Nottingham's Divorce on how their East Midlands roots helped shape debut album 'Drive To Goldenhammer' • Interview • DIY Magazine

If you ever find yourself Googling directions to Goldenhammer, you might find yourself in a bit of a pickle. Although Percy Jackson succeeded in his quest for the fabled Golden Fleece and Harry Potter’s quidditch career took off when he captured the Golden Snitch, the protagonists of this fantasy tale – Nottingham four-piece Divorce – are still searching for the fictional destination at play here. And that’s kind of the point.

“We couldn’t exactly figure out what we were driving towards,” begins the band’s Tiger Cohen-Towell, summing up the never-ending journey the band find themselves on in a nutshell. “It’s quite funny, because that’s literally what the album’s about,” they confirm. “Everyone is probably trying to [get there] in their own way,” ponders co-vocalist and guitarist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow too.

To the naked eye, Divorce seem to have spent the last few years permanently cooped up inside a tour bus or whipping up new music in the studio – perhaps down to the very nature of the beast of existing as a band in 2025. Nevertheless, these four busy bees – completed by Adam Peter Smith (guitar, synth) and Kasper Sandstrøm (drums) – still somehow found time to craft their most mature body of work to date: their sprawling debut album, titled ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’.

When the “happy coincidence” of the titular Goldenhammer presented itself – initially via a lyric on ‘Mercy’ (“My breaking voice / Gave up the golden hammer”) – the group realised a wider significance of an imaginary word that had all but fallen out of the subconscious. “It’s like a home that never existed,” says Felix. “An enigmatic location for this place that doesn’t really exist, which we’re always trying to get to.

“As anyone goes through life, there’s this sense of belonging that you’re striving for,” he continues. “That lack of a sense of belonging is probably experienced by a wider amount of people, as the world becomes a smaller place, in many ways… you grow up, you travel around. You start to lose track of place, and find that belonging in the people that you’re with. We found [Goldenhammer] in each other, a lot of the time.”

Raised respectively in Nottingham and Derby, Tiger and Felix’s relationships with their home cities form a core part of the underlying inspiration behind ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’. This “weird nostalgia for something that never really existed” plays into their circular relationship with the East Midlands, says Felix. “The East Midlands is a place that has a deep history, but sometimes, growing up there, it didn’t feel like it had a big present [day significance],” he continues. “It didn’t feel like the most relevant place to be, but then holds all this significance for us as the area we grew up in, now I have some objectivity on it. Growing up, I just hated it – I came up against a lot of backwardness in my early life, which took a pretty heavy toll.”

Tiger, who – like Felix – embarked on a brief stint in London, has always had their base “dictated by [their career in] music,” but was also drawn back, eventually. “I’ve got a pretty healthy relationship with the place,” they say. “You can lose a sense of where you’re going and what you want, if you just stay in your hometown. For me, I really needed to step away from it in order to appreciate it.”

“We’re really trying to make sure that as friends, we’re present and there for each other, so that creativity can thrive.”

— Tiger Cohen-Towell

Divorce’s megamix of country, indie, folk and even punk has always retained a playful element of personability. On the album, however, the band’s sound is more expansive, augmented by producer Catherine Marks. The heartfelt ‘Parachuter’ has a tender twinkle about it, while the heaven-sent chorus of ‘All My Freaks’ is of the type to make Wolf Alice proud. The folk-tinged ‘Antarctica’ sets up the running theme of the record (“I’ve got a long drive”) with an infectious chorus, on which Felix and Tiger’s vocal chemistry aligns perfectly while recounting a tale of a newborn calf they saved on the road after a near-miss.

“With the album, there’s this experimental, playful, curious and naive – in some ways – approach to creating songs,” says Tiger. “But there’s also a real focus on making them human and grounded. We wanted to have that duality. Sometimes, you feel so detached and alienated from a normal life as a musician… what you’re making is what makes you human, and the right to that creative expression is a type of home for you to be in.

“We’re very into the subconscious, and using that creatively,” they continue, a sentiment exemplified by the title’s origin story. Without any grounded technical know-how, gut instinct is Tiger’s guiding light, even if impostor syndrome and lack of confidence did occasionally seep into the process.

“All of us try to pull that [feeling and instinct] out of each other, but a lot of that comes from our personal relationships being really healthy. So often, it is the end of bands when they’re all closed off to each other emotionally, and they can’t communicate. You’ve seen it again and again. We’re really trying to make sure that as friends, we’re present and there for each other, so that creativity can thrive.”

“We found Goldenhammer in each other, a lot of the time.”

— Felix Mackenzie-Barrow

While there are clear nods on the record to influences like Belle & Sebastian and Fiona Apple - to name just two - the push-and-pull between Divorce’s hearty folk anthems and more theatrical moments make for a blend that’s still their own. Felix agrees: “I’ve had a sense throughout [the process] – it doesn’t remind me of any other records, and I’m really proud of that.”

Slightly more on-the-nose is the Wilco reference on ‘Mercy’, nodding to the US indie veterans’ 2002 single ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’, and the production on ‘Parachuter’ being “heavily inspired” by the way the Chicago outfit record. “It felt like it all sounded pretty Wilco in a satisfying [sense] – there was a tightness and quietness to it that felt like some of the tracks from [2003’s] ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’,” says Tiger.

“In terms of an attitude to production, I think [1985’s] ‘Hounds Of Love’ by Kate Bush… it’s such a bait choice, but she encapsulates this sensual but also homely, childlike way of [writing]. She writes about absolutely batshit things. It’s all over the place, but it’s so warm and from her heart. She’s so human about it.”

Arguably the secret weapon behind ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ was super-producer Catherine Marks. “Catherine is such a powerhouse,” beams Felix. “She was so willing to play and explore stuff. I don’t think any of us left a day of recording without trying all of our ideas that day.” “It was nice to have a female producer,” continues Tiger. “That influence was good for all of us, I think. There was a freeness to it, and a lack of judgement or pretense, which was priceless.”

Integral, too, was residential getaway North Yorkshire studio The Calm Farm where the band decamped to record the album’s demos. Here, the band had to get the most out of some intense four-day periods, which juggled much-needed recalibration with some of their most formative moments. “Four days is not a lot of time to flesh out songs from scratch,” notes Felix. “But in that moment, it was the most time we’d ever had. We wanted to really seize it. We really honed our collective rhythm and pushed each other.”

You needn’t look any further than the video for single ‘Hangman’ to see how the farm became ingrained in the very fabric of ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ – an unbreakable bond that is unique to its time and place, as Tiger agrees. “We probably won’t be able to go back there [for the next record]. As much as it is so special, and it is ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ in many ways, you have to keep things fresh as an artist – as a principle.”

‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ is out now via Gravity / Capitol.

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