We caught up with Tommy and Johnny of the DMA’s in a quiet Sydney pub shortly before the release of their sophomore LP For Now.

“When you rock up to a venue in Motherwell or something and 2000 tickets have been sold and you’ve never really heard of the place before, for me, that makes me feel lucky. I feel lucky that I’m doing it. How the hell did our music get out here?” DMA’s singer, Tom O’Dell muses.

The three-piece, whose music has travelled from their bedrooms in Sydney’s Inner-West across the world, have certainly achieved a trajectory that most indie-bands could only dream of – signed before playing a show, releasing a wildly popular EP, relentless touring, an acclaimed debut full-length, more touring, bigger venues etc etc… It’s the kind of stuff that could go to a young man’s head, though in person, they’re down-to-earth and chatty.

Their swelling status as one of the biggest Aussie exports in recent years combined with their trademark look of caps and baggy shirts, has made them recognisable characters around Sydney haunts. It’s something which they graciously accept comes with the territory.

“If you’re not up for it and you’re not prepared for it, it can be a bit weird but if your out and about, drinking or doing your thing, it’s totally fine. It’s when it happens when your going down the road in football shorts buying some milk and someone come up to you says something and it’s a bit weird,” O’Dell says

“I probably get it less than anyone else,” says guitarist Johnny Took. “Normally they’re younger kids, 18 or 19 year olds getting into bands and stuff. You think about people that you would meet people that you’d respect, you know, like when I was a kid and you’d meet people like that you’d hope they’d be appreciative. I find it kind of humbling.”

With all three members – O’Dell, Took and Matt Mason – writing and contributing songs there isn’t much space for egos. Putting the music first reigns as the dominant ideology, which works well for them, though when your working with creativity, clashing becomes an unavoidable but ultimately important factor.

“We have have conflicts and stuff and we usually resolve it reasonably quickly,” O’Dell says with a smile. “It means we care about it. For a band that has three songwriters I think we do pretty well in that regard.”

Having predominantly recorded their 2016 debut album Hills End themselves, the band enlisted producer and drummer from iconic electro band The Presets, Kim Moyes, to produce For Now. Though the relationship, which has also seen the two bands coming together to collaborate on a track for the new Presets album, only happened by chance.

“Originally we were going to do the record ourselves again, but the room that we had at our studio above The Lady Hampshire isn’t physically big enough to pull the kind of drum sounds that we need,” Took says. “Our manager Leon knew Kim through the industry and asked if he’d be interested in recording some drums for the record and basically we left him with the demos for a week and then he came back and said “I’d love to have more to do with this. Would you be interested in me producing the record?””

The lush production and use of synths and keys on For Now sees the DMA’s sonically bloom into a polished indie powerhouse, capable of writing anthemic pop tunes focussed around O’Dell’s soaring vocals and less reliant on grungey guitar sounds.

“I’d never worked with a producer before with singing so it was really good for me to do that. I learnt heaps from him. I think on a personal level my vocal performances are stronger than the last record. For me I’m happy with that side of it. They were recorded with more care I suppose.”

While tunes like ‘Time And Money’ and ‘Do I Need You Now’ have a near R’n’B flavour to them, it’s drum-heavy, dancey number ‘The End’ represents the biggest contrast to rockier singles ‘Dawning’ and title track ‘For Now’, though the boys aren’t so concerned with what DMA’s sound like so much as they value how they sound as a whole.

“I guess it really is what it is at the time. I think that’s why that song [‘The End’] popped up there even though it’s not even the newest song that was written for the record,” O’Dell says. ”It’s not something I spend too much time thinking about. I think you’d just get a headache trying to think about what you want to be like in the future.”

“Maybe at the time we were into putting a few more beats and synths down when we were making the record but in a years time we might want to strip it back and go more into distorted guitars, or more punky, who knows or maybe go the other way and go really electronica,” adds Took.

The band, who will be heading over to the UK to play a bunch of shows in April/May before heading back for their Australian tour, have just been announced as supports for Liam Gallagher’s concert at Finsbury Park – a stage that has hosted some of the biggest names in British music such as Pulp, The Stone Roses and New Order. It’s a nod from a well publicised influence-turned-admirer of the band, which the group are excited about, but it’s not why they do what they do.

“Being respected by your peers or people you respect in music is really important but you’ve just got to be happy with what you’re doing and that’s more important. I think some people get hung up about trying to impress people or getting peoples tick of approval,” O’Dell says.

For Now is littered with honesty and maturity, it captures the bands indisputable ability to deliver faultless pop songs which will undoubtedly enamour fans from Newtown to Motherwell.