No more Economy Class for DIVERS
DIVERS have release their new single the dreamy & wistful ‘That’s Time Flying’, with the new song addressing the bands own youthful, amorous feelings. The release of ‘That’s Time Flying’ comes as the band gear up for the release of their third EP ‘Economy Class’, which was officially launched last week in Melbourne. We caught up with DIVERS drummer Tom Evans to ask him about the forthcoming EP, the band’s signing to the Domestic La La Label and the benefits of recording in your own studio.
Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for Music Kingdom Australia
No dramas.
For those that haven’t heard of DIVERS before, can you give our readers a breif history of the band?
We’re simply 4 friends that met as teenagers and I guess fate caused us to start a fucking band. The main vocalist, Ben, came to us in 2018 with song ideas and we built on them. Now we’re all involved in the songwriting process and it’s nice and democratic which I think helps make our sound a nice blend of our varying tastes.
Speaking of what we sound like; it’s based on pop/rock music I reckon and then we attempt to push the textures a bit with either synthesisers, effects or computer tricks. Nothing groundbreaking but I guess we’re doing our best to be ourselves which is the only thing anyone should be doing. Have a conversation with the music of the past and put our own imprint on it. Right?
We released our first single in 2019 and finished 2 self recorded EPs before we played our first show in 2021. We were lucky enough for Domestic La La to hear ‘Lost With You’ through their weekly playlist that our mate and now manager submitted. From there, we started playing as many gigs as we could find.
We’ve finished our 3rd EP, with two singles out now and the rest coming in August with the release of “Economy Class”
“I guess we’re doing our best to be ourselves which is the only thing anyone should be doing. ”
You have just released the second single from your forthcoming EP, "That's Time Flying". Tell us about your new song, where did the inspiration come for writing the track?
The inspiration started from Scott’s initial creations on the session. Some guitar blended with some stock samples and loops found in Logic Pro (don’t be afraid of fucking around with them).
We thought it had a nice sound to it. Ben walked in and started making mouth sounds until he says “I’ve got a vocal melody. Hit the red button, Scotty” and he put down the initial vocal demos.
From there we got our heads together and pieced some sort of cohesive lyrics together.
"That's Time Flying" has an accompanying video you filmed yourselves, so who came up with the concept for the video? Were there any memorable moments during the making of it?
We were mildly rushing to come up with a video concept, when Scott put together clips of NASA astronauts slipping over on the moon, due to the lyrics “If i don’t fall, I slip”. From there, an idea formed and the boys went to Spotlight and got those silly orange outfits and buckets, threw up a green screen and our manager, Ben Schoonderbeek filmed us in the home studio. We were thinking it’ll be pretty trash during recording, but it somehow works in a sense. I’d like to thank Schoondy for putting it all together and making us silly pricks look like conceptual masterminds.
The EP 'Economy Class' is due out on the 18th of August. What can fans expect from this new body of work?
We all think this EP is our best work yet, which is handy. It definitely sounds more professional due to putting more effort into recording and using a mix engineer with some serious experience (Anton Hagop).
You can expect rock and pop music with some psychedelia and experimentalism. But it all seems pretty sing-along-able thanks to Ben and Scott’s vocal hooks. We’ve got a debut of Scott on the lead vocals on a song which is exciting for me and you’ll get more of that in the future too.
The closing song “New Lands” is a progressive track with multiple movements and it’s the most psych rock and unconventional piece of the release and I’m eager to hear what people think of it. It’s one of Ben’s works and it’s got cool hooks and funny sounds in it. let me know what you think of it, good or bad - 0400599713
'Economy Class' is your first major release under your new label, Domestic La La. What was you reaction when you heard that this great Aussie label wanted to sign you?
James Tidswell messaged us on instagram asking to buy some merch. That was exciting because we’re fans of his band. Then a couple weeks later he messaged us again asking if we could have a zoom chat.
We were like “no way, nice.” He didn’t say anything regarding offering us a deal until the video call.
We answered the call, pretty nervous. We chatted small talk for a bit, then he said “so i want to offer you a record deal”
It was strange and awesome. We checked out the DLL roster and saw their bands were all decently popular already, yet they chose to offer us a deal. And as a band with no fans or any live shows played, it was pretty confusing and nice. Certainly made us feel happy, you know? I reckon we shared some high 5s and some cheap shiraz that afternoon.
I don’t think we said yes straight away, funnily enough. We discussed the pros and possible cons of signing to a label, then we went for it. Would be foolish to decline it, I'd say
“regardless of being signed or not, you’ve got to connect with people in one way or another.”
Does being signed to a label like Domestic La La help in getting your music out there to a wider listening audience?
Yeah, I’d say for sure. It gave us a little turbo boost. Maybe validates the music to industry people. Most likely wouldn’t have played so many shows with The Terrys and Loser, and they got us in front of a few faces. Really nice guys. Big shoutout to Craig Selak (Community Manager at DLL) for being an epic human and always batting us in also, we’re lucky to have him. Financially it definitely helps enable us to do things we didn’t have access to before.
It definitely doesn’t get you heaps of fans immediately. The common person doesn’t necessarily care about what label you’re on - so regardless of being signed or not, you’ve got to connect with people in one way or another.
Overall though, to take an educated guess, Yes, it does help.
You recorded 'Economy Class' is your home studio, what were the advantages and disadvantages of having the studio right at your finger tips?
Advantages:
Our ideas can be recorded and worked on immediately, which is sick.
The songs can be made in an afternoon and uploaded for everyone else to listen to impart their thoughts on.
We all get to spend heaps of time with the music to make sure we’re very happy with it.
It’s fun.
Disadvantages:
A song could get to a state of completion without more than 1 person working on it, which can make it hard to translate into a live performance. It can also be cool too..
It has caused songs to become too complex, and when we play them live, some things clash as humans try to play the parts together, it’s odd.
We can spend way too long on a part to only delete it
We get too drunk
Our fingertips get sore
Are there plans to tour for the EP?
Yeah, we'll be announcing some shows upon EP release. Most likely looking like Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong and Adelaide will be sweet
Will we see DIVERS joining the Australian festival circuit this summer?
Yes, you certainly will.
Can’t tell you where yet but there’s no point not trying to manifest this one into reality.
“we’re quite keen to play a festival sometime soon”
Are festivals appearences something you would like to explore more in the future both here and overseas?
Yes. We’ve only played one small, independent festival, So we’re quite keen to play a festival sometime soon.
I’m personally excited by the thought.
Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what is it they do that keeps your world turning?
Ben Schoonderbeek, our friend and manager. He’s nuts
What's next for DIVERS? What's in the works for the band going forward?
We're looking at releasing an LP next year at some point, got a fair amount of songs written but we still want to write a few more and then work it out from there.
Artwork by: Ben Schoonderbeek & Jake Green