For a band who’s spent most of the past decade charming audiences with their acoustic sincerity and saltwater-soaked folk, The Dreggs could have played it safe. But on their new album, The Art of Uncommon Practice, Zane Harris and Paddy Macrae take a bold creative leap.
“This album is big risk, big reward,” Harris says, pausing before he grins. “Hopefully!”
Out today, The Art of Uncommon Practice feels like a milestone moment, raw, loose, and cohesive in a way that belies its fast-tracked, three-week recording schedule. It’s a snapshot of two mates fumbling through life in the most human way possible: by making music that sounds like them, even when it sounds like something new.
Where 2022’s Caught in a Reverie sometimes felt overly polished, this record leans into imperfection. You’ll hear guitar string scratches, missed beats, off-mic banter — moments that would usually get scrubbed from the mix.
“We told Chris [Collins], ‘We don’t want it to be perfect,’” Harris says. “There’s stuff slightly out of tune, and we kept that. It was all really intentional.”
The commitment to keeping things real shows up in all kinds of small ways. On “Jealous Type”, Matt Corby, who played drums on the track, misses a beat and audibly yells in the background. “We just kept it in,” Macrae laughs. “It was kind of funny.”
Meanwhile, “This Little Life” was recorded completely live in one take — just two mics, no edits, and the offhand chatter you hear at the end is real. “Paddy’s literally asking how many times we’re running the chorus,” Harris says. “We just kept rolling.”
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Between takes, the studio wasn’t always so serious. “Matt actually taught us how to play chess,” Harris recalls. “There were a few rounds going on between songs.”
Collins, who produced the album alongside Corby, quickly became a key figure in translating The Dreggs’ evolving vision. According to Macrae, the timing was magic.
“Chris is a total music nerd, in the best way. He knows so much about different bands, genres, producers, eras. He took what we were trying to do and directed it in this perfectly fluent way. He really helped us find the new sound we’d been chasing.”
It’s a sound that still nods to the band’s folky origins, but with new textures and emotional weight. Tracks like “Jealous Type” and “This Little Life” might surprise longtime fans — but that’s part of the point.
“We actually debated whether ‘Jealous Type’ should even make the album,” Macrae admits. “It’s a bit of an outlier.”
“And I’m not playing it live,” Harris laughs. “Too hard.”
One of the album’s emotional standouts is “Losing You”, a track Harris began about the grief his grandfather faced after losing his wife of 63 years. He brought the incomplete track to Macrae, unsure how to finish it.
“I said to him, ‘I can’t get the second verse. I don’t know how to finish the bridge,’” Harris recalls. “And it was cool because Paddy just got it. He knew exactly what I was trying to say.”
It’s that kind of creative symbiosis that defines The Art of Uncommon Practice. The pair wrote four new songs from scratch during their time in the studio, while reshaping and refining the demos they’d been quietly collecting over the past year.
“It was quick, but it just flowed,” Macrae says. “A lot of that came down to the environment — we were just four lads hanging out, writing music, and talking smack. A couple of beers, a lot of laughs. It didn’t feel like a high-pressure situation.”
Still, some tracks took longer to find their shape. “Conquer the World”, one of the record’s big emotional swings and sure-to-be crowd favourites, almost didn’t make it.
“We tried recording it with three different producers,” Macrae says. “It just never worked. But then we brought it into the room with Chris and Matt, and something clicked. Chris knew what it needed. He didn’t overcook it, he just let it be what it was.”
The result is a track that feels made for weddings and festival singalongs alike. “It’s a tune,” Harris nods when I tell them I can already picture people walking down the aisle to an acoustic version. “We’ve always flirted with the idea of an acoustic vinyl, just two guitars or piano and guitar… maybe even a Bridgerton-style version,” he jokes. “That’d be so good.”
With The Art of Uncommon Practice here, The Dreggs are now looking ahead to their first-ever North American tour, plus another stint through Europe and the UK. It’s the start of a new chapter — and one that feels truer to who they are now.
“In Europe, people were probably expecting the old Dreggs,” Macrae concedes. “But now the idea of us as we are now is catching up. The States is a blank canvas, though. They’ll meet us as we are.”
Credit: Maclay Heriot
Just don’t expect a full band setup… at least, not yet.
“If we could bring all five of us, we would,” Harris says. “But we’re not millionaires. So they’re just going to have to cop me, Paddy, and our drummer.”
They’re planning to drive the whole US leg themselves in a Sprinter van or similar. “It’s going to be gross,” Harris says with a laugh. “But that’s alright. We’re up for it.”
Despite the logistical challenges, the band’s approach to international shows remains refreshingly grounded.
“We’ve been ourselves the whole eight years,” Harris says. “So we’ll keep showing up the same way anywhere we go.”
If Caught in a Reverie was a learning curve, The Art of Uncommon Practice is the band putting those lessons into play. From more thoughtful rollout strategies to embracing social media with a bit of cheek, The Dreggs are doing things their way.
“We dropped two singles and then the whole album last time, and just hoped people would listen,” Harris says. “That’s not how it works anymore.”
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Even their visual content has had a glow-up, equal parts charming and chaotic.
“Some of our mates post the same thing every time,” Harris shrugs. “We’re trying to keep things a bit out of the box, you know, hanging off balconies — that’s actually Mum’s balcony, by the way,” he reveals of one of their promo videos.
It’s all part of being mostly independent, a status that brings both freedom and pressure. But when asked how they define success in 2025, their answers are surprisingly simple.
“As long as we’ve got food on the table and a roof over our heads, that’s success,” Macrae says. “Everything else is a bonus.”
“People say, ‘You’ve made it!’” Harris adds. “Made what? We’re just lucky to do what we love. We’ll keep showing up as long as people will have us.”
Despite how seamlessly the record hangs together, there’s no overarching narrative. Instead, it captures a moment in time — both messy and magic.
“It’s not like we set out with a storyline,” Harris says. “At the end of the day, we’re just fumbling through like everyone else.” The album title itself reflects that sentiment.
“We called it The Art of Uncommon Practice because what we do for a living isn’t really normal,” Harris says. “That’s kind of what this whole album is about — figuring it out as you go, even if you’ve got no idea what you’re doing.”
So what advice would they have now for their younger selves starting out in this journey?
“Stay at your full-time job,” Harris deadpans. “Nah, just breathe. You’ll get home. You’ll get fuel in your van. Just keep going.”
But there’s also pride in the path they’ve taken. “We’ve had moments where we wanted to throw in the towel,” Harris admits. “But we genuinely love what we do.”
They’ve also stopped chasing numbers. “It’s easy to get caught up in streams and socials,” Macrae says. “But when you’re tracking that stuff constantly, it takes away from the art. If it resonates, the numbers will come. And if not, at least you told your story.”
And what will that story say to their future selves?
“We wanted to make a record we could look back on in 10 years and be proud of,” Macrae says. “That captured exactly how we felt, and the best of what we could do right now.”
The Dreggs’ The Art of Uncommon Practice is out now. Find the band’s upcoming tour dates here.
