DiversLike their surreal, serpentine songs, Divers always seem to be in mid-transformation. The Melbourne quartet have thrived in such flux, constantly shifting in mood and direction since forming as a studio project in 2019 – when the members were only in Year 10.
They produce themselves, happily spiking their free-wheeling indie rock with clubby electronics, psychedelic effects and whatever other textures feel right in the moment.
Their origin story is simple enough: drummer Tom Evans had recorded Summits, the prior band from singer/guitarist Ben Bray and guitarist Jake Green. Bassist Scott McQuilten went to school with Bray, and the three absorbed Evans on the way to becoming a proper four-piece, who began playing live in 2021.
This all took place around Melbourne’s southwestern suburbs, but the members of Divers have never felt like they slotted comfortably into any exact corner of the city’s prismatic music scene.
“It’s always been hard to work out where we sit, and what our genre is,” says Green, chatting over Zoom along with Bray.
Bray echoes that sentiment: “I feel like we haven’t really glued our sound down.”
While that might be a fatal flaw for most bands, it’s a major strength for Divers, who have just followed up three diverse EPs with a thrillingly unpredictable album.
Odd Dogs Indeed
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Divers’ debut album, Odd Dog In The Capital, has been a long time in the making. The band members decamped to various locations to tinker with songs, sometimes living with a certain chorus or other crucial part for years before axing it.
That was the case with their breakthrough single, Head Chef, which has since earned high rotation on triple j as well as airplay on the influential Seattle radio station KEXP.
Self-produced by the band and mixed by Evans, it’s as catchy as it is off-kilter, with Bray’s coolly raspy singing leading us through cryptic lyrics laden with food and coffee references.
It takes a left turn at the chorus – hinging on the refrain “Risk it in the kitchen” – before resuming a forward drive that gets all the more garage-y by the end. You might not expect a song with the repeated lyric “gonna burn my brisket” to work this well, but that’s the benefit of workshopping it across three years and a reported five chorus changes.
“I still think that [an earlier] chorus was more fun to play live,” says Bray, “but it was a bit of a flat spot in the song. It needed a little more momentum to carry it through.”
The band arrived at the winning chorus while gathered at a residence in Coronet Bay, where McQuilten was house sitting. McQuilten came up with the crucial “risk it in the kitchen” hook and Divers started trialling it live. But it only became the definitive chorus after they had tried out several other ones in the interim.
That spirit of experimentation has been with Divers from the start. Released in the thick of lockdowns, their debut 2020 EP Now I’m Home fleshed out their slacker rock impulses with blissfully textured production.
Their aptly 2022 EP, The Sensory Edition, deepened their focus on soundscapes, while 2023’s Economy Class made bright-eyed electronic pop and moody post punk make sense together.
That dreamy changeability continues on their layered album – alternately evoking bands like MGMT, Broken Social Scene, and even Animal Collective – but with more inner logic this time.
“There’s a bit more consistency to it,” Green agrees. “It feels like one piece of work.”
Constant Evolution
Those fascinating detours – the pitched-down spoken word on The Great Tree, the ambush of saxophone on Beep Beep and the dance-driven synths on Sand Dunes and The Mouse – sprung from a growing interest in spontaneity rather than over-engineering.
“Our first three EPs are very structured,” says Bray. “The thing we put our effort into was building a soundscape, so there would be a sonic identity to each song. Those weirder ones [on the album] are more following your nose in the studio, as opposed to building something that’s kind of schematic. You just try to come up with an idea on the fly.”
It helps that Divers felt zero outside pressure: “We just went with it,” Bray confesses. “We were honestly expecting nobody to listen to it. It’s been a pretty surprising result.”
As the songs have become more adventurous, the live show has become more grounded and streamlined – despite Green and McQuilten switching between guitar, bass and keyboards.
“It’s more guitar-driven [now],” says Green. “Some of the other songs, we’ll have [synth] arpeggiators going for the whole song. Then you’d have to put them in there and play to a [backing] track.”
“We just tried to prioritise a good sound and have that as the main thing, instead of throwing 50 things on top of each other,” adds Bray. “We just want to roll with the one guitar tone, and that kind of thing. It’s more calculated.”
It may be more calculated, but you can still sense the openness of four friends jamming together, either remotely or via wine-anointed sessions at Sandy Point, near Wilsons Prom.
“We made it in a night,” Bray says of feature track The Mouse. “It was just made on a synth and we looped it. We thought, ‘It needs a meat-and-veg rock song underneath it.’ So we put that under it and tried to not go over the top with it. It just reminds me of Sandy Point, that song.”
Taking It To The World
After scoring triple j rotation for both Head Chef and The Great Tree, Divers are releasing Odd Dog In The Capital to a steadily growing audience. Having released their Economy Class EP on Domestic La La, the label run by Violent Soho’s James Tidswell, they’re doing the album independently, with distribution through Community Music.
They’ve got launch shows booked in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, and are hoping to improve on a spotty touring record that has included sound-checking during a televised footy match and Bray breaking his actual foot after falling off a Lime bike in Sydney.
“That’s the best part: going on these trips with your best mates,” says Green. “That’s what you remember.”
One more thing that happened on the road – yet isn’t so clearly remembered – is Evans coming up with the album’s title phrase. Bray remembers him saying it about a dog they happened to drive past, and finding it a fitting metaphor for Divers’ outsider status.
“We spent like five years gigging, not really having a place in the music scene,” he explains. “Not finding our people. So we’re the odd dogs, I suppose. It’s a good name for the album, because we’re taking a left turn as well.”
But Green recalls it totally differently. In his version, Evans uttered the line after observing a sniffer dog at Hobart Airport. So which story is true? Laughing, Green says, “You’ll have to ask Tom.”
Divers’ Odd Dog In The Capital is out now. Tickets to their upcoming tour dates are on sale now.
Divers – Odd Dog In The Capital Album Release Shows
Saturday, June 6th – Vic on the Park, Sydney, NSW
Friday, June 26th – Bergy Band Room, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, July 18th – The Metro, Adelaide, SA
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
