DENM nonetheless remembers listening to Chic on the radio as a kindergartner. The SoCal native, born Mac Montgomery in 1990, grew up with songs like “Santeria,” “What I Received,” and “Backyard Grove” serving because the soundtrack to his life. Simply 6 years outdated when lead singer Bradley Nowell died of an unintended drug overdose, DENM didn’t instantly grasp the darkish circumstances surrounding Nowell’s demise. Frankly, it may have been DENM’s story, too.
As a teen, DENM bounced round from his hometown of San Diego to Santa Barbara, the place he was kicked out of his mom’s home for his self-destructive conduct. Medication and alcohol have been already omnipresent, and he began happening a treacherous highway.
“My household has lots of that,” he tells SPIN. “My aunt died from heroin and I used to be in my third rehab by 16. I struggled with heavy habit my entire life. It’s not essentially one thing that I ever wished to do. I’ve 4 children myself and I’m making an attempt to stay round for the lengthy haul for them. However I perceive it.”
Admittedly an “offended” child, DENM sought solace in music and realized to play guitar at 14. His first group, FMLYBND, carried a extra different, indie rock sound than the stoner-friendly, reggae-flavored tunes he’s making nowadays. FMLYBND was short-lived and he quickly ventured down the EDM highway. However it was a canopy of the 1992 Chic track “Badfish” that started to steer him in the correct course, and outlined the music he was destined to make.
The parallels between Chic and DENM are uncanny. DENM’s newest launch, Scorching N Glassy, may have been written within the Nineties. His voice, tinged with a sun-kissed rasp, screams SoCal and has a approach of transporting the listener to a different period, when the area’s bands like No Doubt, Chic, and the Descendents have been in full bloom.
“Chic was clearly an affect, however I suppose extra so simply seeing how Bradley used the cultures round him and the sounds he heard to mix into one thing particular and distinctive,” Montgomery says. “That’s extra what I’m going after, like a distinct chef cooking with related components being from related areas.
“The sounds, landscapes, and persons are all nonetheless very a lot the identical. I really feel like I’m carrying the torch of the Southern California sound but in addition making sincere music from my coronary heart that’s not essentially making an attempt to be anything however that.”
And that pureness comes throughout in his music. As his supervisor Adam Stroul notes, “Each artist that I’ve labored with on a administration degree, it’s by no means felt like this. I’m in love with each facet of this human being. Whether or not it’s on the human degree or an artist degree, the best way he strikes and every part he says carries lots of positivity.”
Even the best way DENM views the music business is a refreshing change of tempo from artists chasing streams and chart numbers. Whereas there’s a way he is aware of his music ought to have a fair bigger viewers, particularly coming off a tour with Nowell’s son, Jakob, the place he had an opportunity to carry out for large crowds, he’s taking part in the lengthy recreation.
“We’re simply making music we like and I’m not taking a look at charts,” DENM says, bluntly. “I’m not listening to what’s popping and the way younger everyone is. I’m having enjoyable doing this. I really feel like I received the lottery by having the ability to play music as an actual job. I get to go surf. I get to spend time with my household, after which when it’s time to work, it’s time to work.”
He continues, “Typically talking, it looks like hits are made and manufactured and it doesn’t matter. You could possibly be the most important artist on the earth making the worst music or you might be the smallest artist on the earth making the very best music. It looks like lots of leisure has develop into propaganda versus artwork and I don’t actually take care of any of that.”
DENM’s priorities have shifted vastly since starting his music profession. Coming from a household with out disposable earnings, he admits he used to battle with comparability and thought he wished one thing completely different out of life.
“It was tremendous inspiring seeing these younger individuals dwelling these prosperous lives in L.A., and I used to be sort of starstruck by all of it,” he admits. “However by the years, I’ve simply re-grounded myself, tapped again into who I’m, spent much more time within the ocean and I’ve a way more clear head than I used to.”
Now, his focus is on working his new label, Slum Seaside Data, and making music on his personal phrases—each his personal and different artists—whereas taking good care of his household.
“I see lots of huge artists being actual fucking depressing and I’m making an attempt to go be glad,” he says. “If my music touches sufficient individuals to have the ability to present a life for my children, to have a roof over their heads, I’m like, ‘Hell yeah.’ The purpose is to have the ability to have just a little piece of land, and simply maintain making music and alluring individuals out to return heal, develop, and specific their final freedom of their inventive methods. It’s our remedy.”
Scorching N Glassy, launched in March, boasts options from Cypress Hill’s B-Actual, Barely Stoopid, and Pepper. Slum Seaside Posse/DENM band members Benny Ranks and Jesse James Pariah additionally make appearances, giving the undertaking an immensely wealthy, SoCal taste. They didn’t push a specific single from the album. As an alternative, they opted to let the followers dictate the tracks. Based mostly on their suggestions, DENM and his group determined which songs would get movies. The primary one, “Little Love,” dropped on July 17.
“I wished to see through all of the streaming platforms what songs individuals have been vibing with,” he explains. “We selected the primary 4 songs primarily based on that: ‘Little Love,’ ‘I’ll Be Gone,’ ‘Swimming Classes’ and ‘Trip Gradual.’”
Because the album continues to bubble, DENM has remained affected person as an alternative of worrying about what number of models he’s offered or getting that one viral hit.
“I feel it’ll develop,” he says of the album. “It has legs and I feel it’s extra about preparation meets alternative. The reside reveals are there. I’m not in any hurry. I’ve truthfully seen so many individuals come and go on this business. I’ve been doing it full time for nearly 15 years now. I’ve by no means had successful for myself, however I’ve written different individuals’s songs which have accomplished effectively. I’ve gotten to win a Grammy from producing a file that received.”
That Grammy Award win got here in 2022 for his work on SOJA’s Magnificence within the Silence, which received Greatest Reggae Album, a monumental second for DENM. With Scorching N Glassy, an upcoming Slum Seaside Posse file, touring, and Slum Seaside Data, there are numerous extra of these moments on the horizon. Within the interim, he’ll be on the seashore, absorbing the solar and relishing the truth he’s created for himself.
“We’re bringing the correct elements of the perspective again from the roots,” he says. “We’re not making music essentially for different individuals. We all know it blesses different individuals, however that is actually for us.”
