Divorce are without a doubt marking themselves on everyone’s ‘ones to watch 2025’ lists, thanks to the augmented anticipation of their debut album Drive To Goldenhammer out March 7th. Blending chamber pop with folk and indie-rock, they’ve curated an irresistible, and genuinely distinctive sound. After their 2023 signing with Gravity Records (Universal Music), it’s been a relentless whirlwind of touring for Tiger Cohen-Towell (vocals / bass), Felix Mackenzie-Barrow (vocals / guitar), Adam Peter Smith (guitar & synth) and Kasper Sandstrøm (drums).
The path towards Goldhammer itself was curated at The Calm Farm in North Yorkshire, where Divorce ate together, slept in the same rooms, and set a steady rhythm. Tiger Cohen-Towell explains how this “played a huge part in sculpting the album.”
They said: “We were in the house from morning till night, writing and then going to sleep and waking up. But it had such an atmosphere, with the warm Northern sensibility that we’re really used to and that played a huge hand in how the album has turned out.”
The drive and journey to the album’s writing and recording were poignant marks on its creation overall too: “I think there’s a real warmth and eerie nostalgia to the album.
“The kind of feeling of a home that never really has existed, but you’re always kind of moving towards it. I think a lot of the songs were written in a transitional state. There was a lot of transience to our lives, as still is, during the process of writing. And that crept into the songs naturally.
“I think when you’re living like that, you have to make your own for yourself, and find a sense of place inside yourself and in the people that you’re with. For us, that was finding it in each other as a band. And in memory, as well. In a lot of the songs, they contain slideshows of images, that when all placed together in the right order, makes sense as a narrative. But what we wanted was for the album to be on the drive there.
“Goldenhammer is the word that peaks your interest. Nobody really knows what Goldenhammer is. It’s something we’re reaching towards. And I think it’s something that is kind of inside everyone in the world.”
The album itself has a tender feel to it, striking a balance between its more intense and darker elements. Felix stated it was natural to find “some lightness.”
“I think that kind of deep and level of emotion is found on both sides. You can have more joy when there’s some darkness, and you can have more pain when there’s joy.”
For Tiger, a standout track is Americana lullaby ‘Parachuter’, one they described as “musically and atmospherically quite light.”
“The lyrics are really dark, though. In the chorus that Felix wrote, he recounts a car crash that the two of us saw. The song itself is so bleak, but also really hopeful and I just love that tune because it reminds me of the four of us really hitting a point of cohesion in the writing process.
For the residency recording process, Divorce had producer Catherine Marks (boygenius, Manchester Orchestra, Wolf Alice) with them. Bringing in a personal style of pre-production, the band shared intensive rehearsals of the songs – a process Tiger relayed as being “really, really vigorous and tiring”.
They continued: “Catherine is a perfectionist, but she doesn’t really say no to anything. She’ll let us try anything, and she had loads of ideas herself. Her influence on the album is massive, and I think it came out deeper and warmer because of her being the producer.”
For Felix, there was a lack of consciousness in the writing phrase, with so many genres being pulled and threaded together – their influences were widely flung and ingrained within their own process, including legendary songwriters Fiona Apple and Tom Waits.
“They’re kind of weird choices, but both inspired me and grabbed my attention. They’re very different lyricists, but I think they have parallels in their sort of strange production choices. LCD Soundsystem definitely, as well. I think I really like the seventies soft rock song building. I like how dynamic those songs always seem to turn out. And I think also, visually, the album has been quite influenced by that. We’ve not tried to do a nostalgia thing, but I just like the freedom the band had back then with visuals without the influence of social media. Like they’re musicians they do music.”
Divorce are also fresh off the back of their autumn/winter 2024 tour, with a staggering 21 shows in less than a month, including 4 sold out home shows at Bodega in Nottingham. Tiger and Felix described how their longest run of headline shows were “amazing”.
“When you’re touring like that, it is still pretty daunting, especially as we go with a pretty minimal crew. But it’s so cool to be finding these places that people are coming to see you in, and you just would have never expected to be able to fill a room in.
“There’s a real kind of community feel to it that gave me a sense that this music actually means a lot to people.”
Divorce’s debut album Driving To Goldenhammer will arrive on the 7th March 2025.
Words by Millie Cain