The UMA, comprised of vocalist Phil Marsh, guitarist Daniel Jones, and bassist Benjamin Degg, are a pop-rock band from Shropshire, England. Earlier this month, the band had released their new song “D.O.A.” which they say represents everything they do as a band. Daniel had this to say about the track:
“The single romanticises the idea of reflecting on the blossoming points in a relationship. It’s about realising how, and why, all relationships appear go through a stage of plateau. D.O.A. is the point of reflection in this time and, to a degree, an open reminder to yourself that something can always be done to break the mold.”
Learn more about the writing process behind “D.O.A.” and what the future has in store for The UMA below.
Hello! For those who might not know about The UMA, how would you describe your sound? And, what’s a song of yours that you would recommend to a first time listener?
Hello! I’d probably describe it as the moment you’re on a beach with a beer and the sun starts to dip a little. You kind of get all of those nice vibrant pink, purple and yellow colours around you and you just feel great… unless you’re living in England and it’s constantly raining (but I guess that’s where the rockier side comes in haha).
I think our sound falls pretty comfortably somewhere in the middle of pop and rock music. We tend to ramp it up or down depending on what mood we’re in at the time or what we’ve been listening to recently but, overall, somewhere in the middle of the two.
Sat here now I’d probably say D.O.A. I think that’s the song that most represents everything we do throughout our band. It’s got all of the pop, rock and chilled house elements we try and put in all of our music and also has this random nostalgic 80’s/90’s moment thrown in for good measure too. I love it! D.O.A. feels the love child of “Wake Up” and “Fire” and I guess for us it feels like the band we are at the minute.
The one year anniversary of the band’s creation was just a couple weeks ago, congrats on reaching that achievement! How do you feel as a group now compared to when you started?
Haha thanks! Time flies, eh? Despite everything that’s happened this year, it still feels like we’ve grown as a band. I think we’ve managed to get a really nice, dedicated fan base behind us and the people that do follow us are really engaged in what we do. That feels really good. We also a really strong team behind us too and that’s definitely help us feel like we’ve changed as a band.
I think more specifically, we’ve probably changed most as people. I think we’ve all grown individually and are probably all at the most settled points in our lives, which has really helped us make sense of things and write the songs we do. We’ve also grown as a unit as well… I mean, we were so tight anyway but I just feel like the struggles of the year combined with the work we’ve had to put in to sustain the band has made us closer.
Everything feels a lot different compared to where we were standing last year and we’re just gonna use all that experience to keep writing music.
What are you most excited about for the year to come?
I think I’m most excited to just be back in a venue knowing that we’re about to play a show. 2021 looked a hell of a lot different for us at the back end of 2020 and a lot of that has now changed because of the pandemic. It would be so easy for us to dwell on all of that but we just have to keep moving forward and take each opportunity as it comes. I think I speak for us all when I say I literally just want to play a show haha! I’m actually looking forward to packing my stuff away as well and being like ahhhh that was good. Although ask me 5 minutes after we’ve played the show and it’ll be a completely different story haha. I don’t like packing stuff away… Typical really.
I’d love to learn more about your latest single “D.O.A.”. How long did it take to create? What was your favorite part of the production process?
The skeleton of D.O.A came together in a day if I’m remembering it right. We went into the studio and were listening to a lot of recent pop bands, as well as some of the likes of Justin Timberlake. We were just really in the mood to write something that screamed pop but also wanted to bring our rougher side into things as well. The verses came together really easily! It originally sounded like the intro to Monkey Wrench by The Foo Fighters because we used this synth to replicate the vocal melody. It was weird but was also really cool haha.
From there onwards, everything just really fell into place and it was probably one of the easier songs that we’ve written. I was always against having a guitar solo in anything as well, like I would always shut down the idea. But I was listening to The Band Camino a lot at the time and I was like well those guys make it sound sick so why can’t we. So we just whipped us this little solo and it sounded sick. It’s not gonna make your eyebrows melt off your face or anything but it’s just a perfect little 8 bar dreamy lick. At least I think it is haha, you might think it sucks!
My favourite part of the process was playing around vocally. We started experimenting with a load of different harmonies and pulled some vocoders in there too. That’s when I really started to fell the lift and warmth in the song.
As the song is about relationships “going through a stage of plateau” as Dan puts it, have you personally gone through this experience in your relationships? How were you able to move forward?
Yeah, absolutely! It doesn’t just reference relationships in the romantic sense, I guess it’s just about relationships as a whole… so we’ve all been through that to some degree. I’ve definitely been through it romantically and I ended up single haha. I took a lot away from those experiences though and learned that you just need to water the grass that you have rather than chasing a new idea that doesn’t even exist. I guess without all of those failures, you never learn and you just continue to stumble through life with the same approach you always had.
I don’t feel like I’ve ever been in a stage of plateau in my current relationship. If things ever feel fragmented it’s normally because I’m just being a miserable so and so haha. So I guess I moved forward by realising to hit the pause button, appreciate the things that I have around me and put the energy in to make things work.
Do you have any advice for someone who’s in a similar situation?
I would just say that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Whether that’s romantically and you’re picturing yourself in a completely different life or whether it’s in a friendship and you’re picturing yourself without that person. 9 times out of 10 we just envisage the good parts of a new life and just completely sideline everything else that comes with it. I’ve been so much happier since I’ve recognised how good I have it and if people can learn how to put time and energy into making something work, rather than running away from their problems, they will be too. But don’t hold me accountable for it if you’re not.
All of your previously released songs are so catchy and upbeat. I’ve had “Wake Up” on repeat since discovering this group. Your about section on Soundcloud says that you make “illustrative, feel-good music”, but I’m curious if you’d ever release a more somber track in the future?
Yeah, absolutely! We love a cryer. It’s funny you asked that because we’re actually working on a couple at the minute. It kind of feels like that’s the missing part of the puzzle in terms of our set at the moment. We kind of just want a moment where everything just stops and chills out a little bit. I can’t really say when we’re planning on releasing anything but I’d like to hope that we get something of this caliber out early next year.
The UMA
