Divorce tell us all about the Drive to Goldenhammer
Three days after the release of Divorce's debut album Drive to Goldenhammer, we caught up with drummer Kasper Sandstrøm
Divorce have been making waves in the alternative rock scene with their genre-blurring sound and emotionally charged lyrics, steadily building a dedicated following with a string of sharp, boundary-pushing singles. Now, with the release of their debut album Drive to Goldenhammer, they’re cementing their place as one of the UK’s most exciting new acts.
The album, released last week, showcases Divorce’s ability to blend raw storytelling with dynamic instrumentation, weaving together elements of post-punk, indie rock, and art pop. Across its tracks, Drive to Goldenhammer explores themes of identity, relationships, and personal reckoning, all delivered with a mix of wit and vulnerability that has become the band’s signature.
In the midst of the buzz surrounding the album, we caught up with Divorce’s drummer, Kasper Sandstrøm, to talk about the creative process behind Drive to Goldenhammer, the band’s evolution, and what’s next for them. Sandstrøm offers insight into the making of the album, the energy behind their live performances, and how Divorce is navigating the early days of their burgeoning career.
Hi Kasper, thank you for making the time to talk to us today. The album came out three days ago - what is that feeling like for you, after waiting for so long?
We recorded it in January last year, so it's been completed for a while. That time has actually gone really fast. We did a lot touring, so it managed to creep up quite quickly, but it's amazing to see people's reactions to it. I think it has gone really well and we're all very proud of it. It’s nice for it to be out in the world.
How does this differ to releasing an EP? I imagine that it feels like a much bigger deal, with this being your first longer body of work.
Any artist’s first album is a bit more of a mission statement. I guess it is what defines you for a lot of people. With the EPs, we're still a small band now, but we were even smaller then. We were still figuring out our sound and who we are. I think we’re never going to settle on something concrete and the album shows that, in that it's quite eclectic, there's a lot of different sounds across the record. The album is just more momentous, I think. This is our first of longer body of work, as you said, and we put a lot of work into making it flow. There are more songs, so there's more for people to dig into. It feels like more of a main meal than an EP, which is a bit of a starter.
I like that analogy. How did you go about selecting the tracklist? Did you have to think a lot more about flow and structure, when comparing it to a four or five track EP?
We wrote a lot. Gears and My Room came out beforehand because we love those songs but we didn’t think they worked on the album, they felt like more of a bridge. So, once that decision had been made, it was just whittling the other songs down to a track list of twelve, and we couldn’t get it any lower than that – nothing felt it should go by the wayside. There are a lot of songs sitting in a Google Drive that we can consider for our second album, so nothing ever goes to waste. Usually, it will never be used in its current state, but there might be a lyric or a drum beat or something that we use as a jumping point for a completely different song.
Are any of the songs on the album a product of that process of taking an older idea and turning it into something new?
We didn’t do that for the album, we were keen on making it a completely fresh thing from the get go. There was initially talk of putting Checking Out on there, because that was our biggest tune at the time. But we didn’t want to do that because it felt like part of a completely different chapter of the band. We set out to write everything with the album in mind, rather than taking from anything earlier on.
Could you tell us more about the album’s title?
After we finished the album, we were listening to it and trying to get the sequencing right, and thinking about the title. We realised a lot of the album is about journeying, travelling… so, the Drive to part came early on. Then, we were trying to think of a fictional name for somewhere we could be driving to, and Goldenhammer is a lyric from the last track Mercy, which Felix (Mackenzie-Barrow, co-vocalist) wrote. We thought it sounded like it could be a place, so it worked in that way. But the focus is on the drive to somewhere. At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s all about the journey.
The Calm Farm in North Yorkshire, where you wrote and demoed the album, sounds very isolated and remote. How do you feel the location influenced the product that you created within that time?
It’s a mid-century house that hasn’t been touched since then, so it’s all original and looks amazing. We wanted somewhere where there was nothing else to do but write. No other distractions. I definitely think that influenced the record. I don’t think it’s an isolated record in the sense that it is lonely, it’s isolated in the sense that we wrote it there, in between tours. I also think you can hear that we would be waking up in the morning, having breakfast together, getting going at about 9 or 10am, and then sometimes we wouldn’t finish until 3am. Just writing all day – I think you can hear which ones were written earlier in the day and which ones were in the middle of the night.
That’s really interesting. In your opinion, which ones stand out to you the most as being the most extreme day-time songs, versus the most extreme night-time ones?
All My Freaks is the most daytime, summery one – it was quite warm and sunny that day. Parachute, my personal favourite on the record, was written later on. We’d had dinner, written another song, then we were going to go to bed, but we reckoned we could squeeze one more out. So it was real dead of night. We were playing really quiet and that informed the demo. We instantly knew it should go on the record.
With all four members being from the Midlands, before meeting in Nottingham, how do you feel the music scene here shaped Divorce as a band? Nottingham’s music scene always feels very special, with everyone carving out their own unique lane and forming their own distinct path to success. Would you agree?
