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Iowa band Divergent recently sat down with VENTS Magazine to discuss all things “Give Her Love”. The interview is down below
“Rev it Up” and “Give Her Love” feel like two different sides of the same energy—how do they set the tone for the new record?
James: “Rev It Up” and “Give Her Love” definitely set the tone for the hard rock tracks on our second album. For our hard rock tracks, I really like a sound that captures huge, multi-tracked guitars laden with heavy saturated distortion, heavy rhythms, big drums and an overall aggressive sound that signifies we are serious rockers. However, living up to our name Divergent, there are other tracks on the album that diverge in style from the hard rock tracks. Our band has the musical ability and an interest in stretching our sound into other rock-related genres that showcase our creativity and our diverse artistic pursuits. Pounding out the same style of rock over and over again gets a little boring for us. Make no mistake, we love to rock and when we do, we rock hard. But mixing it up with great songs that incorporate other styles is very appealing to us. We grew up with bands like The Beatles and Queen, where diversity of musical expression was valued by those bands and their fans. It’s just who we are. At the end of the day, it’s all about creating great songs that will stand the test of time, no matter the style. That’s our paramount goal and that’s what gets us excited.
Mike: Both songs are rockers and well within our historic wheelhouse, so to speak. Regarding the rest of the album, I truly believe the listener will feel our energy in every song; we put a lot into music and Jason Peets our engineer/producer is able to bring out the best in all of us. There are several songs on the album that are not rockers, but they all have a ‘groove’ that Paul and I are able to put together with James’ guitar and keyboard tracks. I think Paul’s drum work and my feel for the bassline in the songs help define the energy in each track. From an overall ‘setting the tone’ perspective, the songs are tight with great vocals, which is the essence of Divergent.
“Give Her Love” tells a heavy, real story. What led you to focus on that subject?
James: When I write songs, I almost always write the music first and then the lyrics come second. When I come up with musical ideas I like, I start listening to the music and the vibe and mood it creates. This usually gives me ideas for the lyrics. Often times, I start out the lyrics by focusing on a single word or a phrase that resonates with the sound of the music. I love this part of songwriting because sometimes I even wonder where I’m going to go with the lyrics as words start popping into my head. That was the case with “Give Her Love.” After I finished the music, the words “backwoods” and “railroad tracks” got stuck in my head. The music for the song has a definite southern rock feel to it. The main guitar riff has a heavy dose of country rock in it. That riff could easily be played on a banjo, and it would sound great. The first line I wrote was – “There’s a girl who’s down the railroad tracks.” Wow, there’s so many different ways you can go with that line! Anyway, that first line got me thinking about the women in my family and in my life that have suffered oppression and abuse. I remember stories that my mom and grandma used to tell. And, of course, I’ve seen it in my own life. It’s really so tragic that it is so prevalent still to this day. So I took the lyrics in that direction and the words just flowed out, almost like I was taking dictation or something. I like to say that the music really coaxed the story out of me. However, I decided to put a compassionate and hopeful take on such a dark story with the words “give her love” in the choruses and bridge. The idea being that more love in all forms is really the answer to avoid such a terrible tragedy.
Mike: James will need to explain the genesis of the song, but I feel that the idea of a serious subject with a hopeful message, such as ‘give her love’, is a way to provide hope to people in abusive relationships. At the end of our lyric video, we added a graphic that provides an 800-number to call for anyone experiencing domestic abuse. Most of us know someone personally who has been in an abusive relationship and we felt it was the right thing to do.
The song balances urgency with a hopeful message. How did you approach getting that balance right?
James: I focused on building the narrative of the story during the verses, which led to the tragic ending during the last verse. However, then I decided to put a compassionate and hopeful take on the dark story with the words “give her love” in the choruses and the bridge. Again, the idea being that more love in all forms is really the answer to avoid such a terrible tragedy. That’s really the powerful message of the song.
Mike: James has a great way of telling the story in every song and he wanted the overall message of ‘Give Her Love’ to be hopeful, while acknowledging many people are in bad relationships for any number of reasons. In my opinion, for James to be able to write the lyrics for ‘Give Her Love’ reflects the experience of someone who has known people who may have been in similar situations and is empathetic to their dreams of a better place.
What’s your process like when building a song together, from riffs to final arrangement?
