Interview: Divorce

Prior to their brilliant stripped-down show at Rough Trade Nottingham, and during their ongoing album release tour, innovative Indie rock band Divorce join the Mic's Sami De Jong to answer some questions in the wake of their fantastic first official album Drive to Goldenhammer, released on March 7.

Q. Now that Drive to Goldenhammer has finally released, how are you all feeling?

Adam: Relieved 

Q. Satisfied?

All: Satisfied, yeah.

Tiger: It’s been a lovely release week so far. It’s been really nice to be on the road, doing the songs

stripped back. It’s been very grounding actually to feel connected to the crowd.

Adam: And connected with the songs as well.

Kaspar: Yeah. Feels nice.

Tiger: Yeah good. Good to get it out!

Q. I’m guessing you’re excited for your European tour, or maybe a bit nervous?

Kaspar: Definitely more excited than nervous.

Felix: Yeah, I don’t tend to get nervous for tours, because I’m kind of like, “how ever it goes is however it goes”. The fun bit is just doing it: it feels like they are going to be nice places. There’s always nice people, and it’s another chance to travel around, which is really cool, and go to places we’ve never been to before: and also see how our music goes over in places we have never played before.

Q. I understand that you’re [Felix] living in Bristol now?

Felix: sort of, I’m not really living anywhere right now. We’re on tour for a while.

Q. Do you think there’s been any distance barrier to overcome, also considering you’re [Tiger] living in Glasgow now?

Tiger: I’ve just moved. Felix has been living in Bristol for almost a year. Obviously, we’re back and forth a lot. I live in Glasgow as of January this year; when I moved, I moved because my partner lives there, but I was fully aware that we would have to commute, and we just kind of compromise by doing things in chunks. We’re all lucky enough for this to be our full-time thing: that makes it easier for sure. I think if we were working other jobs, it would be really really difficult to do that (probably impossible). I think that it’s possible because we do things like a week of intensive rehearsal, and it’s quite nice to do that because you really get into it.

Q. Good change of scene?

Felix: Yeah, though it kind of feels like the scene is changing constantly, which has its downsides too. It is very scattered and fragmented when you’re on tour as much as we have been, because it’s pretty hard to build up a routine in any home that you’re in, because you’re constantly back and forth. But that can also be nice. 

Q. The first time I saw you guys was at Splendour a few years ago, and I hadn’t listened to any of your music before: I was really impressed by the stuff on your first EP, especially Checking Out which is probably still my favourite. I was wondering, now that you’ve come a long way since that first EP, how do you reflect on your first music? Do you look on it as fondly as you did at the time? Have you grown in appreciation for it?

Kaspar: Time always changes your outlook on everything, especially when it’s your own work, you look back like “oh, probably wouldn’t do that now”, but the great thing about EP’s is it gives you time to grow, and you can release stuff while still figuring out what you’re about. It was quite early on in our career as a band, and we were trying lots of stuff, and there’s a naivety to that EP that’s really nice, and that’s part of the charm of it, and I still think the songs are great.

Tiger: It did a lot for us as well, as much as maybe we’ve changed and evolved, and I would say “honed” our sound to more where we probably wanted it in the first place, I think I look back at that thankfully because people still love it, and talk about it, and it’s nice

Felix: there’s a lot of things that happened off the back of Checking Out: that was a really important song for building us as a band, and kind of paved the way for a lot of things to happen: and in that sense kinda gave us the opportunity to be in the position we are now—and having made the record we’ve made.

Kaspar: it’s hard to look back on your old stuff with anything but “glad we did that”, because we wouldn’t be where we are without it.

Q. In a recent interview, I heard you quote David Lynch (rest in peace) about the importance of feeling. And I was just wondering what everyone’s favourite movies are, and how much of an impact you think cinema has had on your life personally and on your music?

Adam: Good question.

Tiger: I think hugely for me personally.

Adam: I studied film, so pretty big for me I guess. I’m not like a film buff, but if I want to feel inspired, and if I’m feeling dry writing wise, it’s often film that will get me into the right place to feel creative.

