Stepping Stones

"Hold on one second…[click…inhale…exhale] Hope I can smoke out here," sincerely states 23-year-old Mick Leonardy, Divit's guitarist and vocalist. It's Vegas. You could probably smoke in church.
Sitting outside a diner in Sin City, Nevada, he chats on his cell phone, punctuating his quick-paced remarks with drags from his cigarette. Noon time, and with little to do before engaging in their second night of performance in Las Vegas - the first stop on their month-long tour during winter's dying days - Mick is eager to talk.
"The first show generally is always really rough," he says when asked how things went last night at The Cooler Lounge. "I don't think it has any bearing on how the tour's going to go," he finishes with confidence.
Touring in support of their first Nitro Records release, Broadcaster, Divit is engaging in another West Coast stint which will find them concluding the month's travels with a South by Southwest showcase in Austin, TX. According to Leonardy, taking Divit's act on the road is pretty much their main goal for this year; their traveling being an attempt to erode the barrier that keeps the band at arm's length from total and utter new school punk / emo dominance, that of simple exposure.
"To be honest, the honest to God truth, dude, alls we want to do right now is keep touring and touring and touring and just hope to God someone catches on."
One listen to "Driver," the introductory track on Broadcaster, and thoughts of the band being slept on by the masses seems incredulous, laughable. Especially in light of new school's current popularity. But as with most things in life, you have to start somewhere, and after six years of being a band, Divit has worked their way into a good position for boundary pushing, especially with Nitro's support, the musical results of Broadcaster, and the settling of inner-band disputes which recently concluded with the group firing long-time bassist Danny Kain…but more on that later.
The two-year interim between the band's first full-length release - 2000's Tension (Coldfront Records) - and last September's Broadcaster, was one filled with sound experimentation and the group's cementation of their musical direction.
"With Tension it was kinda the preliminary to Broadcaster. It's where we started really developing our own style. Tension is definitely where we figured out where we're going and who we want to be, but we weren't there yet. With Broadcaster, we had two years to write and really get a vision for our album."
Expanding their horizons, both stylistically and equipment-wise (the band now sports a solid array of effects pedals), Mick and the rest of Divit have spent a lot of time studying their favorite songs and favorite albums, dissecting various groups' sonics and sciences. As admitted by Divit's frontman, ample time spent listening to The Beatles, Nirvana, Rival Schools and Jimmy Eat World has led him to think about music in a different light, and figure out just why he reacts so favorably to songs from the aforementioned bands, and how to apply those tactics to the music he's writing for the Divit's next album.
"I want these songs to be epic. I want to explore every option."
And his aspirations are indeed high. Mick is busily preparing for Divit's masterpiece, a feat he hopes to achieve with their next release.
"We want our Nevermind, we want our Dookie," he elates. "There's a bunch of stuff I want to get to, and it's all just stepping stones." With Divit planning on not hitting the studio for another year, they have a little bit of time to pave that path, learning and growing along the way.
One thing the band is conscious of is a certain model for new school success. With bands like New Found Glory and MxPx making kids flip their lids with patented bubblegum angst, prepackaged against the authority figure of your choice, Divit is aware how easy it would be to fall into that kind of stigma.
"I could write one of those albums in frickin' 10 minutes, but I don't want to do that. That would be going against everything we believe in."
And just what does Divit believe in?
"Just doing what you do naturally, and keeping it fun," explains Mick.
Ever helpful, I suggested ripping off New Found Glory for a quick shot at glamour and fame among the lip-pierced 14-year-old set, but with that proposal, Mick was quickly reminded of some of his early disappointments in music appreciation. The bait-and-switch marketing method, where a band releases a catchy single that in no way represents the album as a whole, had angered Mick in his early years, hence, he couldn't imagine pulling a Sugar Ray or Smash Mouth.
"I remember growing up and I hated that, when I would buy an album and there's only the one single on it and the rest is crap. I felt ripped off, let down and I just…it was, it was bull dude, it sucked. But when I bought an album where the single sounded like the rest of the album, like you bought Nevermind and you were like 'Holy Crap!' You loved every song."
So with time on their side for the moment, Mick is marinating on his masterpiece. Meantime, the Divit camp has undergone a very recent lineup alteration, that being the replacement of bassist Danny Kain with Marshall Leonardy, Mick's brother. That decision apparently led to much controversy among the Divit proletariat.
"We replaced our bass player with my brother, and in the process, a lot of people spoke their opinion on that, but they don't have a clue as to what's going on," remarks Mick with a tone akin to scratching an incessant mosquito bite. "They didn't know him in the situation we did. They're just pissed 'cause their friend got fired."
Mick says that the relationship between Kain and the band had deteriorated over time, and Kain's dedication and direction had changed. As Mick sees it, Danny wasn't into Divit anymore, but having spent six years working with the band, he was not inclined to simply throw in the towel. Leonardy breaks it down to an appropriate comparison.
"It's like, you know, you want to break up with your girlfriend. You're like, 'screw her, I hate her,' but she dumps you and all of a sudden you're pissed. And everyone else around you, your friends, your parents are like, 'Wow, what a frickin' jerk, that sucks.' Wait a minute, I wanted out of the relationship, why am I mad? I should be so lucky that I have to be the one to do it."
But things didn't go down quite so smoothly and egos and friendships got bruised along the way. Leonardy says, "I wish more than anything that he would have just said, 'Hey, I agree,' then it could have been a mutual thing. But we took something away from him versus him having the opportunity to give it up. But that's childish! He didn't even want to be in the freaking band."
Continuing the relationship comparison, Mick strikes on a point that might be hard to understand if you've never actually been in a band.
"Being in a band is a very complicated thing, it's not what you would expect it to be. You're married to three or four people, you're in a van next to them and you have to ask yourself, can I sit next to this person and can I go through these same scenarios day in and day out with this person next to me saying, 'No, that's not what I want,' and there's nothing you can do to change it? You assess the situation and you move on. You make changes."
However, Mick is at a point in life where it just doesn't make sense to feed the drama…well, too much anyway. Instead, he chooses to focus on the new lease on life that Kain's departure has given Divit.
"I'm getting at a point where I'm getting older, and I'm learning that I don't have the energy any more to stay pissed off at the people I have been for a long time."
The music world is uncertain at best. Tastes change with the seasons, and bands are faced with difficult decisions. However, even though Mick is $50 down at present (Literally. Vegas hasn't been all that kind), he still holds a strong hand of cards, and with his ADD charm and Divit's emo-ish pop-punk aesthetic, they are suited to challenge the music business' stormy weather; road blocks, bro blocks or no.

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