James: My approach to songwriting and creativity overall is very organic. I never try to force an idea or a riff. My approach is not a manufactured or disciplined process by any means. I can feel it when I’m in the mood to be creative. It’s just a gnawing feeling I get and then I can tell I’m ready to be creative. If I haven’t been creative for a few days, this feeling builds up in me and then I have to go into my home studio to release it. This sounds a little weird, but often times my best ideas happen when I first pick up my guitar and play something right away without even thinking about it. Same for when I first sit down at my keyboard. I love it when that happens because it just happens naturally and I don’t have to think about it. When I have a song idea going that I really like, I play through it over and over and that helps me add embellishments that fully develop the song. When I’m writing lyrics, I don’t agonize over each and every word at first. I just try to get the main concepts down. Then I’m usually thinking about the lyrics as I go about my day and as I get new ideas for different words or phrases, I write them down immediately. That’s how I fine tune my lyrics usually over a period of several days. When I get to the lyric writing stage, I’m usually just working on one song at that point until it’s totally finished.
Mike: Again, much of this process happens in James’ song writing process. I will let James and Paul talk about how they work out the initial arrangement and vocals. My part of the process happens when they send me a demo of the song, which includes a guitar or piano track, drums, and scratch vocals. From there I will listen and play along until I come up with the best bassline to support the song. I’ll send the demo back with my bassline idea and we will adjust from there. Much of what I put together is from the ‘feel’ I get when listening to the demos. I don’t think a lot about the notes, per se, but I want to help emphasize the phrasing or the rhythm of the song to help drive it along.
The lyric video shows a very specific setting in Appalachia. How did that visual concept come together?
James: The song and the main guitar riff have a definite southern rock feel. The words “backwoods” and “railroad tracks” were the first words that came to mind when I sat down to write the lyrics. When I finished the lyrics, there was a strong visual for me of the story happening deep in the backwoods, somewhere like Appalachia. If you’ve ever been deep in the woods, it can get a little eerie. So I imagined the story of the song taking place deep in the backwoods, where bad things can happen that nobody knows about.
Mike: James and his wife, Jacque, who is an integral part of the Divergent process, came up with the overall concept along with the team at HIP Video Productions. The Production team sent out a few 2-minute ‘samples’ of the video and we met as a total team a few times to provide suggestions for changes and improvements over the course of a few weeks. To be honest, even though it shows the backwoods of Appalachia, the situation occurs everywhere, unfortunately. The story is about someone who married into an abusive relationship too young and was hoping to find a way out… This scenario can happen anywhere.
What did you learn from making your debut record that you’ve carried into this new one?
James: Good question. For me, the biggest thing I learned was that we could go into a pro studio and actually come out with a great-sounding record. We had never done this at that level before, so it was extremely satisfying to know we could actually do it. That gave us a lot of confidence, which shows through on the second album. I know now that every time we go back into the studio, we’ll just keep getting better and better and take it to a higher level each time. There’s no going back now!
Mike: In my mind, we learned that Divergent was worthy of utilizing a world-class recording studio and top-shelf recording engineer to create original music. For the first album, I think we felt the songs we picked out were good and we worked on them hard enough to put out an acceptable product, i.e., great musical arrangements, strong vocals, etc. What we learned is that the chemistry we have as a band and with the staff at Sweetwater Studios creates something beyond our expectations. To answer the question, we carried confidence and the experience of recording music into the studio for the second album. There was no ‘jitters’ or hesitation, only the joy of creating the tracks and working through any issues we encountered. We are so happy with the results of the second set of recordings and can’t wait to get them all out into the world.
As this new era starts to take shape, what are you hoping listeners take away from the music?
James: We put a lot of heart and soul into our music and it’s all about keeping it authentic and original. We’re not trend followers. We like to cover a wide range emotions, from the joy of just simple high energy rock all the way to more lyrically complex ballads. Our music is really meant to be listened to in the collective. We want our listeners to come away feeling like they’ve been on a musical and emotional journey after taking in our songs and that their life is better for having done so.
Mike: We hope that our listeners like the music from our first two albums so much they will look forward to more new music from us because it will always be fresh and original. We hope our listeners will relate to the messages in the songs and enjoy the music we create to tell the story. We hope that our listeners will be encouraged by our band’s story that it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
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