Divine Sweater is a dream pop band that originally hailed from Boston. Under the umbrella of the pop category, their music has jazz, rock, and alternative influences that come together to craft Divine Sweater’s sound. The band includes Meghan Kelleher (vocals), Sean Seaver (guitar), Steve Lin (keys), Alex Goldberg (bass), and Chris Southiere (drums). Divine Sweater released their latest album, “A Time For Everything,” on September 13th.

We sat down with Meghan Kelleher before the Divine Sweater show at Trans Pecos, on September 19th.

I know that some members go back to high school and college. Can you talk about how everyone met and how the band formed?

So Chris and Sean, our drummer and guitarist, started playing music together in high school in Rhode Island. They have been in bands together since then. And then similarly, Steve and Alex, so keys and bass, same thing, they've been playing together since high school.

I met Chris and Sean in college, and I was a really big fan of the band that they were in. It was called Small Talk at the time. I was friendly with them, and I just knew all the words to their songs. And one time they were having a show in Boston, and their singer didn't come to the show. So they were like, “I know that you know the words to the songs, will you please play with us?” So I sang with them. It was awesome. And then I kind of just sang with them since. But then we met Steve and Alex in Boston after that. And so when the five of us came together, we were like, this is a different band now. And we became Divine Sweater.

What's the origin of your name?

So again, part of the band used to be Small Talk, and that was a great band name, but there's a million bands called Small Talk. So we would get booked for gigs we weren't supposed to get booked for. Our songs would get put on the wrong people's streaming. It was a whole annoying thing. It was really hard to find us as a band. When the five of us were changing, we needed something really specific and really unique. And Sean's great uncle was a Friar at Providence College, and he gave him this sweater once that was really lucky. And anytime he wore it, good things would happen to him, or we'd have a really good show or something like that. So we called it the Divine Sweater. And then we just sort of thought that's a good band name, so we just kept it.

I want to talk about your new album that just came out. A Time For Everything is “a record of ends and beginnings, meditating on one's ability to deal with mortality, loss & grief and having the strength to reset and come out stronger on the other end.” Could you take me through the process of creating this album?

Yeah, definitely. So this album happened over a course of time where all five of us lost people that were really important to us in our lives. And I think it was just an interesting period of time for us where we were all kind of struggling with loss at the same time. But then also we were just at a place where we really needed a change. And I think it's really easy sometimes to be like, “I'll do that big thing. I'll move to New York, or I'll do a big album, or I'll quit my job.” It's so easy to push that down the line. And then during this period of time where we lost all these people, it sounds sort of cheesy, but we were just like, damn, life is just so short. And if we don't do this now, personally, if I don't quit my job and move to New York right now, when am I going to do it?

So we just were thinking a lot about mortality and change. And the album kind of just chronicles the time of moving here and just really changing our lives completely. And for me, it was really important that I centered my life around music, where starting out it felt like we all were just trying to stay afloat and everyone has all these different things going on. So that is really what the album is about. “A time for everything” is a passage that's read a lot at funerals. So I was going to a lot of funerals, and I kept hearing this passage. It's basically saying there's a time for everything and death is part of that. It's another part of life. But then also at the same time, you're not supposed to stay the same. You're supposed to keep changing and having different seasons of life. So we felt like it was a good little centerpiece to base things on that passage.

The first track on the album is “Counterparts.” What about this song specifically made you want to choose it to be the opener of the album?

So the main line is, “we keep waiting on a train that's never coming.” And music feels like that a lot of the time. No matter what you do, it feels like a lot of the time you're waiting for someone to notice you or choose you or feature you on something. And that's such a hard feeling for something that you care so much about. But I feel like that was my mindset for so long, just waiting, waiting, waiting. And so it's a good first opener because we changed that feeling. We were like, “we're going to actually take some steps to change this.” So that was sort of the pre-thinking.

How did you order the tracklist on the album?

I think that we care a lot about story and the way that things unfolded in life. But we care a lot about dynamics. I think more making sure that songs that are really fast-paced or really slow or quiet are kind of spaced out so that you don't get in a lull in the album. I would say dynamics are really important to us. The story is really important to us. It was really important to me to end on the song “Big Time,” because that is sort of an ode to a lot of people that I've personally lost, that I spent a lot of time in a specific place with. And it's sort of about being in that place and accepting that place is not going to be the same. That song's really, really quiet, so it was important to me to just end on that quiet note.

What does a typical songwriting process look like?

Sean and I primarily write all the songs, and usually Sean is writing the instrumental and I'm writing the lyrics, but we kind of switch that up sometimes as well. And then sometimes the other folks will also bring a song to us and we'll workshop it together. When Sean and I write a song, we usually bring it to the band and have them write their own parts. And we try to solidify all that before we go into the studio to record it. But then usually stuff happens in the studio too that enhances it. And then we bring in any friends who aren't core members of the band, but who can record instruments that we don't play, like horns.

And do you feel like it develops more when you bring it to the band? Or is the song already done?

I think it definitely develops more when we bring it to the band. And all five of us have really different influences and sounds. So I think once we bring it to everyone, it sort of blows open and becomes a completely different song usually.

What's your favorite song that you've ever written together?

I really do love “Night Glitter.” I think that's my favorite song on the album. I also like “A Time For Everything” too. It changes every album. One of our oldest songs, “I Knew You Better,” I love that song too, that’s one of my favorites to sing.

What has been one of your proudest moments?

Definitely playing Boston Calling this year. It was such a highlight and something I have wanted to do for literally as long as I knew that Boston Calling was a thing. That was just crazy, super fun, the biggest stage and the biggest crowd we've done. And it just made me want to play as many festivals as possible.

Find Divine Sweater on Spotify, Instagram, and their website.

All photos by Alec Ilstrup