ROX-TV chops it up with Australia’s own DZ DEATHRAYS. We discuss the band history, releases, touring, and much more. Don’t miss it!

Welcome to the ROX-TV website. Tonight, I have a real treat for the readers. Coming to us from across the planet, we have the DZ Deathrays here to chop it up. Before we get too far into the weeds, I like to lay a little foundation for people getting turned onto you guys for the first time. You guys are from Brisbane, Queensland. Can you tell the readers from Detroit and America what your hometown music scene is like?

Heyo! Thanks for having us. Brisbane is like a big small town, there’s a few million people but a pretty small tight music scene. Because of that it’s quite eclectic, very friendly and consequently quite supportive. People from all genres and sizes of bands seem to get along and party together which is something I didn’t realize didn’t happen in many other cities around the world til we started touring.

I enjoy talking to groups and getting the back history before things really got going. Can you talk a little bit about how the group came together? What were the earlier years like when things were forming up? How were those house party shows?

So originally Shane and I first met and started hanging out together in Bundaberg which is a small town north of Brisbane which had no where really for original bands to play at all except house parties. So we moved down to Brisbane for university and a little while later started a band called Denzel. We lost our drummer so I jumped on drums and we shortened the name to DZ. We were pretty disheartened from the lack of success with Denzel and the shitty pub gigs to no one so with DZ we just went back to doing house parties for fun. We got a bunch of songs together and then started getting actual gig offers so decided it was time to go all in and give it another proper shot and before we knew it we had an agent, then a manger and a national tour all in the space of like a fortnight. 

I like speaking with artists about their relationship to music and how it developed from the earlier years. Individually or collectively, when did music become important to you? How old were you when the music set you on fire? (Perhaps a particular band or song set it off?)

I always had good music around in my house because my mum was a big Pink Floyd /Moody Blues fan but it didn’t click til I was like 10 and bought a shitty Walkman from a garage sale. Then my cousin gave me my first album which was Smash by the Offspring on cassette. 

How long was it from the time that you got interested in music, till the point where you wanted to make your own stuff? What did that first song look like?

It wasn’t until later in high school for me, I was tired of getting hurt skateboarding so ended up hanging out learning guitar with some mates at lunchtime. Then on the weekends we’d go to house parties and some of those friends bands (Including Shane) would play covers at them. 

DZ Deathrays first recording was an EP called “Ruined My Life” which was captured entirely at a house party. It had some fire tracks like “Yeah”, “Teeth”, and my favorite from the release “The Mess Up”. Would it be fair to say that the video for “The Mess Up” captured a moment in time for the band? With almost a million views on YouTube, why do you guys think the song and video resonates with so many people? (I fucking love it and watch it when I’m having a night)

Close but our first recording was an ep that we actually never released (probably for the best hah). Then we went and recorded Ruined My Life with Cam Smith (Tape//Off) in his bedroom. We recorded parts of the next EP Brutal Tapes at a house party mainly cause we were broke and paid our friends in beers if we could use their mics and cameras. That’s where the film clip for Radsolar was also shot. 

The Mess Up was also another “what can we make with fuck all money?” approach. We sometimes still play that song and to see all the parodies come from it is awesome. Never thought I’d be so proud of us getting hammered and vomiting on camera…

In 2011, DZ Deathrays dropped the EP “Brutal Tapes”. The recording jumps off with “Rad Solar” which has a gnarly sound. It’s a high speed burn. “Gebbie Street” is fucking dope and puts me somewhere between wanting to get drunk and getting into a street fight. I really dig “Cops Capacity”. The video is like K9 Cops meets “The Bad Lieutenant”. Did you shoot the video in New York? Who came up with the video concept? Did you guys have a riot shooting this or at least a good laugh?

So we had met these two directors/film lord Extraordinaire’s/brothers: Adam and Nick Hayes in New York on our first time over there. We became good friends with them and they came up with all of it! They even found someone to make the suits that fit our tiny budget. We were on tour in the USA at the time and literally only had time to pass through NY for like 2 hrs to film our bit in the clip before having to keep on going up to like Philly or somewhere close to play that night. They also shot the clip Pollyanna for us. They are legends.

In 2012 you released DZ’s first full-length album “Bloodstreams”. It took a couple weeks to record and hit the UK in mid 2012. The album got noticed by NME and Pitchfork Media. The album is great with more raw energy and vibration. I won’t lie, the album puts me in a heavy party mode. Like trouble is just around the corner and a case of beer into the night. Can you talk a little bit about the recording process for this album? You guys put it together in two weeks. How were the studio sessions?

We recorded it in Brisbane with Neil Coombe and Richard Pike (PVT) in Neils home studio. It was great, we had been touring the songs for like a year or two so we they were pretty road tested but we still made a few adjustments. Richard and Neil were great to work with and we were just so grateful to actually get the opportunity to record an album. I just remember having a lot of laughs with the guys during it. We even took a day off midway through so Richard could play a big music festival with PVT which was awesome. 

In 2014 you dropped “Black Rat”. Again, you guys pulled it off in two weeks. It was described as an album that found it’s place around 9pm. DZ toured the UK in April of that year. What was the tour like? Any crazy shit pop off on the road?

We toured Black Rat more than any other record. We did it for nearly 3 years all over the world where ever anyone would let us and where ever we could afford to go even if it meant sleeping in car parks or on peoples floors. We played everything from castles in Europe to stadiums in Australia with the foo fighters. Made a lot of great friends and lost a lot of brain cells touring that record. 

