Running Free: Divergent Speak To Us About Chasing Those Dreams And Making Them A Reality

It’s never too late to follow the dreams of your youth. The members of Divergent thought they’d put it all behind them, but the nagging “what ifs” still lingered. We spoke to James Richards, Mike McAlister, and Paul Richards, from Divergent, about what it’s like to make their dreams a reality, their new single, ‘Runnin’ Free‘, and what’s next.

How did you all end up reconnecting and deciding to chase those old dreams? 

JAMES: Back in 2016, Mike reached out via Facebook and asked if we wanted to get together during the summer and jam out on all the old songs we used to play in Chautauqua Road Band. Of course, I was immediately in. He said he would be willing to come out to Iowa from New Jersey to make it happen.  I hadn’t talked to Mike in about 25 years and had actually lost track of him. Gregg Messer, one of the founding members of Chatauqua Road Band, lives in the Des Moines, Iowa area along with Paul and me. Des Moines was the natural place for all of us to get together and put the Chautauqua Road Band back together. We asked Paul to join us on drums. He fit in so naturally that we were immediately a band again. We all had such a great time that we decided to start trying to do some gigs. 

MIKE: James’ version is that I sent a message on Facebook after I saw him post about setting up a home studio, which is true. But from my perspective, I think that since Gregg Messer, the other guitarist in the original band, had been in touch with James a little over the years, and they both knew each other had continued to play. Once I asked in a Facebook message, half joking, if James needed a bass player. It wasn’t long after that, Gregg messaged that maybe he needed another guitar player, too. I may have lit the match, but I think the fire was always there. The icing on the cake was that James’ brother, Paul, was and is an amazing drummer. When we decided we could make a 2-3 day reunion work, someone had the idea of learning 10-12 songs that we could play together, instead of just sitting around and jamming to the same 3 chords. Once we started playing a song together (Rocky Mountain Way, perhaps?) I think we knew we were going to make it work. 

How did you all meet originally, and who plays what in the band now? 

JAMES: My family moved to Red Oak, Iowa, from Indiana during the summer before my eighth-grade year.  Red Oak was the hometown of my mom and dad, and I was born there. I met Mike when I started middle school that fall. Mike was interested in music and so was I, so we became friends because of that mutual interest. We used to hang out at each other’s houses and play music. I suggested that he should try playing bass since he had long fingers. So he did! The bass is a natural fit for Mike and he quickly became proficient. In addition to Mike on bass, I play guitars and keyboards and my brother, Paul, plays drums.   

MIKE: James and I were in junior high together and I had dabbled in playing the guitar before I met James. I knew James was really good guitar player and was a great singer, because he had won a local talent contest with another guy, Peter Martin, and they had also at performed in a concert at the high school. I eventually worked my way into James’ orbit and we became friends. We would play acoustic guitar duets from instructional books on his porch at his house on Corning Street and I eventually gravitated to playing bass with James in various school productions. James was also a good keyboard player then, and it’s the same now. James plays keyboard and guitars of all sorts, and I play the bass. Paul has always played the drums. James sings the lead vocals and Paul sings a lot of harmonies with James. I sing some background vocals, usually in the lower registers.   

‘Runnin’ Free’ took almost 20 years to finish. James you had the chord progression sitting around forever before it all clicked. What was it like when it all fell into place? 

JAMES: Well, it felt great! I don’t know why it took me so long to finish that song. I usually write the music before I write the lyrics. I think in the case of ‘Runnin’ Free’, I tried to write the lyrics before I had the music finished. I wasn’t happy with the lyrics I was coming up with, so that caused me to set it aside for a long time. However, I loved the rhythm and chord progression so much that I kept coming back to it from time to time. At this time in my life, I had no urgency to finish a lot of my songs. It was like I told myself, don’t worry about it until I get back into music in a serious way. When Mike instigated our reunion back in 2016, that lit a fire for my original music, and I started writing a lot of new music as well as finishing up a lot of my older songs. I started a songwriting binge that just kept going and going and is still going to this day. Then one day, I was playing the ‘Runnin’ Free’ chord progression again for the umpteenth time, and I just happened to extend it and I grooved into the chorus and started scatting the words runnin’ free. It worked so perfectly that I knew right away I had a winning chorus. Once I had the words runnin’ free, I knew exactly what direction I wanted to take the lyrics. I thought about trying to write a bridge, but the song has such a great groove that I concluded a bridge would be too busy. Once I finished the song, I knew immediately that it would be the first song we would record!  

You went from Chautauqua Road Band doing covers to Divergent focusing on originals – that’s a big shift! How do you all work together creatively when you’re writing? 

JAMES: The way it works is that since Paul and I live in Iowa, we rehearse new music together first and then send Mike a rough demo in New Jersey. I introduce new songs to Paul and we work out the arrangements and make final tweaks. Paul is a gifted musician and he makes great suggestions. Since I do my writing by myself, sometimes my rhythms aren’t technically correct since I write by feel. It’s hilarious sometimes when I show a song to Paul and he’ll say, “You’re missing a beat in this measure”. I love Paul’s drumming, so I’m finding that when I write new music, I’m always thinking about where Paul can fit in a great drum fill. Mike sends us demos of his bass lines after listening to our rough demos. He usually nails it right away, but sometimes we talk back and forth to dial the bass line in a little better. All three of us are open to suggestions, and there has never been any tension, which is a great thing.  