Tiger: I would probably [for favourite movie] say a David Lynch film. I don’t know if I have a favourite film because it’s very difficult to pick, but the film Wild at Heart is a really amazing, overwhelming sensory overload of a film. Nicholas Cage is in it. It’s such an amazing film with so little context for so much of the stuff that happens in it. But you just get it. When talking about David Lynch and his emphasis on feeling: it’s wordless, it is what it is, it just came straight from his subconscious and actors that he worked with’s subconscious, because I think a lot of the stuff was very actor led; he was like that with his collaborators, which is a really nice way to work too. But yeah, great film: I’d recommend it.

Kaspar: The one I always end up coming back to is 12 Angry Men. Kinda polar opposite in terms of the vibe of that David Lynch film, I assume. It’s set in one place in a court room, in the jury bit, where they’re discussing whether to send this guy to the chair, and It’s the 50s—black and white. Loads of actors acting very well, and all the characters are really interesting. It’s just 12 guys talking for an hour and a half, but for some reason it’s just riveting.

Adam: I’m a big sci-fi fan, and Metropolis (arguably the first sci-fi film) always sticks in my mind and pops into my head when someone says, “what’s your favourite film?”. Because it’s so iconic, and it paved the way for so many sci-fi movies, in the same way that people like Tolkien or Frank Herbert paved the way for their own genres in literature.

Felix: I’m not really one for favourites. A film I saw recently that I thought was incredible was Tree of Life by Terence Malick. The scale of it emotionally is mind blowing. I cried like a baby!

Q. Imagine a producer reaches out to you, asking to use your music in this movie for a certain scene, could you imagine any of your songs in particular being used as a movie soundtrack?

Kaspar: I always thought, even from the earliest demo of Eat my Words, THIS could be on film. The tempo of it is really lolloping. I feel like it’s got a lot of different contexts it could be used in. I thought it’s quite a filmic song.

Adam: Yeah, a lot of our stuff is kind of theatrical. I’ve thought at great length about us writing a musical together but never using our music in a film.

Tiger: I think I can see Karen maybe in a film. Karen has got a huge instrumental section at the end that I could really see in a film. It’s quite cinematically arranged.

Adam: The breakdown of Pill is gorgeous. I could see that in like a Notting Hill esque Hugh Grant movie.

Felix: I feel like Parachuter could have that have that quality as well, I could imagine it for like a transition in a film.

Q. I think for me, when I listen to Checking Out, it reminds me of a Coen Brothers comedy, people just dying in silly ways, and making comedy out of dark events.

Kaspar: Good shout

Q. If there was a biopic of Divorce, A: would you even want that to happen, and B: who would you want to play you?

Kaspar: Definitely no, I wouldn’t want that to happen.

Tiger: I would want that to happen, and I want to choose all the casting!

Felix: I feel I always struggle to find biopics that are good. What’s a good biopic? There’s Walk the Line…

Tiger: Love and Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic: That’s amazing. I actually liked the Robbie Williams biopic. The monkey one, THAT was pretty interesting. You know what, they tried something, and you can’t knock ‘em for that.

Felix: who would we have playing ourselves?

Adam: [jokingly] We’d play each other

Tiger: I don’t know what film it is, but when Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan, I like the genderless casting.

Felix: She’s easily the best Dylan there’s ever been!

Q. Better than say… Timothee Chalamet?

Felix: Oh, way better!

Tiger: I saw it [A Complete Unknown] and it was actually quite good. It was pretty straightforward. Did what it said on the tin.

Felix: Who would we have playing us then?

Kaspar: is it who we like, or who makes sense?

Tiger: just who you like

Felix: I’d have Miriam Margolyes playing me

Kaspar: That’s a really good shout!

Adam: I’m trying to think of a really tall actor

Felix: Or a really short one?

Adam: Oh yeah, Danny Devito!

