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Making Mates ft. Divers
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Live from Bigsound, Max sits down with Melbourne rockers Divers. They chat the inspirations behind the band and their debut record, why beans for brekky makes for a great song, and when the Divers DJ set will be hitting a club near you.
Connect with Divers on Instagram and TikTok, and listen to their debut album, "Odd Dog in the Capital" on Spotify and Apple Music.
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It was a big sound. Yeah, in the west of the town.
SPEAKER_04And well, and the center of the town. We're coming to you with three different interviews this week, right? Which means that you'll get some drops not uh at the regular times, which means today is the first, and we're starting with our first coup off the off the rank, uh, which was divers. Divers, very nice band. Very nice band. Lovely, lovely fellows that caught up with them, obviously, for this interview. Then we caught up with them a couple of times you know in the streets and on the last night they came and said good day as well. So just all round G's. Just a couple of top lads. A couple of top lads.
SPEAKER_03Well, I think you take this one, Maxwell. So let's waste no time. No time. We're just getting straight into it. Well, why not? Let's go. It's you. So over to you, Maxwell.
SPEAKER_04We're here at Big Sound. It's our first issue of the day. We are here with Divers. Guys, thanks for coming in and chatting to us. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you, Max. It's a pleasure. It's great to be here. Uh, we like to start the show pretty much every week by finding out what you guys are listening to. So, what has been spinning in your playlist the last little while?
unknownNice.
SPEAKER_00This is L'ORLIF, been listening to him all week. Finally got around to listening to the album that came out a couple of years ago. I love it so much. I can't believe it's taken me so long.
SPEAKER_01Um, Scotty sent me Tiny Little Horses, was it? Feeble. Feeble Little Horses. Feeble Little Horses. An album. I can't remember the name of it, but it's a Ripper album.
SPEAKER_02BitNot.
SPEAKER_01Uh I've been listening to Swap Meet's album. Yep. A fair bit. Mount Zero. Mount Zero. Shout out them. And that's it. I've only got two albums.
SPEAKER_04I don't know storage on the phone, so I gotta like swap them out.
SPEAKER_01Just voice memos and no, that's yeah, I'm a bit of a simp, so what are you guys listening to?
SPEAKER_05I've been going back to um Big Thief.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_05There's that white album called New Dragon, New Mountain, I believe in you, or some sh stuff like that. Yeah, that's a nice album. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been listening to that a lot. I've got that one yet. I haven't copied that one yet. I'll be copying it though.
SPEAKER_02I've um jumped back into broadcast this week, last week. Um best band ever. Rest in peace, Trish. She left too soon. All pretty good answers though.
SPEAKER_04I like them. Good selections. Well, before we chat about the album and uh and big sound, let's rewind it a little. Obviously, the first few EPs, you guys kind of set the tone with a lot of different sounds you're pulling from experimental psych rock kind of stuff all the way through to like punchy new wave kind of things. What were the acts and the albums that kind of bonded you guys together when you were first building out the project?
SPEAKER_00I think one of the main ones would have been MGMT, which is like Scotty's favourite band ever, still is. And then we've always been into like the earlier, so well not early, it's still pretty relevant now, but like Psyche Acts, like Tamin Pilor and stuff like that, that always bonded us. Um, and I think as our taste has kind of progressed, it's kind of in line with the music at the same time, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02Right. In terms of the album, is there inspirations? I feel like Men I Trust got tossed around. I feel like Sonic inspiration. Um Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01He's got creeping closer. Um yeah, uh, Men I Trust, um MacDamarco guitar tones. I reckon he's got incredible guitar tones. Yep. Um LXG. Um BL and I suppose that's roughly it. Like there's we we kind of tried to use the uh the the instruments as an inspiration and just go like just keep going down the rabbit hole and not um sit down and think about like what song we'd like to um draw from. Yep. And so we just kind of got lucky, we found some like nice guitar tones in this um virtual guitar emulator called Guitar Rig. Okay. And uh there was guitar tones in there, we're just like, oh, this sounds really cool, but they were very similar to like LXG and uh sorry, uh MacDamarco guitar tones, man I trust sort of thing. So we just kept running down the rabbit hole with that, and then um I think the songwriting-wise, we just sort of were having fun. Yeah, we weren't trying to like write like songs, which is what we used to do. We used to just sit there and like write a pop song sort of thing, trying to write like a catchy song and one that would be fun live, but yeah, we just sort of took the took the the shackles off a little bit for this one and just like just let it go, had fun, yeah. So but yeah, double down, MacDamarco, can I trust epic bands?
