We caught up with Divorce ahead of their sold out show at the 100 Club talking new album ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ and touring the US with Mumford & Sons.

Divorce’s gig at the 100 Club felt less like a performance, more like a victory lap. They bathed in the glow of the audience’s reciprocity, making casual conversation with attendees as they cycled through tracks from their recent album, the smashing ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’.

‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ is an album about journeys and pathways: this was the only thing the band was sure about when conceptualising the album was the ‘Drive To…’ title.  Whilst it’s the journey that counts, for Divorce, the destination has been one of enormous success, with NME and Dork covers, supports for Everything Everything and Bombay Bicycle Club, and this year taking on their most extensive tour to date. I was lucky enough to chat to with drummer Kasper Sandstrom and multi-instrumentalist Adam Peter-Smith ahead of the 100 Club show, where it turns out you can just walk into without being stopped or asked questions by anyone. Try it!

What does the ‘Goldenhammer’ in the album title represent?

Adam: It’s a lyric from the song ‘Mercy’. Felix wrote it without thinking about it, but it morphed into many different things – a few sociological meanings. It’s a fictional place that you can’t ever really get to, to emphasise the journey.

The music press lumps you in with the UK alt-country wave, alongside Westside Cowboy [who are loudly sound checking downstairs as we speak] and Brown Horse. Is that a label you recognise? Or is it a case of journalists behaving badly?

Adam: We don’t really think it’s our job to decide. A lot of things get thrust upon us, what genre we are is the question on everyone’s lips. I think of us as genre-less really – if you don’t do that, you hold yourself back stylistically.

Kasper [speaking with whimsical Mediterranean accentuation]: Variety is the spice of life.

Talking of variety, I hear a lot of left-field pop influences on ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’. Songs like ‘Pill’ and ‘All My Freaks’ feel reminiscent of Caroline Polachek or Perfume Genius. Might you move further towards pop in future releases?

Adam: I don’t think we’re going towards a pop influence into the next chunk of songs we’re working on. But that’s more because we don’t think of our music as having a genre, really. We all grew up listening to pop and pop rock like The Beatles and Queen and ABBA, but we don’t plan out genres or styles we want to do. We just do them.

You recently got back to the UK after touring the US with Mumford & Sons for a couple of dates. As a band who imbibe a lot of American influence, how do you think stateside audiences respond to your sound?

Kasper: With support shows, it’s hard to tell because people aren’t there to see us. I think we converted some people. The venues were crazy big: each gig felt like a festival. We’ll tell you more about it when we go back to the US next year!

Which city are you most excited to hit up in the US?

Adam: Toronto. That’s in Canada, right?

I believe so.

Adam: We’re excited to go back to Canada. We are slightly obsessed with America as a place though. The music, the movies – it’s really fascinating to experience it for the first time.

If you could have anything on your rider, in a utopian venue with infinite runners, what would you request?

Kasper: There was a place we played in Oregon with a sauna backstage. It was the Mumford & Sons sauna.

Adam: Yeah, they had llamas too. It was relevant to the town we were playing in, Bend, like the groundhog in Poughkeepsie. They brought them on stage and people seemed to have got a kick out of it. One of my favourite creators, Derrick Gee, requests a cake from a local bakery for all of his speaking engagements.

Adam: I think Katie J. Pearson does a similar thing.

Kasper: Get a taste for the place, haha.

You’ve spoken a lot about touring, about the challenges of being on the road for months at a time, but also the joy of performing for a live audience. If you could, would you ever do a Beatles ’66 and pack it in for a studio existence?

Kasper: Personally, I love touring. But there are downsides. The last tour, the European one, was stacked – hours and hours spent on the road. The studio is the favourite part for most of us, but it’s so important to play in front of people, not only for yourself, but also to test shit out. Touring is hectic as fuck, but also important as fuck.

Adam: I don’t enjoy touring that much, but it’s crucial. We only do the music thing to create connections with people – when I think of core memories from my own life, they’ve always been shows I’ve attended. Live music does something that a record, no matter how good, just can’t do.

What are some of those core memories?

Kasper: The actual first show I ever saw was Blue, at the Nottingham Arena. I remember being excited. My parents were avid gig-goers – I also remember seeing Prince and he played for like 3 hours, and I didn’t get bored. That was a big one for me.

Adam: Um, mine are extremely different. You’ve got to remember I was almost a metalhead when I was a kid, but then I discovered Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters. That saved me from what seemed like a certain destiny. I remember seeing Foo Fighters like six times when I was a kid.

In anticipation of your live show tonight, do you have any favourite party tricks to bring out on stage?

Adam: You mean apart from all the backflips? We do a human pyramid at some point.

Really?

Adam: Yeah.

Kasper: A nude human pyramid.

Adam: Yeah.

That must be geometrically challenging, what with there being four of you…

Adam: We get an audience member to stand on top.

You’ve recently moved to disparate parts of the country. Felix in Bristol, Tiger in Glasgow. How does living so far apart change how you make music?

Adam: It hasn’t really changed a lot because ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ was written during a handful of weeklong periods together at a place called The Farm, in Wetherby. We were all together for a week at a time and started putting together demos. The songwriting process is slightly different now. We’re still doing it together, but Tiger and Felix write more of the bones independently. Sometimes started as just bass and melody, but these days, they increasingly come with ideas pretty filled out.

What’s been your favourite fan interaction from your recent tour?

Adam: There was a couple at a show we played in Edinburgh who drew T-shirts and made homemade merch for our show. They drew birds on the back for our single of the same name.

Kasper: We love it when fans make their own merch. Even if it means we sell less.

As long as they’re not selling it outside the venue, I suppose! If there were any artists you could see living or dead, who would it be?

Kasper: I’d see Stevie Wonder again.

Adam: I bet he wouldn’t see you.