Matt Wellham
After years of photographing and filming the London music scene, Matt’s now based in Sydney, Australia. A lover of the post-punk and alternative movement, he can usually be found in the grassroots venues, camera in one hand and a beer in the other.
Australia’s DZ Deathrays chat with us, teasing new music in 2026, exploring their roots and sharing their favourite Aussie bands
Hailing from Brisbane, DZ Deathrays have carved out a reputation as one of Australia’s wildest and most energetic rock bands. Formed by Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley back in 2008, they started out playing house parties and quickly graduated to tearing up festivals around the world.
With their signature blend of thrashy guitars and catchy hooks, DZ Deathrays have endured a long and banger-heavy career. During their London show in Blondies Brewery, I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss their new sound.
Matt: For any readers out there that may not be familiar with DZ Deathrays, how did you guys get started? What did that look like and how’s it evolved over the years?
Shane: It started out of a band Simon and I had called Denzel. It was essentially the same layout we have now, but Simon was on the guitar and we had another drummer. That drummer left and moved to France, so we thought “let’s just go as a two piece”. So that’s where DZ came from, because we used to call Denzel ‘the DZ’ as a little shortened thing.
That band was around for about two years or something before we became DZ Deathrays. As Denzel we struggled to get shows, so with DZ Deathrays we said “let’s not bother with trying to get club shows or trying to get support slots, let’s just do house parties and shit that’s fun for us.”
In the first year, we just played house parties and then out of that, we actually garnered more interest and we ended up doing bigger shows and getting offers. The first proper big offer we had was through a random meeting.
We went to a show for a band called Shy Child and there was a band called Wow, who supported them. In Wow, there was a booking agent called Bri and she was booking for the Crystal Castles tour in Australia, we got chatting and she added us to the list of potential support acts, right at the very bottom.
It turns out Crystal Castles went through all the different bands and saw that we were fans of them, and yeah, invited us on tour with them. That opportunity took us from playing shows to around 100 people in our hometown, to doing 1000+ capacity venues on a national tour.
Matt: So over the years you’ve done the packed out house parties to Australia’s biggest festivals. What are some of your favourite shows and audiences from the past? Are there any that really sticks out to you?
Shane: Back in the day we would play so many shows every year. I reckon there’s shows that are memorable for being kind of horrible, and then the shows where we fucking nail it, I can’t even remember because it’s like “shit did we just do that?”
There’s a show we did in Italy once, in Villafranca. It was in a castle and I think Franz Ferdinand headlined that night. That was an amazing place to be and it was our first time playing in Italy. That whole era of the band stands out as a really memorable time.
Festivals always give you good memories and memorable moments. The first time we played Reading was really awesome. Same with 2000 Trees, the UK really knows how to do festivals.
Supporting the Foo Fighters on their Australian shows was really special though. That was a whole other level; it’s pretty weird having Jack Black standing side stage shouting “you fucking rock, man.” Also, the Violent Soho shows back home. That tour was crazy because the lineup was a bunch of our mates and we’re all just huge music fans. Playing 2000+ venues in each city with your friends… yeah, that’s fucking crazy.
Matt: You guys have been going for years and your consistency to produce bangers is insane. How do you keep it so fresh and creative after so long?
Shane: When we first started the band, I was told by a producer “just never stop writing”. I stopped once while touring our first record. We were over here in the UK, back and forth to Europe and then over to the US. Once I got back home and started work on the second record I was like “fuck, how do I write songs again?”
So now I always try and continuously write music. That can be tough, I’ve got kids at home now and finding the time can be tricky, but whenever I get those moments to myself, I always sit down and write.
I spend a lot of time thinking about where I want to go sonically with each record too. I go back and listen to the old albums and see what worked on those because they’re what got people interested in us. So what was in those records that kind of piqued their interest? I want to make sure we don’t leave those people behind, so we look at how we can approach new songs in a fresh way that can have that throwback feeling for them.
Matt: Do you ever look back and surprise yourself on those records? Do you think “damn, how did I do that then?“
Shane: Yeah, sometimes I think I wish I had that song idea now, because I feel like we could nail it sonically better, but it is what it is. It’s cool that those songs are a snapshot in time for us. They’re who we were then.
Matt: Have you found your subject matter changing over the years? Do you feel like your music is growing and maturing with you?
Shane: I guess it hasn’t really changed that much over the years. I’m still singing about partying, but I think that I’m kind of reflecting on those days of being a bit looser and it’s more of a nostalgic look. Hopefully that resonates with people.
I do find myself writing about family and positivity now. I like this idea of almost trying to leave a message in some of the songs for my son as he grows up.
Matt: Has your son started to soak in music yet? Have you got him into anything specific?
Shane: Yeah, we’ll listen to stuff in the car and I’m starting to get him into Green Day and a few other bands, he recognises it straight away and starts head banging and stuff. So we might have a rocker in him.