SPEAKER_04Well, it is a very fun album in the sense that like as well as like those you know, those more psyche kind of things, there's the album itself feels like there's a bit of a real dance kind of undertone to the whole thing. Was that part of the having fun?
SPEAKER_01Like you wanted it to feel like it could be a live album where people could get involved, get moving, sort of a step up from the from the EPs as well, or yeah, yeah, I think it was like sort of intentional because we were making um like our EPs are really cluttered in the mix and it felt like there was uh we're missing groove, like and it's fun, and that's just like something that's we all really enjoy about music, is just like the groove and the natural headbutt and things like that. So we tried to try to pull away all of the noise and ambience, and then try and like have a drivey bass line with like um drivey grums, and then not overcrowd the mix. So we didn't we ended up going down like that's what I mean. We made the music in the computer, so like it's easy to just pull in a drum loop and it's just completely disconnected from like an indie song, yeah, and then like a song will evolve and turn into like an EDM song or something, and just fun to do that kind of stuff. And it's you know, when you're in the studio, if you gotta listen to a song a hundred times, at least you can do that. Got a little bop going on, yeah. Yeah, so it's like I don't know, it sort of worked out that way, just naturally.
SPEAKER_02There was inspiration from EDM when when I was mixing some of the songs, Benny was saying, just throw in an EDM kick, just make it deep and heavy. Yeah, like, yeah, sure, okay, let's do it.
SPEAKER_04Dive the DJ set coming up, sounds like it's kind of like coming up next year, yeah. Working on it. You talk about how you felt like the EPs were sort of cluttered music, oh sonically, sorry. Having said that, it felt like there was a sheen and a polish to those EPs that you don't see a lot of like you know, first three EPs from bands have. Like you guys started out as a studio-only project. Was that like just to feel like you guys were in there using that studio as that fifth instrument to kind of build it out? Like, what what was I suppose the the ethos behind going in and being such a clean, polished, early studio act?
SPEAKER_00We kind of just we'll just ring it really. We bought a whole bunch of stuff and we all had like a bit of time off. I think we'd all quit our jobs at that point for the first EP, bought all this recording equipment and just were having a crack. Um, and then yeah, we just made all these songs and then put them out, then thought maybe we should learn these live. So yeah, it just kind of progressed in that way. It just that's how it started, and then we kind of just you know worked out how to you know be a band after that.
SPEAKER_02It all started in the home studio, yeah. That's where we just yeah, plugged stuff into our cheap interface and just get stuff down, and then we're like, all right, we're building a song, just one thing at a time, and we still do that.
SPEAKER_00And it's kind of just yeah, I suppose that production side of things are the thing we love the most about music, I would say. Like also like the live thing is awesome as well, but they're like two separate worlds, it feels yeah. Um, and then yeah, being spending time together going away, and then just making music and hanging out with each other, like it's the best thing ever to do. We do it a lot and love it, so yeah, it's good.