In 2017, you guys dropped a series of singles including “Shred for summer”, “Bad Influence”, and “Total Meltdown”. They would all be included on your third album release “Bloody Lovely”. In February of 2018 the album hit number 4 on the ARIA charts and hung on for a couple of weeks. I believe that’s the equivalent of the Billboard Charts here in America. What was it like to hit so high? Did you guys celebrate the success or was it back to business as usual? Can you tell the readers a little bit about Triple J?

Yeah they are but it’s also a much smaller market so like we weren’t like rich rockstars or anything because of it. It was literally only like around 2000 sales or something haha. So it was an awesome ego boost for us and our team for a bit but nothing really changed that much especially financially. Our shows started to get busier which was what we’ve always been more interested in I think. Also just really grateful to be able to put out what we thought was our best album and people got to hear it and Triple J helped us a lot with that. They are a huge national radio station which is the biggest alternative to commercial radio. 

DZ released the fourth studio album “Positive Rising: Part 1” in August of 2019. There’s a dope video for “Still no change”. I really dig “Year of the dog” as well. “Nightmare Wrecker” is another burner. How did the recording process go with this album? Where was the band mentally during this release? (shit going good, bad, whatever the vibe was during this time)

This was the first record we did with our new guitarist Lachlan so we were officially a 3 piece! You can tell from all the extra shredding on our records from here on out haha. Lach also was now writing for the band which was awesome cause it brought a lot of new ideas and material with it hence why we had to split it into 2 records. We recorded it with one of my old Uni mates Miro Mackie in his LA studio which was so much fun. I think we were all quite comfortable with where the band was at, we could play our instruments pretty competently and we just had fun with it really. Again we knocked it out in 2 weeks.

“Positive Rising: Part 2” dropped on July 9th, 2021. COVID really fucked up shit in America and I’m assuming you had it just as bad. How did dropping an album during a pandemic go? I’m assuming all the live venues were shut down? Did this affect the roll out or was it something that you guys just took in stride?

Well yeah it fucked us pretty hard. We are still literally in the middle of trying to just finish the Australian tour for this record now but we all currently have COVID so have had to postpone some dates yet again!! So we are just gonna move on pretty much after this tour and unfortunately we will have to skip the rest of the world on this record and get back overseas with a new album to tour because too much time has just disappeared to covid. 

You guys have done well at the AIR awards, being nominated and winning several times. The same could be said for the ARIA awards, which you guys have been nominated five times, winning twice. Can you describe what it’s like when people really wake up an start paying attention to your music? How did it feel to be awarded for your creations musically?

Super surreal. It’s the sort of thing you would occasionally fantasize about when you first start playing music wondering where it will take you. Still weird that a band our size has won those things but very grateful to be included because we know it’s only a matter of time before people move on and we get lost along the wayside. But we never set out to win anything so we’ll just keep doing our thing regardless.

Do you have any advice for the kids out there, somewhere…in a garage and thinking about going all in with the music? One piece of advice perhaps, what to do? What not to do?

Make sure you’re doing it for fun. There’s fuck all money in it for the majority of musicians and bands that aren’t friends first never last the distance. Be kind to everyone and try leave each place better than you found it. Also if you’re the opening band and no one knows you don’t play 45 mins and bore everyone. Always leave the crowd wanting more not having seen too much. 

It would be great to see you guys in Detroit. Any plans for heavy touring in the future, perhaps in the US? I see you’ve got some shows booked currently. How does it feel to be back on the road?

We’re figuring out how to release the next record and get back to touring overseas for next year with a new album because this last touring cycle sucked thanks to Covid. So we definitely want to come back to the US next year. I love touring over there!! 

Thanks for the opportunity to interview you guys. It’s been an honor to chop it up with you. Before we go, does DZ Deathrays have anyone they’d like to shout out? (anyone or anything)

My pleasure, thanks for taking the time and interest in us to write some well researched questions! Shout out to that bowling bar in Detroit that had the music venue above it.

Was it Magic Stick Lounge? First place there we got to play in Detroit with Bass Drum Of Death. (Also nearly Death Grips too but they pulled out last minute… classic) 

 

So there it is. I’d like to thank the DZ Deathrays for coming to the ROX-TV universe to rap with us about their music and hitting on everything in between. Australia has a great music scene and I encourage anyone in the Murder Mitten or America for that matter, to get outside the box and dig on other scenes around the world. Australia has some really great bands and they’ve been around for more than a minute, dropping fire music. I’ve spent many nights lost on YouTube and when I came across the Australian scene, it was like a breath of fresh air. I’m not really super happy about the turn the American sound has gone in last couple of years and to hear bands playing with passion and that party driving sound…it really takes me back personally to the late 1990’s. When I hear these songs, it takes me back to when America was on fire and great bands were pumping out dynamite. I’m so glad somewhere in the world, there are bands tending the light. DZ Deathrays, Violent Soho, The Dune Rats, and Skegss have been keeping the shit moving and they deserve their proper due. Don’t be square, check these bands out.

Well, that’s about all the time we have for tonight. Thanks for reading. Keep coming back because we are constantly on the grind, looking for interesting shit to bring the readers. Be good to yourself, be good to strangers, and I will catch you all on the flipside…

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV.com Editor

kidvicious810

shepard2909@hotmail.com