NME Australia writer Josh Martin. “We didn’t want to make a record that sounded like either of the first two did. As much as we love the jangly, pop melody guitar thing, which is still on this record in bits, it’s nice to be able to change it up and to work with someone of Stuart’s calibre who’s tremendously inspiring to work with as well.”

Took also revealed that mixing ‘The Glow’ was difficult. “There definitely was a lot more opinions on making this record,” he said. “A lot more – I wouldn’t say compromise, not compromise the parts, but a lot more compromise with each other, like going, ‘Okay, I’ll give you that one’ kind of vibe. Which we don’t really have. We’re pretty amicable as a band. But you know what? That’s probably a good thing. It means we still care.”

Last year, DMA’S toured the UK in support of Britpop icon Liam Gallagher. “He was doing arenas in Manchester,” Took recalled, “and watching him play in front of a home crowd like that was pretty incredible.”

Took also says though DMA’S hung out with Liam (they watched the Manchester Derby at the pub together), they still kept it quite low-key while on tour. “We kinda kept to ourselves a bit. You don’t wanna be the annoying support band backstage,” he said. “You just keep your head down and be cool.”

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NME Australia also took the opportunity to ask Took about the puzzlingly placed apostrophe in his band’s name. The punctuation in ‘DMA’S’ is, as nitpicky fans accurately note, not grammatically correct, Took acknowledged. But it serves other useful functions, like a “barcode” of sorts.

“It allows people to pronounce the name properly,” Took explained. “I kind of like that it’s rare – well, not rare, but because it’s incorrect, people don’t use it, so when people look up the band name it’s the only thing that comes up, really.”

NME Australia also chatted with Took about his first punter experience at Laneway, what he loves about his newly adopted city of Melbourne and his favourite band from Sydney (besides his own, of course). For all of that, watch the interview above.