SPEAKER_04You guys have spoken before about how you felt like outsiders in the scene, uh, especially in Melbourne. Do you still feel like now that the record's out and you've you've been having this kind of you know divers moment, do you still feel like there's a you kind of seen that outside lane, or do you feel like you've kind of carved your own way in?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're finding friends now for sure. Actually made some mates, not sitting alone at lunchtime with the family. People are friendly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Using us for our fame. I suppose like when we said that it was more about us feeling not comfortable like about the music we were making. Yeah. So like now we're kind of like finding our feet a little bit and we're confident and like and happy with the music that we make, and we feel like we just feel a little bit more natural. So yeah, I mean finding a scene is like uh it's a tough, it's an interesting one, but um Melbourne's just full of insanely good artists and such a varied like landscape of music, it's really tricky to like um like find bands that sound exactly like you, but that's fine. Like it's kind of nice that there's differences there and stuff. So we just like basically we just like if people are nice and and cool, then we just like I don't know, they they probably don't like us because we're not that cool. So well uh we just get if we get along, we get along, and like that's what's important to us basically. Yeah, yeah. We have found more mates if that is your question. Perfect. I was gonna say unless we fall together.
SPEAKER_04And then obviously, like on both the EPs and in the record, you guys have such a great way of pairing like the hooky instrumentals, the big sounds that go together with kind of these topics about like almost quite banal, mundane parts of life. Like, you know, on the EPs, you've got you know, something like Your House, My House with uh Kicking On the When you just kicking on the Couch, or you know, you got uh cooking beans for Brecki on the album as well. What is it about the sort of the the mundanity that kind of sparks that creative creativity for you guys? Is there just or or is it a case of hey, we've got a song, we need it, we need some lyrics.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a bit of that one. But there's there's beauty in in menial tasks, you gotta you gotta find it every day.
SPEAKER_00My ass, your ass is a good one. That was about Benny's Pardon, that's a nice one. I've always thought that was lovely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a song about Belle Mum misses. Um, shout out Belle. And uh yeah, that was the thing. Like back in when we were writing EPs, it was more about we were trying to, I suppose, write songs, trying to write songs. Yeah. And now it's just like when you get into the um studio, it's kind of just like you make music and then you just say stuff, and then just instead of being like, oh, it shouldn't be done, shouldn't be this should be about love or this should be about blah blah blah, you just roll with it and just and we've we've had fun doing it like that. But it's also fun to write songs like that as well. And I'm yeah, I love my partner, but I'd write more love songs about it. I have no drums in that, but like yeah, nothing's about love. Yeah, only about but um yeah, my house is a good song.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I reckon that's the biggest benefit of like doing a home recording studio. There's no real money or it's things you have to spend, it's just time, so it's like you can muck around and make the stupidest song ever, yeah, and it's just a fun and thing, and then it might sit on a Google Drive and just go nowhere, but like it's still fun. But then sometimes you hit one and it's like, oh my god, that's actually not a bad song. It's just a shame it's about beans or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, we're always just trying to make each other laugh if we have have to come up with lyrics. So that's kind of I reckon where it comes from. If we think perhaps it's funny, we're gonna say it.
SPEAKER_04I mean, the the two I picked those two songs specifically because they're the two that I think like musically connect with them the most. So it's interesting how you guys have put together those two, uh, you know, like the mundane stuff with this like super hooky stuff that just gets in your head and you're like, you hear the music and you go, actually, this is a song about cooking danes. Like it's it's both, it's awesome like that. Um before we let you go, we're at Big Sound, uh, which means we're heading towards the end of the year. What does the rest of 2026 and into 2027 look like for divers?
SPEAKER_05Well, I think we well, apart from like we've got a few some geeks, whatever. Uh we're gonna focus on figuring out what the next project is, I think. So we're just kind of putting songs together, um, figuring out what the next direction is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, lots of writing, I think. Back in it, as soon as we get a chance, we'll start doing that. And pretty much after this week, we'll be back in the studio flat out, I think. That's kind of the goal, working on the next whatever release that is.
SPEAKER_02Yep, we're gonna find the new sound and take any any gigs we can. So shoot us some supports. Who any anyone's watching? Yeah, listen to that, people can hang out.
SPEAKER_04We're kind of cool guys, maybe. For listeners, if you haven't listened to Odd Dog in the Capital, uh the debut album from Divers, get it wherever you get your music. But uh, thanks for coming in and having a chat to us today, guys. Thanks so much, cheers. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful.