“If I’d have known this would take us to the big old western planes, the things I’d lost on the way, I’d lose them all again”, sings Felix Mackenzie-Barrow in ‘Old Broken String’, a track from Divorce‘s latest album Drive to Goldenhammer. It’s a project that immerses itself in uncertainty and movement, navigating the conflict between these coexisting, yet contradictory concepts. Speaking just over a week before the start of Divorce’s UK and EU tour, Felix reflects on this song, and the broader ideas of the record, describing them as being about “the tension between pushing on without really knowing where you’re going, but trying not to question it too much, and the things that fall by the wayside whilst you’re doing that”.
“It was really looking back on it that we were able to figure it out as a body of work”, he confesses, articulating the idea that the album depicts an odyssey to an unknown place, and how the sense of placelessness was a theme that unconsciously implanted itself into the band’s songwriting. “I think largely it was born out of the way that our lives had been over the last few years, just circumstantially. But then also the fact that we’ve been in this band that has been getting progressively busier and busier. I don’t really live anywhere right now, and that’s the nature of being on tour a lot and also being too broke to pay rent somewhere.”
He cites the formation of the album’s title as evidence of this lingering uncertainty, “We knew that we wanted to call it Drive to something, which I think is symbolic of the fact that we were driving towards this place that we didn’t really know existed”, he reflects, “Goldenhammer came from a lyric in the last song on the record, called ‘Mercy’, which references a golden hammer. We smashed the two words together and came up with this place that sounds like it could be in Derbyshire somewhere or Nottinghamshire. So, really the place itself isn’t so defined, It’s about the journey there, and these songs felt like we were making them to listen to them on the way.”
Like many up-and-coming bands of today, Divorce have been charged with constantly comparing their sound to that of pre-established musicians, and have previously noted the likes of ABBA, Wilco, and Perfume Genius as sources of sonic inspiration. When questioned on other forms of media that have played a stimulating role in his writing, however, Mackenzie-Barrow cites the late American author and essayist, Barry Lopez, whose work naturally infused itself into the band’s new album. Felix draws specific attention to the “sense of scale and transience and a kind of awareness of how small and relatively insignificant we are as humans” that resonated strongly with him and found its way into the themes of the record. From a visual perspective, he confesses that bandmate Tiger Cohen-Towell is the real “film buff”, and credits most of the cinematic references to them, but acknowledges that ‘Old Broken String’, one of the more under-appreciated new tracks, was guided by the imagery of “vast planes in America”.
Drive to Goldenhammer was released on the 7th of March via Capitol Records, but was primarily written when the band members were still working other jobs, allowing for, as Felix describes it, “a nice fusion, having that funding for the recording, but all of the songs just originating when the idea came to you, I guess record labels like that, they like to keep things authentic”. He specifically mentions the experience of working with esteemed producer Catherine Marks, known for her work with boygenius, The Killers, Wolf Alice, and Foals, before articulating appreciation for “the level of focus we were able to have on the album”, while simultaneously drawing attention to the “degree of pressure” that comes from his current job being the thing he’s been wanting to do for such a great amount of time. “I’ve got nothing to fight against right now, obviously a very nice problem to have.” As for the impact of this on their songwriting, Felix predicts that, “being on a major label and not having to have another job right now will probably be felt on more on the second album.”
When questioned on the presence of a ‘pre-tour buzz’, Mackenzie-Barrow reflects on a final rehearsal that the band had a few days prior: “I think we all left that feeling extremely excited to get on tour. We’re in a great place with the songs, they still feel fresh, but it’s also exciting that people will know them, and that we’re getting to play venues like Gorilla and Brudenell in Leeds – those are venues I’ve been wanting to play for a really long time”. Divorce have been touring the UK and Europe from late March until May, stopping off at Gorilla in Manchester on 3rd April. The critical success of their new record and the exceptional support seen at their live shows so far are irrefutable indicators of the exciting future that lies ahead of them.