MIKE: James has always had original music around, and we even played 2 or 3 originals back in the Chautauqua Road Band days. The current creative process may be a little unorthodox, mainly because I live in New Jersey and James and Paul live in Des Moines. James and Paul will work on the songs that James brings into the practice space we rent. They will work out the basic parts together and some of the harmonies and then send me a recording that I’ll listen to on my setup in my basement. It may take a few days, but I usually come up with a bassline that makes sense and I’ll record it along with the ‘demo’ they sent to me, so they can kind of hear whatever I’m working out. We will then talk about it, and if I need to go back to the drawing board, which is very rare, then I’ll repeat it and send it back to them. What we have found is that even though we may rehearse a few days together before recording, we continue to create and build the songs in the studio. It is ever-evolving…and so fun! 

PAUL: Right now, the songs have all been James’. He and I will initially rehearse songs and then once we feel good about it, we record a rough demo and introduce it to Mike to do his thing. We always make sure to work on harmonies right off the bat, too, since they’re such an integral part of our sound. Mike sends us back rough demos with bass lines added. This was actually how we demoed all the songs that made it onto the first EP. We did almost 30 demos. 

The song has this classic 70s and 80s rock anthem feel, with those soaring harmonies.  What were you listening to that inspires this sound? 

JAMES: Mike and I grew up on the Doobies Brothers’ music. I’ve always loved their smooth, glassy-sounding harmonies. They definitely were the inspiration behind the harmonies that we come up with on ‘Runnin’ Free’. We told our producer, Jason Peets, what we were looking for as far as the mix on those harmonies, and he nailed it.   

MIKE: I’ll let James talk about the guitar riff and melody…I think the vocals on the choruses are inspired by bands like the Doobie Brothers and maybe even the Eagles, to some extent. We were learning songs like ‘Long Train Runnin’, and ‘China Grove’ a year or two after the songs were on the radio in the mid-70s and we loved 3 and 4-part harmonies.   

PAUL: It definitely has a marching feel to it. It’s quarter notes that keep up the tempo. To me ,it’s really got a ’60s sound to it as well. The Beatles, Queen, The Beach Boys…harmonies have always been a huge influence on me. 

You recorded at Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne – that gear heaven must have been fun for you guys! What was the recording process like there?   

JAMES: We first recorded a bed track with all three of us playing at the same time. That was great as we could see each other, which gave the track a more dynamic and organic feel. We recorded three bed tracks and then selected the best one to build on. From there, we recorded our vocal parts, with each of us singing separately. After that, I started recording layers of rhythm guitars. I used a Martin acoustic that the studio had in addition to my Les Paul. Then I recorded the main guitar solo that’s in the middle of the song using my Les Paul with only the neck pickup. That gave the solo a nice legato feel. Lastly, I recorded layers of guitar fills and the outro guitar with my Stratocaster. Jason, our producer, suggested using my Strat for those parts as it gave a lighter feel, which the song needed. Jason is always great at making the right calls. He’s so good and jived with our sound. It began to feel like he was a fourth member of the band. The chemistry was definitely there. 

MIKE: It was a dream come true. I think that once we recorded ‘Runnin’ Free’ (the first song we ever recorded) and heard how good it sounded, we figured out we could make it work. A big part of our success is that the staff at Sweetwater Studios and our sound engineer/producer, Jason Peets, made us feel very comfortable. I remember coming into the control room the first time after recording the base track for ‘Runnin’ Free’ and Jason was bobbing his head to the rhythm of the song…I thought it must be pretty good if a young guy who may not have been around a lot of rock music is catching our groove. 

PAUL: So we set up, rehearsed each tune a bit then tracked it I think three times. Then we’d go and do any reworks if there were sections that we felt we wanted to do something different or adjust drum fill, a funky note or something. The producer is such a huge part in how the album sounds. Jason Peets was amazing. 

Paul, the press release mentions your “keen ear” really gave the track the drive it needed. How do you handle creative differences when you’re all contributing ideas? 

PAUL: I knew the second I heard James play the riff that it needed to be tight, hard-driving quarter notes. The fills are a throwback to the 60s for me, and it’s nuances like these that give the song its appeal. In the studio, the percussion solo just “happened” after we had the initial track down. The guys were okay with trying it, and it made it onto the final recording. James is the master of the last-minute surprise, and we’ve come to accept that. I mean we really just talk things out, and it makes a huge difference in how things sound in the end. Communication is key.  

After all these years of wondering “what if,” what does the support from fans mean to you as a band now that you’re finally doing this? 

JAMES: It means the world to us. There is nothing like writing and performing music that moves or inspires fans to experience meaningful emotion that enhances their lives for the better. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. One of my dreams is to write a song that is so good that a stadium full of fans wants to sing every word with me. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but if it does, there will be a huge smile on my face!  

MIKE: It’s amazing. We are so very grateful that people like our music. We get lots of great comments from our long-time fans who watched us at the high school dances in the 70s, and they love what we are doing now. We feel very fortunate to be in a position to make this happen and be able to create music that is out in the world for everyone to hear. 

PAUL: We’re extremely humbled to be able to create music that people want to hear. It means we have a new journey. We want to spread like wildfire.

Any final thoughts for your fans out there? 

JAMES: Stay hanging with us because we are far from being finished. In fact, we’re just getting started.  We have lots of new music on the way. We will start dropping singles from our upcoming second album in January of next year. Then later next year, we’ll be back at Sweetwater Studios to record our third album. We can’t wait. We may be later in life, but we’re very much young at heart. I still get in trouble for playing too loudly, so I have a lot of rock in me waiting to get out.   

MIKE: ‘Runnin’ Free’ is a great debut song for us, and we know it means a lot of different things for a lot of people. We should all be ‘Runnin’ Free’ to be who we are or to be our aspirational selves…We hope that our story of keeping the dream alive and making it happen will encourage our fans to do the same, whatever their dream may be.

You can watch the music video for ‘Runnin’ Free’ below, and find out more about Divergent and their music online on their official website, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.