Tiger: I would like Harvey Keitel. He’s a very famous actor. He’s in a lot of Tarantino films and Scorsese films. I watched Mean Streets recently: he was very good in that.

Kaspar: Me and tiger were talking about that film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I’m gonna pick Pedro Pacal, because in that film he’s like a big puppy dog. And I think that’s kind of my energy as well.

Adam: so… Danny Devito, Miriam Margolyes, Harley Keitel and Pedro Pacal haha

Kaspar: what a lineup!

Q. How much do you think that Government policy, in regards to the underfunding of the Midlands, and just the arts in general, has impacted your personal journey as musicians. What comes to mind for me is the Chameleon Arts Café closure.

Felix: That was the place we played our first gig in Nottingham. We were lucky to get there before it closed.

Kaspar: That was my favourite place to play and to see shows, so it was a shame. I guess we were lucky enough that we grew up before the closures started happening, but it’s hard, and it’s just getting harder and harder for new artists to find a place to play even, and that’s the first step, so if you can’t get there it’s harder to get any further than that.

Felix: I think the lack of funding does mean that the industry is incredibly London centric, and it kind of goes hand in hand with the lack of funding and the lack of opportunities in the Midlands. Certainly, where I grew up in Derby, trying to imagine how to make it into the music industry     …there was no ladder.

Tiger: Everything essentially relies on word of mouth and connections. In London the industry is essentially based there, so you’ll naturally have much more of that. In a place like Nottingham, it was just shots in the dark for us. We were lucky to eventually get some sort of idea of how we could send a press release out to people that worked in the industry. We ended up—off the back of that—signing with a small label based in London called Hand in Hive, but we emailed a huge list of labels and people who would hopefully accept demos, and that was how we got in touch with Ryan (our manager). Just through literally emailing off the back of years of not knowing our ass from our elbow.

Felix: The vast majority of those emails went un-replied to

Tiger: The infrastructure in London is not even that good, it’s just that that’s where the AMRs (Artist Relation Managers) are, and there’s more wealth there and so maybe you have a family member in the industry. I don’t know how to suggest change except putting funding—on a government level—into the arts: educating people, and changing the system, and making it fairer.

Q. Would you have any advice for smaller musicians trying to overcome those barriers?

Kaspar: Email!

Felix: Trial and error. Be on time.

Tiger: Try and make friends with other creatives.

Felix: Self-discipline. Believing that you have something important to say, and sticking to that, and being flexible while also having a strong set of routines with it.

Tiger: it’s very difficult to give advice because the industry’s pretty rigged, and so a lot of it is not the fault of the artist if they’re not managing to break through.

Adam: That in itself is good advice, to not give yourself a hard time.

Felix: The industry only tends to back a winning horse. Do your thing, and don’t focus on whether its cool or not.

Tiger: prioritise working with people that you like, that give you a good feeling, and that have your best intentions at heart. Getting on with the people that you work with, on any level, makes the work better.

Kaspar: don’t stop, as long as you’re enjoying it, just be persistent, you will love it.

Adam: …and keep creating good art

Felix: Don’t fall for the meaningless distractions of the music industry.

Q. Do you have any particular examples?

Felix: People try and project this rock n roll idea on to musicians, and there’s thus temptation when you’re young to want to play up to that, and it’s not real, and it damages a lot of people, putting them in vulnerable positions. That’s exactly what the music industry exploits. So just trust that you have intrinsic value as a human, and that your music is important.

Q. I just have one more bonus question, The Beatles or The Stones?

All: Beatles, 100%

Felix: I think it’s crazy that they’re even in the same ballpark to be honest

Tiger: The Beatles are a really important band for a lot of people, including us. We had the privilege of going to record at Abbey Road.

Kaspar: [jokingly] Paul McCartney is my uncle.

Felix: [on advice for small musicians] Also, have Paul McCartney as an uncle

Tiger: Paul McCartney is all of our uncle

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Edited by Bethany Coldwell

Images courtesy of Divorce on Facebook