Matt: Green Day was the gateway into rock music for so many people my age, it’s so sick to see that’s still happening for the next generation.
Matt: Jumping into the new music, you’ve released three singles this year so far, tell us about these new tracks and their inspiration.
Shane: I guess this album was a bit of a weird one. We pieced it together over a couple of sessions in the studio. We wanted to put something together that was leaning into the electro clash world a bit more. That’s what we grew up on and I want to bring a little bit of that to what we’re doing now.
Matt: It’s so sick to see the return of electro clash, I also grew up on that scene in the early 2000’s, so it’s really interesting to hear more artists talking about it again, particularly in the last couple of years.
Shane: The thing is I never stopped listening to that music. When you’re listening to that music in your early 20s, it’s quite a formative time in your life, right? You’re going out for the first time, you’re going to see gigs, you’re going to festivals, and those musical moments shape you forever.
I still listen to bands like Klaxons. That first record is just so cool. It’s actually kind of dark as well. There’s a band from Australia called Midnight Juggernauts who did a similar thing. They had this pulsating organ, super distorted and it had dancy rhythms but there was a darkness to it and I think that’s what people loved about it. It wasn’t glisteny pop music.
Matt: The first track you put out this year is called ‘First Night Fever.’ What is first night fever?
Shane: It’s a bit of an Australian localism.It’s that thing you do when you’ve got a long weekend of plans with your friends or family and you get there all excited on the first day and just go and completely blow yourself out. I just always thought it was funny and it would resonate with so many people.
Matt: That certainly resonates with me and every holiday I’ve been on since turning 18… You also just had a collab track with Berlin-based PABST, how did that come about?
Shane: It started on Twitter. I’m pretty sure I kept seeing them get tagged at the same time as us because I think they released their record the same time we released an album. I looked them up and I listened to ‘Crushed By The Weight Of The World‘. The first song started playing and I was like, “what the fuck I love this.” Like, I hadn’t had a band that just immediately resonated with me like that in a really long time.
And so we hit them up and asked if we could support them the next time they tour. They said sure, so we literally travelled over to Germany and jumped straight into a van with them. Then not long ago, Erik was like, “hey, I’ve got this song, do you want to do some vocals on it?” So I just got the mic up at home and sent it through.
Matt: With three singles out already, can we expect a new album soon?
Shane: We’ll make an announcement soon. All I’ll say is we might have something coming next year.
Matt: Switching focus to Australia, over the past couple of years there’s been some major festival and high profile artist cancellations. How would you describe the music scene over there at the moment?
Simon: It’s interesting because it’s just dance music at the moment. It’s funny coming over here now and seeing all the rock bands taking over summer festivals, but back home it’s just dance festivals that are killing it. But it’s just the way it goes right? It happens in cycles, rock used to do really well and I’m sure it’ll come back around soon.
Shane: The thing with Australia is that there are a lot of festivals too. With the cost of living, they just kind of imploded. It sucks to see, but with the cost of everything it’s hard for someone to pay like $500 for a ticket these days.
The lineups were becoming too similar too. Look at Laneway festival, which was one of the biggest successes in the last while. It’s because they had Charli XCX on there and everyone wanted to see Charli XCX on tour.
Lachlan: On the positive side, the metal scene is quite doing really well at the moment, which is awesome.
Matt: There does seem to be a particularly exciting crop of fresh talent coming out of Australia at the moment. Who are some bands that you think our readers should check out?
Shane: I’d say dust. They’re a really, really good band.
Simon: C.O.F.F.I.N is currently touring over here.
Lachlan: Split System is another great one.
Simon: These guys supporting us tonight, Battle Snake and Mannequin Death Squad. They’re both killing it.
Shane: Private Wives
Lachlan: dogworld
Shane: GT. They’re in that really sort of scuzzy punk sort of thing.
Simon: Drunk Mums are an absolute Aussie classic.
Matt: Sweet, thank you guys, there’s a few names in there I haven’t heard of so that’s my next week of music listening sorted.
Matt: You’re in the middle of a massive 24 stop UK/EU tour, what have been some of your favourite stops so far?
Shane: The shows in Czechia were really good. But the one that kind of caught me by surprise was this festival in Germany called Freak Valley. We got there and I was like “I don’t know if we’re sort of heavy enough for this.” It was like proper stoner doom with loads of old school rock guys everywhere. I just thought “are they going to get us?” But it absolutely went off. Everyone was head banging and going for it, so yeah, for me that was one of the cool ones.
We also did a festival in the Netherlands on an island. That was awesome, but no one had heard of us. I stopped during one of our songs, so people could sing in the gap and it was dead silent. I was like, okay, they have no idea who we are. But again, they went crazy and had a huge circle pit going and everything.
Matt: What’s next for DZ Deathrays after this tour?
Shane: We’ll take some time off and then gear up for our announcement that’s coming soon…
While you wait for DZ Deathrays upcoming announcement, check out their latest single ‘Sideways‘.
Photography by Matt Wellham
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