In a biweekly series of features, we’re inviting Minnesota artists to introduce themselves to our audience. Today: DNM, a quartet comprising four artists who are all also busy with solo and collaborative projects spanning the Minnesota music scene. They are DeCarlo Jackson, Moise, Naél, and Joey Hays.

How the band came together

Naél: I have been playing in the music scene since, like, 2017. I met Moise and DeCarlo during that time period. We just kind of started jamming individually, and then eventually together.

Moise: I think my introduction to these guys kind of started with meeting DeCarlo and Nate [Naél] just in the scene. It started off as, again, jamming. And then Nate produced a song off my last record called “Gold Rush.” And then DeCarlo played on two songs on it: “Red Lights” and “Lime.” So that was kind of our collaboration period when it was just, like, working on each other’s stuff. But then [there was this] mutual feeling like, “oh, we should write our own stuff.” So that's how DNM came about to start with: doing songs, and really no name for the band. There was a lot of iterations of the name for the band. If you do some research, there's I think still a First Ave ticket link with the Heartbeat Boys as the name of the band.

DeCarlo Jackson: We all came to each other with completely different life experiences and different musical histories, and it's just been kind of cool trying to balance and weigh all of our unique talents. That's kind of the challenge of any band at the end of the day, but with this band, it's been particularly fun.

Naél: At the beginning, we were mainly just sitting around a computer, trying to produce music. So we weren't really thinking about live drums. But then once like the thought came across were like, “Oh, we need a drummer.” And DeCarlo was like, “Well, my friend Joey is like the best drummer I know, and he would be super about it.” So yeah, then DeCarlo introduced us to Joey and it’s worked out ever since.

Joey Hays: I started playing with these guys a few months before lockdown. I've known DeCarlo for, like, 12 years, and I've played in a few different projects with him over the years. I just kind of started bumming around their practice space, kind of pitching in when I could, and eventually they roped me into the whole deal. Now here we are.

How their sound and name evolved

Naél: It started from us just trying to figure out what each other listen to in our free time. Me and DeCarlo kind of come from an indie, punk background. You can just tell that by the bands that he's been in and the type of music that I'm making. Joey has a very eclectic sound in his drumming style, but he also excels in that indie-punk pocket.

Joey Hays: Yeah, that's been in my wheelhouse for, like, five years. I play with Sass, and Papa [Mbye] as well. I like to play loud.

Naél: Me, Joey, and DeCarlo all love Fall Out Boy.

Moise: I have more of an R&B, smooth and sensual vibe that I grew up with. Throw that in the mix, then you get the DNM sound.

Naél: We all listened to hip-hop and R&B on top of all that, so it's really just like the combo of the indie-punk side of it with the R&B influence as well.

Moise: DeCarlo is really good at making names for stuff. So he had a long notes list that he's maintained for years. He has this Notes list of literally hundreds of names that just come to his head, and he shared that with us. We came across the Heartbeat Boys and some other wacky names, but none of them felt right.

Then DeCarlo went on like a retreat with the Hippo [Campus] guys, and apparently somebody mentioned the acronym DNM. Then he when he came back from that retreat, we all linked up and that was one of the names that he had on the list. We're like, oh, that’s cool. That would make sense.

Joey Hays: It took me like a year of that being the band name for me to finally just look at the letters and be like, “Ohhhhhh.”

Naél: In our group chat, we threw Joey’s J in there and now it’s DJNM. That's the real band name. Part of the thought, too, is [that] we all wear a lot of denim - specifically DeCarlo - so we're saying, well, we can't get really get away from it. Let's embrace it and just kind of see where it goes.

On their latest singles and what’s next

Naél: We actually wrote “Falling Out” and the next single that we're going to put out, which is called “Blew It,” on the same day. They kind of both came from demos, and then we just ran through the vocals kind really quickly. So they both the demos had very similar kind of vibes, almost like two sides of the same coin. We ended up fleshing that out and then working on it in the studio with Jake Luppen.

“Falling Out” is kind of like an upbeat, higher-energy song. “Blew It” is more of an in-your-feelings song, talking about a relationship - whereas “Falling Out” is the type of song that you just want to like jam out to in the summer. We made [the video] in October with the director Sawyer Brice, who's been actually working [with] a lot of other artists videos in the city like Papa, Miloe, TYSM, Landon Conrath - a really awesome guy from Eau Claire. It was definitely a fun, fun ride.

Moise: We've been trying to grow the band's audience. I think the grassroots approach was where we kind of landed, because it’s just the four of us doing everything as far as like the social [media posts], the live arrangements, the production, all that stuff. It's really just us four, so the best way we thought to build the community is by playing shows and getting out there. That was the majority of our fall. Shows, a new single, and then DeCarlo’s going to go on tour behind Hippo Campus’s next record.

DeCarlo Jackson: That whole record has been years in the making now, especially because of Covid. We pushed it back a couple of times. It would be nice to be in a spot similar to Hippo Campus with any band, but it is nice [with DNM] taking a different route to the to the finish line.

Moise: Nate and Joey are going to keep being busy doing what they do. Whenever that wraps up, [we’ll] continue to put out more music. The bigger play is definitely an EP or album of some sort, but really, [there’s] no pressure because we're on our own timeline right now. A main focus is building.

Naél: All 100% independent.

Joey Hays: Playing the single game, just releasing singles intermittently, has been beneficial for a couple of groups I've noticed recently.

Naél: We do have about like six or seven songs right now that are 80% or more done…but it’s about putting the songs out in our own time, making sure we get the exposure that we want instead of just putting everything out there. In today's streaming day and age, you put out six, seven songs, people might only listen to one or two, and then the rest of it is kind of overlooked. We really like each one of the songs that we've made, so we want to make sure that we give them all their due.

At our live show we play most of our songs; half our songs that we're playing are unreleased. So to really get the full experience, you’ve just got to see a show.