We Chat to Divorce About Their New EP 'Heady Metal’ and Sold Out Rescue Rooms Show

On a Friday morning in November, I found Divorce in a Travelodge in Brighton, following their show with Willie J Healey the previous evening. "When you're the support, it's a guaranteed crowd, but they're not there to see us," Tiger says. "We thought people might not come to our headline shows, but they're almost all sold out! They're not massive rooms but they'll be full.” Adam adds; "Our heads aren't getting any smaller for a while!" 

Within the band's home city of Nottingham, there's an undeniable buzz surrounding Divorce. It feels like they are on the cusp of being the 'next big thing', achieving a taste of national success when singles from Heady Metal began receiving love from 6 Music and even Radio 1. Despite this, the band refrain from altering their formula. "It feels like we're still doing what we did when we started," Adam says. "We go away to a writing retreat and just write and play together, which is what we did in the early days, except it was in a rehearsal space in our house back then."

Tiger and Felix left Nottingham and relocated to London for a year, but returned after “not feeling enthralled” with their new surroundings. "I was there studying, but I stopped because I wanted to commit to the band," Tiger explains. "A good thing about Nottingham is that if you're touring, it's right in the middle, so you can get back from pretty much anywhere," Felix adds. “I don’t know how long we’ll all be in Nottingham, but it’s our spiritual home, even if we're not there all the time."

They credit Nottingham's music scene not only for what it has done for them since Divorce formed, but also for introducing them to each other in the first place. "None of us would have met each other without all of the shows that happen every day of the week in Nottingham - open mics and things like that at JamCafe, The Bodega... Those venues mean a lot to us," Felix says. "It's a connected web - we all had different projects before Divorce even formed, and we were admiring each other’s projects from afar," Tiger adds.

Their “darkly humorous” name was chosen due to its “strong and memorable” nature, and it has definitely generated some humorous remarks - from fans saying ‘my husband/wife isn’t going to like this’ at the merch table, to a direct message from a man whose T-shirt arrived in the post on the exact day that his divorce was finalised. "Maybe we'll have an era where we all get married and we can sing about that!" Felix laughs. "I do wonder sometimes if it will be my downfall... I was thinking of getting a tattoo of it, but what if I want to get married one day?" 

Heady Metal will have been released by the time you are reading this, but they promise that there are more surprises up their sleeves that are still yet to be revealed. "There are some visuals coming with one of the songs that will blow all your heads off because they’re so ridiculous," Tiger says. "It should come with a warning, really - a trigger warning!" Adam laughs, "You won't be able to unsee it." Felix adds: "We haven't seen the edit yet but there's no way it can't be terrifying and frightening - but also incredibly…” he pauses for suspense, “breath-taking." Very intriguing... 

Even though there were a handful of unreleased songs from the EP when I was speaking to them, they already found that people were singing the words back to them at their shows. "They don't all boo when we play them, at least!" Felix laughs. "It's always a bit less of a reaction, of course, but people who come to a lot of shows do know them even though they're unreleased." Tiger adds; "For a while, people have been singing the chorus to Eat My Words. Divorce fans love to sing!" With all of the debate about gig etiquette right now, it's refreshing to hear that Divorce fans are a nice, respectful bunch.

This month will see the band perform at a sold-out Rescue Rooms, the biggest venue on their headline tour. "That is really silly to us. This far in advance, it just feels wild,” Felix laughs. “Even though it’s our hometown show, it was actually one of the slowest selling ones," Adam admits, something that he says that Willie J Healey also experienced with his hometown show in Oxford that was taking place that evening. But then Tiger, pointing out that it is double the size of the other venues they are playing, adds, “It's an iconic venue to us, and being able to play to that many people in Nottingham will be a privilege." 

The radio plays that the band have received from Steve Lamacq of 6 Music has helped them to gain new fans, who have visibly been supporting Divorce by turning up to their shows. “I was sitting outside the venue after we played last night; I was eating some fried chicken. This guy came along wearing a really big hat and asked me to shake his hand but my hands were covered in chicken,” Felix says. “But I shook his hand anyway, and he said he’d heard us through 6 Music. Radio fans listen to your music, and they don’t care if your hands are covered in chicken!” he laughs. 

The music video for Scratch Your Metal features an older counterpart of each Divorce member, and while I don’t expect them to be looking that far into the future quite yet, I was intrigued about what’s next for the band. “I won’t say the word, but it would be really nice to do an EP but longer…” Felix tails off. Tiger adds with sincerity, “Every bit of nice news you get, you’re always grateful for it, because we spent so long trying to do it. So in a year’s time, I simply hope that we’ll still be doing it. Hopefully the good things will keep happening for a long time.”

Divorce are headlining Rescue Rooms on 16 December and Heady Metal is available to stream now

@divorcehq