With the release of their second single ‘Pretty‘ Nottingham band Divorce are already generating some interest. I took the opportunity to find out more about the band who head out on the road on their first headline tour in October.
Welcome Divorce! Could you introduce yourselves and describe how you came together as a band? Plus I have to ask, were any other band names in the mix before you settled on Divorce?
We are a 4-piece alt-country/grunge(ish) band from Nottingham, UK, and we got together mid 2021 after a quarter life crisis on Felix and I (Tiger’s) part. We’ve all been doing bits on the Notts scene for a long time and are all good friends, the project came out of us feeling like something really clicked with the four of us. We did have a few other names in the hat actually, I think Human Warmth and Yopp were shortlisted but thankfully got scrapped.
Could you share how you came to attention of Hand In Hive Records? And am I correct in thinking you have supported TV Priest?
We did a lot of emailing pitching our first single to various labels we liked the look of, and we’d really admired Hand in Hive and their roster before we actually signed with them. To our great surprise they really enjoyed the track and the rest is history! And yes, our first show was supporting TV Priest at The Shacklewell Arms in London, which had been sold out since before we were even booked for it. It was pretty nerve-wracking playing to a group that had no idea who we were, but it actually remains one of our favourite shows to date.
I have to congratulate you on your debut single ‘Services‘, released earlier this year. Never before has a track referencing service stations been so darn good! Of course it’s about so much more than this. To use the road trip analogy as an expression of the sometimes turbulent journey from adolescence into adulthood feels very apt. Could you expand on the background to this track?
It’s an interesting subject matter for me (Tiger) actually, because I spent my final teenage years really trying to seek out some stability in my life and constantly finding myself clinging onto others in an effort to obtain it. When I was writing it I really tried to channel that headspace, so some of the language and romanticism in it is very juvenile, and that’s the point I think. I realised pretty quickly into my twenties that nobody is going to just hand you a good grasp on life, you just have to muddle through yourself, and although there’s a lot of pragmatic beauty in that I think there were often times when being on the move gave me a lot of solace and symbolised me working towards the thing I really wanted, which was to make music. Service stations are so inherently anaesthetic and practical, but they’re a stop you make on your way to something, and we need them!
‘Pretty‘ is your current single. I get a sense that your songs are very lyric driven, would that be fair to say, that they are the starting point? And do you work collaboratively when creating new music?
I don’t think as a band we’re completely set in any kind of absolute process for developing a song, but most of the time Felix and I will write lyrics and chords either separately or together, develop them together and then take them to Kasper and Adam who we all write our parts with and flesh the songs out. Lyrics are at the very centre of our songs and we try quite adamantly not to be lazy with them. They’re often the first thing that draws us to a song, and when Felix came to me with the first half of ‘Pretty’, I knew it was going to be a certified banger. The line “That road is a hangman’s rope” I think immediately grabbed me with it’s visceral and horribly sad imagery, and the entire narrative of the track (which is about the court of public opinion and the dehumanisation of vulnerable individuals) felt like it was saying something without giving it’s two-pence on a contentious issue and just looking in a very human way at a bad situation. Felix is good at that, his writing never feels like a lecture.
You are starting a UK tour on 5th October in Sheffield at Sidney and Matilda. What does it mean to you to play live?
It’s so important to us, and it’s just so darn fun. We’re buzzing to get out on the road again, wind in our hair, Chocomels in our pockets, it’s going to be a Nicole Kidman-Tom Cruise level Divorce party and you’re all cordially invited! We also have to play live because we need at least some money. Please buy our merch.
If I looked in your fridge right now what would I find.
The cryogenically frozen body of Michael Bublé, of course!
Divorce Live Dates
4th Oct – Polar Bear, Hull
5th Oct – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
6th Oct – Hare & Hounds 2, Birmingham
7th Oct – The Shooting Gallery @ Zerox, Newcastle
8th Oct – Broadcast, Glasgow
9th Oct – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
11th Oct – Hope & Ruin, Brighton
12th Oct – Sebright Arms, London
13th Oct – The Loft, Portsmouth
15th Oct – The Crofters Rights, Bristol
21st-22nd Oct – Left Of The Dial, Rotterdam
28th Oct – The Bodega, Nottingham
