Indie quartet Divorce talk touring with their heroes and the Nottingham scene

You have a long history with this venue - working and playing here. When did you first come to Bodega?

I remember being maybe nineteen, I was at a production at the Playhouse with my mum, and we sat behind all of the band Dog Is Dead. I’d met Rob (Milton) the singer once before, and they said ‘We’re going to Bodega, do you want to come?’ and I was like ‘Mum can I please go?’ (laughs). So, I went out with them and that was the start of it.

How did it progress from there?

So I started going Bodega loads, watching loads of gigs and then I started playing there with my first band, which became Do Nothing. I also wanted to move into town so I asked Bodega for a job, which was back in 2016, and I only left last year. So it was a good stint, seven and a half years working there.

What have been your highlights?

More recently Geese - saw them last year, that was amazing. A band called Wooze I saw supporting somebody, who were incredible. There’s too many to mention!

When was the first time you made the transition to the dressing room then?

Well, this one’s new! The old dressing room was just a toilet and a fridge basically, a little cloakroom. It wasn’t much to write home about! This one is beautiful. You can have a shower and chill.

And now you’ve just done four sold out nights here…

Yeah! It’s incredible. I mean, it feels like home. I know everyone behind the bar, the management team - it feels very relaxed, especially when you’re living there for four days!

It does seem to play a real integral part in the lives of Nottingham musicians. I know GIRLBAND!’s singer has worked here too…

We’ve all known Georgie for years. She started working here just as I left pretty much. We’ve actually never played with them on the same bill, but I’m sure that’ll change pretty soon - we’re big fans.

There seems to be a real buzz with Nottingham bands at the moment. Historically, one or two have gained traction nationally - but it feels like there’s a whole collection coming through now…

Yeah agreed, it’s always been like one at a time almost. I feel like after COVID we were bursting with creativity and people really wanted to go out and play gigs. There’s so much - there’s Cucamaras, us, Wizards Can’t Be Lawyers - so many amazing bands on the scene. It feels like the healthiest it’s been in a long time.

It has been a busy year for you with the new album being recorded and support dates with Bombay Bicycle Club, The Vaccines and Everything Everything. Those three bands were you guys fifteen years ago - has it been interesting to see how they operate up close now?

Yeah. It’s been like a nice ‘this is what you could have’ type of thing when you play 2,000 capacity rooms. That’s not us yet and it won’t be for a while, we’ll see how it all works out. When you’re in a support slot you don’t have too much time to see what happens back of house - it’s soundcheck, dinner, play. It is interesting hanging out with people in the crew and seeing what they do. There’s so much to do in a small period of time, so it can be pretty stressful for them.

It’s been three years as a band now - are you guys officially full-time musicians?

We are yeah - for now! We got signed to Gravity Records (Capitol) last year which has enabled us to go full time with it. Adam (Peter-Smith, guitarist) still works as a joiner and I still DJ, but Felix (Mackenzie-Barrow, guitarist and singer) and Tiger (Cohen-Towell, bassist and singer) are pretty much full-time with this now. It’s the first time in my life I’ve been able to make a living from music, which is nuts. I’m not counting my chickens just yet, but it’s been great.

And the video for your recent single All My Freaks was shot at Wollaton Hall - how was that experience?

The director said what do you think about doing upstairs there? And we were like if you can get it, absolutely! It was like 35 degrees that day, so it was quite intense, but fun to film in a place I've been going to since I was a kid.

So, all roads lead to March 7 now and the release of Drive To Goldenhammer...

Yeah! It’s actually been done for ages. We recorded it in January with Catherine Marks in Real World Studios.

Yes, Peter Gabriel’s legendary place - how was that?

Yeah, we were hoping to meet him, but he was having some time off. It’s beautiful, really isolated, but not so isolated that there’s nothing going on. We were in the studio for twelve hours a day hashing it out.

Are you happy with how it has turned out?

Yeah. It’s the most amount of freedom we’ve ever had in the studio to play around and create. We had time to splurge all of our ideas and then take things away! Sometimes you have to know when it’s too much.

I understand Goldenhammer is this fantasy place where you can go to escape this hectic world - is that right?

Yeah, sort of. I feel like Tiger and Felix often write about travelling as we’re doing it all the time and you’re a bit placeless, you don’t really know where home is sometimes. So, you’re writing songs to make them feel like home, do you know what I mean? Get a sense of familiarity with it.

The album is obviously a huge milestone for 2025 - what other targets do you have in your sights? Splendour, Glastonbury?

Glastonbury will be class. I’ve been as a punter and I’ve also played it once when I was nineteen with another band, that was my first one. We played Splendour last time around, so I guess we’ll see, you never know - it’s local, so it’s an easy day for us! Our focus at the moment is just getting this album out and making it as good as possible.

Divorce will release Drive To Goldenhammer on 7 March 2025 through Gravity Records.

@divorcehq