Redbrick Music’s Emma Gardner sat down with guitarist Johnny Took, who is currently in lockdown in Melbourne, to discuss the band’s new live album, a Britpop super tour and his ambitions to collaborate with Joni Mitchell.

How has lockdown affected you as a band and how you write music? Has it changed the creative process?

When lockdown happened, we were working on the UK end and given that they have alternate seasons to us in Australia, it was like chasing summers. It’s good work being able to play both, but to be honest, since 2014 we haven’t really stopped. We’ve just been releasing record after record. It’s been pretty great, but there’s a part of me that has enjoyed the break if I’m completely honest. It’s been really good, for example I’ve been recording at home; given that we were always on tour I’ve never really had time to refine other facets of our music like production and different instruments and learn new things. It’s been really amazing to reassess and work on other aspects of our music that often get away from you when you’re on the road all the time. 

Why have you decided to release a live album? What is the significance?

I think it’s because we’re all being creative in the pandemic, and that Brixton gig was so special for us because it marked the start of the Glow album touring cycle. We were playing these songs live and gearing up to get into that process. I guess, like everyone, we’ve had to adjust so asked ourselves what we can do to be as creative and engaging as possible. We streamed that show to our fans when it first came out and had interactive chats online with the fans. It’s just nice to do something a bit different, and to a lot of people it was the last live show they saw before lockdown.

How has the pandemic changed the way you perform, in the sense of, do you think it will change the way you perform for good?

I think everyone is just winging it at the moment! I’m hoping we’ll get back to normal, but we might as well do what we can wherever we are. As I mentioned, we are just working on different facets of our music so hopefully when we can get back to it, we’ll have more stuff to release and showcase on tour.

Following on from that, how do you think the pandemic has changed the way you engage with fans in general?

We have had to get creative and engage them differently, we need to give fans a reason to still want to listen to our music. I don’t think people should stop releasing music because of the pandemic, that should continue. I think so much of promoting a band’s music is in the live show these days. Getting information out to people about the music and new releases is in the live aspect of it, like playing festivals. It’s changed, but you just have to take it on the chin and hope that things can start up again as soon as possible. 

How do you react to your fanbase? Would you say that you have them in mind when creating new material?

I think it’s a bit of both. You don’t start out thinking that way. You just write music and hope that people will like it. As the experience has changed, perhaps subconsciously we have them in mind. 

What do you think it is about the DMAs that has made them so successful in the UK? Do you have a favourite place to play in the UK?

We draw influence from a lot of iconic bands from the Britpop scene. I think this really resonates with people in the UK. We just try to write good songs and are very inspired by this era. We draw influence from everywhere and other genres of course, but they’re definitely fundamental to our style. 

I think all places in the UK are good. The north is particularly great because the fans get so rowdy!

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?

I honestly don’t know! I didn’t do particularly well at school but I’m sure I would have worked it out. You just have to find something that you like to do. If I hadn’t been a musician, I think instinctively I would still be writing songs. I would like to be an architect actually, designing crazy houses! I’m definitely not smart enough, but I love that idea.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

I think maybe Joni Mitchell, the Chemical Brothers or Kylie Minogue – all for different reasons! I think Joni Mitchell definitely, but that might be quite difficult because she has such a particular way of writing music.

If you could open a show for any artist, who would it be? 

Probably Blur, Oasis or the Verve, those would all be so cool because of the style of music and how that fits in with us as a band. If we were an electronic band, it would be the Chemical Brothers.

Finally, what would be one thing that you would like to change about the music industry?

I try not to think about that too much, I just try to go with what is around me. I think if you spend too much time on that you just get very frustrated. It’s out of your control. For example, if you were really successful back in the 70s, it’s a different world and different standards so you can’t really compare. With the internet, it’s a great time to be a musician because you can get your music out there just from sitting in your bedroom, it’s pretty cool. There are lots of good young producers coming into the industry that way, they just have their laptop and they’re sorted.

The DMAs new live album “Live at Brixton” will be available from March 5th.