Get to know: Adelaide indie-pop sweethearts, DRESS CODE

Adelaide sweethearts DRESS CODE have been carving up the music scene with their delicious indie-pop stylings. The band have cut their teeth touring with hometown heroes TOWNS, Spacey Jane and Mosquito Coast.

The band have just dropped a dreamy new track, ‘Candy Heart’, and it has transported us to an existence where we are the stars of a pink colour-graded Netflix coming-of-age film.

“‘Candy Heart’ is a song about falling in love, and all the fear, uncertainty, and confusion that goes along with that,” frontman Oli Miller explains. “Love is weird and takes you by surprise sometimes, but there’s an almost childlike determination that parts the curtains of crushing anxiety and shows you the reason you drag yourself out of bed each morning. To feel loved and to help someone else feel the same, even when it’s hard. Life is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow but some people make it seem like a candy heart.”

To celebrate the release of the track, we asked the band a couple short and sweet get to know questions. Listen to ‘Candy Heart’ and check out what the band had to say below.

Listen: DRESS CODE – ‘Candy Heart’

How did your artist name come about?

I wish there was a cool story about hour name. Truth be told, Jayden (guitar) just said it and we thought it sounded cool. It looks nice written down, we’re a very visual band so the way it looks is really important to us.

How would you describe your music to your grandma?

This is tricky, I usually just go with poppy indie rock with a lot of guitars and synths. Dreamy sounds with big choruses.

Tell us about a few of your tracks; their meanings and what they’re about?

Our latest single Candy Heart is an ode to falling in love and all its intricacies. Letting yourself be happy despite all the complications that may get in the way of that, and living life to the fullest.

Deeper into our catalogue, Youth Culture is a dive into the way movies and TV have affected the way our generation interacts with each other and themselves internally. We dramatise moments in hindsight in order to make our lives feel more grandiose, like we see on tv. Thats not a negative thing, just something I’ve notice myself and my friends doing as we move through the early stages of adulthood.

Career highlight so far?

Last year we played a Christmas Festival and it was the first time the crows has sung so loud that I could stop singing for a bit and just let them go. That was a cool feeling, My mum saw it too and that made it even cooler. Seeing people getting into our songs really is the best feeling.

Fave non-music hobby?

I really love watching movies, that finds its way into our music a fair bit. I’d love to soundtrack a movie one day. Jack (bass) spends most of his time outside of the band filmmaking, him and our friend Tom Schaefer make all of our music videos together. As you can probably tell, most aspects of our lives find their way into the band somehow.

Whats on your dream rider?

An espresso machine

Dream music collaboration?

MGMT or Phoenix would be really cool, they’re both groups that are really good at pushing the envelope a little bit and we really admire that.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Still doing Dress Code, hopefully in a lot more places. I’d love to take the band overseas, being in a band is a really good way to visit a lot of places you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

Whats your go to karaoke song?

I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys

Who is your biggest musical influence?

Each member would probably have a completely different answer, but as a group we talk a lot about different production styles that we admire. Someone we look up to a lot is UK engineer Jonathan Gilmore. He’s produced a lot fo records that we love and we’re constantly referencing his production work.

How has your sound evolved since you began?

Massively, if you really dissect our band we’re really just a bunch of kids that grew up playing heavier music trying to write pop songs. We probably wrote and scrapped about an albums worth of songs before we even played our first show. Our first two singles had a very brit-pop, dreamy sound. And our latest releases have been very synth based. We’re a band that is always very keen to move on to the next thing, we really admire bands that never do the same thing twice.

Outside of music, what other creative outlets do you have?

Jack (bass) spends most of his time outside of the band filmmaking, him and our friend Tom Schaefer make all of our music videos together. As you can probably tell, most aspects of our lives find their way into the band somehow.