They’re musing over where Goldenhammer is. Only, they don’t know. Not really. Their debut album, ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’, isn’t concerned with where it’s going. Its twelve tracks document the journeys winding up and down the East Midlands motorways.
Divorce might’ve started their musical car journey in 2021 - when Adam Peter Smith and Kasper Sandstrøm joined on guitars and drums - yet Tiger and Felix have been packing this car for years prior in Megatrain. Those hours on the road are the journeys ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ traces.
Radio plays weren’t the only reference point; the nation’s favourite stop-motion duo also played a part, Tiger explains. “We feel like ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ could be the next Wallace and Gromit film. It’s this old format that feels really classic and nostalgic and homey and warm, but also kind of eerie”.
"'Drive To Goldenhammer' could be the next Wallace and Gromit film — nostalgic, homey, warm, but also eerie"
Nostalgia nestles itself throughout ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’. Choose the right lens, and you’ll view it as an exploration of naivety, playfulness, and childhood innocence. For Felix, that’s exactly what their debut album looks like.
Divorce retreated to a 1960s-built house-turned-residential studio to record their debut. Much of ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’s’ childlike innocence - the way tracks leap from rustic Americana to wintery indie-folk to chamber pop - owes itself to The Calm Farm, according to Tiger.
Running towards that feeling is easier said than done. Yet ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ proves Divorce are achieving it. Take ‘Pill’ - split into three sections, its synthy, string-laden intro folds into the golden glow of jazz-pop piano like a Laufey cut on the radio, before spilling into alt-country magic. It’s 5 minutes long, has no chorus, and each piece highlights different realms of Tiger’s queer experience.
Elsewhere, ‘All My Freaks’ throws everything at the wall in a joyful explosion of sound, while ‘Where Do You Go?’ pairs soulful lounge-pop verses reminiscent of late-career Arctic Monkeys with choruses that roar with the narrative drive of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. It’s their embrace of childish playfulness that makes ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ special.
Like collectively crying into tubs of Ben & Jerry’s with mates, giving way to vulnerability let Adam, Kasper, Felix, and Tiger feel their way through some of ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’s’ challenging moments, like making closer ‘Mercy’.
‘Mercy’’s campfire acoustics sound like sipping a cinnamon and ginger-spiced latte on an autumn walk. The music builds around a cathedral-like group vocal, which wouldn’t be possible without the vulnerability the foursome held space for.
Vocal harmonies and Divorce have gone hand-in-hand since tracks as early as 2022’s ‘Services’. Like the folksy traditions of old, Tiger and Felix don’t shy away from being associated with it - they just don’t like some of the leaps listeners occasionally make.
Gender and sexuality sit at the heart of ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’, but it’s simply the result of Tiger being themself. “With the climate at the moment in music, it’s wonderful that queer narratives are taking a forefront. I think it’s important that they do, and as a queer person, I’m massively enjoying it. But there’s never been a conscious effort on my part to write queer songs: I am just queer, so my songs end up being quite queer, and I think there’s a sense of humour that I have as a person that comes out in a fairly queer way lyrically.”
The Bluebird Cafe-style Americana of early-album cut ‘Lord’ exemplifies Tiger’s queer experiences coming humorously to the fore. “It’s a song about being away from my partner and being horny; it’s as basic as that. A lot of the songs that I’ve written since coming out as non-binary and being in a queer relationship have ended up being quite juvenile.”
Tiger likens it to going through “an emotional second puberty” and figuring out what they want. It’s also a reflection of how pursuing music affects those who want to maintain loving relationships.
Still, Tiger doesn’t deny that ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ has “definitely got a few gay moments”. The four-minute foray into melancholia that carries ‘Karen’ from a wintery walk through woodland into a fiery explosion of fuzzy 90s grunge is not only one of Divorce’s boldest mid-song transitions, but also serves as a defiant display of Tiger’s queerness.
"To write about a dead female celebrity feels like the gayest thing"
As much as ‘Karen’ pays homage to Carpenter, the traces of her life in its lyrics connect the past with the present, like a satirical stab at the cyclical nature of the music industry. When Tiger rolls out lines like “you’re right out like a cannonball, playing a show to some hundreds of reptiles who lick your silver hands and say silver’s out of style now, Karen,” you sense a mirror being held up.
On the flipside, Divorce, and by extension ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’, has become a safe space for fans to explore their queerness. Though none of their songs deliberately aimed for this, the result has left Tiger overwhelmed with pride. “I’m really, really glad to see now at our shows more queer fans. There’s been some really nice messages from fans that appreciate the queerness and appreciate us wearing that on our sleeves as a band.”
Like a mother caring for her brood, Divorce find providing comfort to their listeners drives their songwriting. ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ searches for home, wherever that may be, and if listeners find warmth within their songs, they’ll know their job is done.
We’re not all musicians, but that doesn’t matter. Adam, Felix, Kasper, and Tiger find their own trials in music as universal as anyone chasing a goal. They hope listeners unearth this in their songs.
“I think each song feels like a step along the way, and there really is no end to the journey. Each song is just a little window into a narrative that has ruled our lives through the last few years,” Tiger says.