I’ve been in other bands – and I’m still in Do Nothing. Tiger (Cohen-Towell, vocalist and bassist) and Felix had Megatrain, and Adam (Peter-Smith, lead guitarist) was a busker and did open mics and had a project in his own right. That’s how we all met. We were playing in places like the Maze, the Bodega, the Chameleon, Jam Café... and you’re right, every band is different. I think often within scenes you get people doing the same things. But I’ve never felt that in Nottingham, and I think everyone really lifts each other up – partly because everyone is so lovely, but also because no one is really treading on each other’s toes. Everyone is doing their own thing and wants to celebrate that. Weirdly, when Divorce started, we were careful not to play Nottingham too much early on because sometimes, when a band plays Nottingham too much early on, they get sort of stuck within that. So, our first gig was actually in London.
I was going to ask you about Do Nothing, if it came up in conversation. What is it like balancing being in two bands, which are each having successes in their own rights?
I’ve been with Do Nothing since I was a kid – we met in school. We’ve known each other half our lives, if not more. So far, we’ve been lucky that our schedules kind of swap, so when one band has downtime and is touring less, the other one is touring more. It’s definitely difficult but I wouldn’t change it. I’m guitarist for Do Nothing and drummer for Divorce, so it gives me a chance to flex lots of different muscles.
While you tried not to play Nottingham too much early on, you have abandoned that approach nowadays. Can we talk about the four back-to-back shows you did at the Bodega last autumn?
The Bodega means a lot to us as a band – I worked there for seven years so it a holds a very special place in my heart and in my whole adult life, basically. In Nottingham, there’s a bit of a gap between venue sizes. There’s Rescue Rooms and then the next one up is Rock City, which is four times that size. We didn’t want to do Rescue Rooms again, and Rock City was too much at the time. The Bodega just feels like home for us. They’ve always been so supportive over the years and it was lovely to play somewhere we were so familiar with. We also broke the previously held record – which isn’t the reason we did it, but it’s a bonus!
Did you do the same setlist each night? I was at the first of the four shows.
We did pretty much the same set each night. It was before the album came out, obviously, so we didn’t want to play too much from it. We basically played everything we’ve ever released, then as much from the album as we were willing to give away. So, we couldn’t change it because we didn’t have any more songs. We were playing everything we could. But we did do a different cover every night. That was really fun, and each of us sang on each separate night, so it was fun to give each singer a spotlight.
I remember Adam doing the cover on the night I was there. With the venue, city and setlist being identical, did this highlight any contrasts within the crowds on the varying nights?
It’s interesting gigging in the same place every night. When you’re gigging all over the country, it’s a bit harder to tell whether different atmospheres are caused by the day of the week, or because of the city, the crowd or the venue. But when you’re playing the same venue, you notice things like the Thursday night crowd being less rowdy than Saturday night, or the Sunday being more chilled than the Friday. None were worse than others but do you know what I mean? Different, but in a nice way. Some were rowdier, some warmer, some louder… but others were quiet, like we had really captured everyone’s attention.
Yeah, that makes sense. Now, you’re doing two gigs at Rough Trade on the same night. I feel like that’s a very different venue to The Bodega, despite still being intimate.
It feels less like you’re on a stage, a bit more like a living room. It’s lovely because it feels very relaxed. We’ve worked out the whole album in a stripped back way, which is really nice to play. We’ve actually ended up changing loads of stuff, like the chords. I don’t really know why we set ourselves that challenge, but it’s fun. It was hard work but it’s coming into fruition now. These gigs feel way more informal, and everyone in the crowd is involved. This is one of the many reasons why small venues are great.
I know you’ve only played a couple of shows since the album came out, but have you noticed a difference yet between playing the songs when they were unreleased versus playing them now people have had a chance to listen to them?
It’s maybe a little too soon to say still, as we’ve only played two gigs since Friday. But certainly with the singles, even compared to our tour last year, people have been starting to sing along to tracks like All My Freaks and Hangman. I’m excited to see which album tracks, or non-singles, people latch onto. I feel like that’s a good indicator of people who are really deeply listening to the music. It seems Karen has been a favourite on social media so far, and that one is super fun to play live too. We hadn’t played it before these in-stores, but it’s been getting a big release of energy.
I’m coming to the earlier show tonight - the 5:30pm doors. I love an early gig.
Me too. Usually, gigs finish at 10 or 11pm, and we will still have that tonight because of the second show. But with an early gig, you play it, then you can go and have dinner.
I know this is a difficult question, as you are probably wrapped up in the release of the album right now. But what are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year?
Europe is going to be amazing – I mean, the whole tour is. We’ve sold out a lot of the UK run, which we are over the moon about, and perhaps didn’t expect it. One of my favourite venues in the UK is Brudenell in Leeds and that one was the first one to sell-out. I can’t wait to go to Europe and play in places we’ve never been before. Also, I’m Danish, so going to Denmark is always fun to see my family and experience that. But we’re also going to Sweden and Norway – we’ve never been that far North – and Poland, we’ve never been there. We’re also going to Spain in May.
I just got back from Spain - it was already around 18°C now, so it’ll be great in May.
Exactly - the weather will be great, the food will be great, the people will be great. Getting to experience different cultures and connect with people from all over, that’s the highlight for me.
Divorce’s debut album, Drive to Goldenhammer, is out now.