Screen Grab – Courtesy of Divine Sweater – From Left: Meghan Kelleher & Chris Southiere

The happiest band in Boston is back with another buoyant bop to lift us out of the cold. Divine Sweater premiered their latest single off of a forthcoming album this week. “All The Way Back” deals with thoughts of the past before finally resolving to look ahead. With a groovy baseline and Meghan Kelleher’s dreamy vocal, Divine Sweater continues to give listeners exactly what they are looking for. Before their show at O’Brien’s Pub on the 28th, I got to catch up with the band and discuss double mustaches, having top energy and being the best Steve…

AP: What’s in the suitcase? Ultimately it seems like there’s nothing, but at one point there was something…

Chris Southiere: Actually in the suitcase are all the friends we made along the way. 

AP: Ohh. Wholesome!

Meghan Kelleher: Yeah. That was kinda the idea. That we’re all trying to protect or capture this thing that seems really great. Like at the beginning it’s glowing, but at the end we realize there’s nothing there. Sort of depressing for a song that’s supposed to be happy and uplifting. 

Sean Seaver: Thematically I feel like the briefcase is a good metaphor for the lyrics, which is this narrator boasting about obtaining something, but at the end you’re still looking up, aspirationally. 

Stephen Lin: Now that makes a lot more sense. 

Alex Goldberg: So I was acting off of wildly incomplete information. I was promised money, tickets to the Celtics game. I mean there’s a reason I’m going after the suitcase and I wanted it so badly. 

CS: Alex was not acting at any point. We just didn’t tell him. [laughs]

AG: That’s true. And to see that there was nothing there. That was a real shock for me. 

AP: Just bamboozled. 

MK: Yeah, and the album that we’re putting out is an interesting narrative that starts really high and gets really low at the end. Things are really really bad at the end of the album so this was kind of foreshadowing that. Because that song is supposed to be super hopeful. Like, someone just quit their job, someone just moved or made these really big choices that are really exciting and in those moments where you make a big change you feel like this high. But not everything is solved right then. 

Courtesy of Divine Sweater via Facebook – From Left: Meghan Kelleher & Chris Southiere

AP: Can you explain the inspiration behind the tone of the video? It has this sort of cheesy 70s/80s porno vibe. I watched it really late one night and just wrote down “Meg has top energy” so…

MK: Print that. Print that. 

AG: You should actually consider leading with that for marketing purposes. [all laugh]

CS: I really wish I had my mustache in this video now. 

MK: We were definitely leaning into a Pulp Fiction energy.

SL: We all have sex. That’s the subtext. Everybody’s having sex.

MK: I liked that we have characters in [this video]. A lot of times in our music videos it’s just us vibing to our music, but we have pretty set characters and Mark Allison, who works with us on our videos, is just so creative so we kind of had this idea that he really helped flesh out. Really really fun. 

AP: Did you guys come up with your own personas?

SS: The personas kind of happened as the day went on. We knew that Alex, Steve and I would be against Meg and Chris. But I don’t know how Steve being the boss of Alex and I materialized. [laughs] Or where he got that wig…

CS: We continually doubled down on the story as it went along. It was going to be pretty tame but then wigs got involved. Once the first wig comes out, you never know…

MK: My personal favorite moment is when Alex has a mustache over his mustache and then rips it off.

AG: I actually grew that out for the video, I spent a long time on it. It hurt a lot. 

AP: Clean pull though. 

SS: I also loved the scene when Meg and Chris get into a car crash and in the next shot, the hood is popped and [Alex] just pops out of the ether…

AG: Well you know, I was an actor in high school and I always had that going for me. I feel like in general I’m the best music video performer and have been for some time now. 

MK: 100%

SL: You should know that Meg and Chris almost died in the video actually. They got stuck in the elevator. 

MK: That actually did happen. 

CS: That was terrifying. We were blocking off the elevator for like 15 minutes and were like alright, we gotta let this thing go. It went down to the basement and it just didn’t open. Meg is normally quick to be a little concerned, perhaps anxious. I’m like, “c’mon Meg, we don’t have to press the emergency button.” After a minute I’m like, “actually we might have to…”

AP: With the lyric, “I’m getting taller, it’s a mystery. I’m getting younger…”, is this song secretly about Benjamin Button-ing?

MK: Metaphorically… yes. I think that, speaking for myself, I definitely feel younger now. Given my life situations and the way I choose to live my life and feel about myself. Like, I feel much younger now than I felt five years ago. Even though the numbers would say otherwise. 

AG: Well I have been working on a really nice skin care routine so I actually very literally appear to look younger than I did five years ago. Most people can testify to that. 

CS: I actually thought “All The Way Back” was a metaphor for my hairline… [all laugh]

AP: I feel ya on that one. And Alex, if you can send me a link to the skin care routine videos, I can definitely embed that within the piece as well.

AG: For sure. (Unfortunately, these videos do not actually exist)

“All The Way Back” Single Artwork

AP: If you could go back to any time in the past, would you?

MK: I can speak first. I would absolutely not go back. I’m anti-that idea. I would be sadder if I went back. I’m in a good place right now. 

SS: If I had all my current knowledge, I would go back as early as I can go. I would make so much money. 

AG: I think I would go back to January 8th, 2007 – specifically. That way I could throw all of the money and possessions I have into Apple stock. 

CS: Why stop there? Go back to the beginning of Apple. To the garage. 

AG: He didn’t have any money then. 

SL: I think I’m the best Steve. In the multiverse of Steves, I don’t think I could have done anything better really. I regret nothing, I repent nothing. That’s all there is to it. 

CS: In another universe I would’ve loved just sitting around and doing laundry with Steve. 

AP: And taxes. 

CS: I don’t know if I would go back, I really learned a lot from my many mistakes. But I am looking forward to learning from my many mistakes to come and I apologize for how they will affect each one of you individually. 

AP: Will there be sequels to this music video? Will Sean finally be able to use his nunchucks? Or just keep falling over?

SS: I knew how to use them for like… it was weird, for 45 seconds I was a nunchuck and then after that time and the cameras started rolling, I had no idea. 

MK: I will say the next music video we’re putting out is equal cheesiness. Potentially more. More cheese. 

SL: And you heard it here first, we’re gonna do a heist music video. 

AG: [groans] Here we go again…

MK: That’s been in the works for our entire time as a band. 

AG: I think Steve proposed a heist music video like six years before this band was even assembled. 

Check out the new video for single “All The Way Back” below and follow Divine Sweater on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more!