DENM still remembers hearing Sublime on the radio as a kindergartner. The SoCal native, born Mac Montgomery in 1990, grew up with songs like “Santeria,” “What I Got,” and “Garden Grove” serving as the soundtrack to his life. Just 6 years old when lead singer Bradley Nowell died of an accidental drug overdose, DENM didn’t immediately grasp the dark circumstances surrounding Nowell’s death. Frankly, it could have been DENM’s story, too.
As a teen, DENM bounced around from his hometown of San Diego to Santa Barbara, where he was kicked out of his mother’s house for his self-destructive behavior. Drugs and alcohol were already omnipresent, and he started going down a treacherous road.
“My family has a lot of that,” he tells SPIN. “My aunt died from heroin and I was in my third rehab by 16. I struggled with heavy addiction my whole life. It’s not necessarily something that I ever wanted to do. I have four kids myself and I’m trying to stick around for the long haul for them. But I understand it.”
Admittedly an “angry” kid, DENM sought solace in music and learned to play guitar at 14. His first group, FMLYBND, carried a more alternative, indie rock sound than the stoner-friendly, reggae-flavored tunes he’s making these days. FMLYBND was short-lived and he soon ventured down the EDM road. But it was a cover of the 1992 Sublime song “Badfish” that began to steer him in the right direction, and defined the music he was destined to make.
The parallels between Sublime and DENM are uncanny. DENM’s latest release, Hot N Glassy, could have been written in the 1990s. His voice, tinged with a sun-kissed rasp, screams SoCal and has a way of transporting the listener to another era, when the region’s bands like No Doubt, Sublime, and the Descendents were in full bloom.
“Sublime was obviously an influence, but I guess more so just seeing how Bradley used the cultures around him and the sounds he heard to blend into something special and unique,” Montgomery says. “That’s more what I’m going after, like a different chef cooking with similar ingredients being from similar regions.
“The sounds, landscapes, and people are all still very much the same. I feel like I’m carrying the torch of the Southern California sound but also making honest music from my heart that’s not necessarily trying to be anything else but that.”
And that pureness comes across in his music. As his manager Adam Stroul notes, “Every artist that I’ve worked with on a management level, it’s never felt like this. I am in love with every aspect of this human being. Whether it’s on the human level or an artist level, the way he moves and everything he says carries a lot of positivity.”
Even the way DENM views the music industry is a refreshing change of pace from artists chasing streams and chart numbers. While there’s a sense he knows his music should have an even larger audience, especially coming off a tour with Nowell’s son, Jakob, where he had a chance to perform for massive crowds, he’s playing the long game.
“We’re just making music we like and I’m not looking at charts,” DENM says, bluntly. “I’m not listening to what’s popping and how young everybody is. I’m having fun doing this. I feel like I won the lottery by being able to play music as a real job. I get to go surf. I get to spend time with my family, and then when it’s time to work, it’s time to work.”
He continues, “Generally speaking, it feels like hits are made and manufactured and it doesn’t matter. You could be the biggest artist in the world making the worst music or you could be the smallest artist in the world making the best music. It seems like a lot of entertainment has become propaganda versus art and I don’t really care for any of that.”
DENM’s priorities have shifted greatly since beginning his music career. Coming from a family without disposable income, he admits he used to struggle with comparison and thought he wanted something different out of life.
“It was super inspiring seeing these young people living these affluent lives in L.A., and I was kind of starstruck by it all,” he admits. “But through the years, I’ve just re-grounded myself, tapped back into who I am, spent a lot more time in the ocean and I have a much more clear head than I used to.”
Now, his focus is on running his new label, Slum Beach Records, and making music on his own terms—both his own and other artists—while taking care of his family.
“I see a lot of massive artists being real fucking miserable and I’m trying to go be happy,” he says. “If my music touches enough people to be able to provide a life for my kids, to have a roof over their heads, I’m like, ‘Hell yeah.’ The goal is to be able to have a little piece of land, and just keep making music and inviting people out to come heal, grow, and express their ultimate freedom in their artistic ways. It’s our therapy.”
Hot N Glassy, released in March, boasts features from Cypress Hill’s B-Real, Slightly Stoopid, and Pepper. Slum Beach Posse/DENM band members Benny Ranks and Jesse James Pariah also make appearances, giving the project an immensely rich, SoCal flavor. They didn’t push a particular single from the album. Instead, they opted to let the fans dictate the tracks. Based on their feedback, DENM and his team decided which songs would get videos. The first one, “Little Love,” dropped on July 17.
“I wanted to see via all the streaming platforms what songs people were vibing with,” he explains. “We chose the first four songs based on that: ‘Little Love,’ ‘I’ll Be Gone,’ ‘Swimming Lessons’ and ‘Ride Slow.’”
As the album continues to bubble, DENM has remained patient instead of worrying about how many units he’s sold or getting that one viral hit.
“I think it’ll grow,” he says of the album. “It has legs and I think it’s more about preparation meets opportunity. The live shows are there. I’m not in any hurry. I’ve honestly seen so many people come and go in this industry. I’ve been doing it full time for almost 15 years now. I’ve never had a hit for myself, but I’ve written other people’s songs that have done well. I’ve gotten to win a Grammy from producing a record that won.”
That Grammy Award win came in 2022 for his work on SOJA’s Beauty in the Silence, which won Best Reggae Album, a monumental moment for DENM. With Hot N Glassy, an upcoming Slum Beach Posse record, touring, and Slum Beach Records, there are many more of those moments on the horizon. In the interim, he’ll be at the beach, soaking up the sun and relishing the reality he’s created for himself.
“We’re bringing the right parts of the attitude back from the roots,” he says. “We’re not making music necessarily for other people. We know it blesses other people, but this is really for us.”
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