This week get to know Ben and Scott from Divers, experimental indie-rockers who bring the creativity to their live shows.
Rounded out by Jack on bass and Tom on drums, Divers released their second EP The Sensory Edition earlier this year and have supported the likes of Flyying Colours and the Terrys, priding themselves on their versatile sound. “We’re really sporadic,” says Ben. “It could be heavy over this way, or heavy over that way – or even just really chill. We’ve got some fucked up songs, some really chill songs and some really challenging songs.”
Off the stage, Divers are a group of friends through and through. “It’s a strength of our band,” says Scott. “We literally just mates. We hang out fucking a lot.” But this never hinders their drive to create music. “It’s not one foot in and one foot out. We are in it.”
I sat down with Ben and Scott to chat all things Divers, somehow finding our way onto Harry Potter, Kurt Vile and the beauty of stereo.
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What are your most unlikely inspirations?
Ben and Scott offered up some surprising answers for what inspires them. “Instruments are unlikely,” says Ben. “You find an instrument that you love and you want to play it. It’s the most inspiring thing. You write the song based on the sound it gives you.”
Scott’s offerings were less related to the music, but inspire him nonetheless. “The Harry Potter books. Don’t know how it relates to music, but they’re inspiring,” says Scott, before offering “the Wright Brothers. The two brothers who invented the airplane. I always loved them. They’re just cool. They just had a crack. I’ve always been inspired by people who jump to the unknown.”
If you could tour anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
“I’d say America,” says Ben. “They have a good indie scene there and I think someone’s going to like our sound there. America’s so niche with all their different scenes. They have massive scenes for such small niches. You could probably be alright being an indie band in America.”
Which song of yours has the weirdest origins?
“There’s one song we’ve got called ‘Happy/Sad’,” says Ben. “It was a weird one where we were thinking about stereo music. How you have the left and right, and can have two seperate experiences. We wrote one song with a happy melody on guitar panned to the right, then we wrote a sad lyrical song which was panned to the left. So when you listen to the song, the lyrics match but they don’t; you can tell that there’s two different things going on. The listener’s got to work out to take out one earphone so that you get one song, then if you take out the other you get another song. Two songs in one song. It depends on your mood. You can cop the happy version or the sad version.”
What albums have to be in your band’s record collection?
Scott chooses a classic of 2000s indie. “MGMT – Oracular Spectacular,” he says. “I reckon everyone could get around that one.”
“God Is Saying This To You… by Kurt Vile,” chooses Ben. “It’s just the sounds in it and the way it creates a vibe. It puts you in a headspace. That’s a style that I just love. It’s a super important album to me. It’s carried me through heaps of overseas trips. Anytime I hear any of those songs specifically, I’m back there straight away. All those feelings come straight back in. That’s really what I want to do as an artist. I want to make people feel certain ways when they listen to the music again.”
A question from the band…
I ask Ben and Scott what would be a question they would want me to ask them. They answer with – “What’s the best time in your life?” We went on a trip down memory lane to a fond road trip around the States.
“We went to Yosemite and New Orleans and saw really cool places,” says Ben. “People always say they don’t want to go to America because there’s so many messed up people there, but that’s also the draw. They are the oddest people, but they’ve got this beautiful country with all these sick landscapes. We found a cricket bat over there. We drove for about five hours and then stopped to have a game of cricket. We set up in the carpark, played cricket for two hours and then get kept driving.”
Lastly, why should people who don’t know you come and see your gig?
“Have a listen to our music and follow us. Our ecosystem is built around creativity and we want to make things as interesting as possible. I hope it keeps improving and that it will be a journey for people who start listening to us now. It’s going to be a fucking hell of a journey if they get on. It’s going to be fun. We want to hold people on the edge of their seat during our shows.”
You can listen to Divers’ first two EPs on Spotify and catch them supporting Sputnik Sweetheart this Saturday night.
