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Divorce Become a Two-Piece After Two Members Exit for Their Personal Lives
Divorce have become a two-piece after Kasper Sandstrom and Adam Peter Smith exited, while Felix Mackenzie-Barrow and Tiger Cohen-Towell continue.
Divorce have entered what they are calling a new era as a two-piece, after drummer Kasper Sandstrom and lead guitarist Adam Peter Smith announced they are leaving the Nottingham alt-country band to focus on their “personal lives.”
The split comes after a busy run for the former NME Cover stars, whose debut album Drive To Goldenhammer arrived in March last year and was later named one of NME’s favourite debut records of 2025. Over the past year, the band moved well beyond the UK club circuit, taking the record across Europe and North America, headlining in the UK and stepping onto several major festival stages along the way.
In a statement posted on social media earlier today (May 12), Sandstrom and Smith said the decision had not been made lightly. “This isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly, but as time has gone on, we’ve both realised that we need to prioritise our personal lives more and it feels like now is the right moment for us to step away,” they wrote.
They also looked back on the period that brought the band together in the first place. “The past five years have been some of the most fulfilling and memorable of our lives,” they continued. “From our first practice together in Spring 2021, to our last show together in Massachusetts, the road has been a surprising, exciting, and joyful one.”
That message carried the usual mix of farewell and relief, but also a sense of how quickly the band’s rise has unfolded. “We’re so grateful for each moment we have created together. We have so many incredible memories with the band, making music that has reached thousands of people across the globe. We couldn’t be prouder of everything we have achieved as four friends setting out on this road together.”
They were careful, too, not to frame the change as a breakup in the melodramatic sense. “The irony is not lost on us, but we are not calling this a ‘divorce’, it’s simply a new era for the band. We are excited for what the future holds for Felix and Tiger in this next chapter for Divorce, there is a lot still to come and we can’t wait for you to hear and experience it with them.”
Singer/guitarist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow and singer/bassist Tiger Cohen-Towell will continue on as Divorce’s core two-piece.
The band’s roots in Nottingham’s grassroots scene have been central to their story from the start. Speaking to NME for The Cover last spring, they described an environment that was “self-sustaining”, built around artists helping to shape their own momentum rather than waiting for outside validation. “When you don’t get a lot of outside interest, you don’t have much choice but to make it yourself,” Mackenzie-Barrow said. “Sitting in the van on your way to a show and looking around at these friends that you have, sitting in the garden in the house where we wrote the songs, having dinner together. Those are the moments that feel like success.”
Since then, the band has kept moving. In December, Divorce released a new version of their single ‘Antarctica’, featuring Mumford & Sons’ Marcus Mumford. The following month, Mackenzie-Barrow unveiled a solo project under the name Book Of Churches, with its first album arriving in March.
