Music Style fast skate/hardcore punk

Musical Influences Pennywise, Bad Religion, NoFx, Endstand, Good Riddance, Rancid, Agnostic Front, AFI,

Similar Artists Britney Spears, Pennywise, Bad Religion, NoFx, Endstand, Good Riddance, Rancid, Agnostic Front, AFI, The Offspring

Artist History The Divisive was form in the summer of 1997 in northern Finland in Suomussalmi. Touko and his friend Kalle had nothing to do and they had fallen in love with energy and melodies of Bad Religion. Touko started playing guitar in the summer of 1996 and Kalle bought bass early 1997, all they needed was a drummer... Their friend Jarmo was supposed to be in the band at first but then plans changed and Toukos brother Jaska got told that he had to learn how to play drums. Bands name is straight from dictionary, Touko was looking for cool words for songwriting but then the word "Divisive" came up and it ended up to be the bands name. In the beginning biggest influences were Bad Religion, Green Day and Nirvana. Touko had written own songs already in the 1996 and we played them also in the very beginning because we weren´t able to play too many cover songs... We really sucked as musicians! First songs we learned to play were our own Hate Song, Bad Religions Faith in God, Along the Way and Part 3 and Territorial Pissings from Nirvana. We played couple of shows in Suomussalmi during the first years of our existence but there really was no punk rock scene in Suomussalmi. Later our friends put up a band also, Out of Tune and The Divisive were the only punk bands in the whole area and these 7 people also were the only people who liked punk rock music. In Finland and especially in northern Finland people mostly listen to heavy metal music and young girls of course stupid pop-music and stupid dance pop. In autumn 1998 Touko moved to western Finland, Seinäjoki for High School. Yes, there was high school in Suomussalmi too, but Touko got tired of place where there were no people at all. This was kind of a problem for The Divisive but still we did shows in Suomussalmi on vacations and we also made couple of demotapes, really punk demotapes, shitty quality and shitty musicians with lousy songs but lots of joy and will to live better tomorrow. In spring 1999 Longtime Records from Helsinki contacted us. After messing around for a while and trying to make things work, split 7" with another Finnish punk band, Misguided, came out. It was released in the end of the summer 2000. It was our first time in "real" studio and we were really amateurs to work in studio but we did it and the result is just fine. It´s our first official release and I think it´s almost sold out today. We made 200 of them but I don´t think we´ll make them any more. In autumn 2000 Jaska also moved to western Finland, Alavus. Alavus is close to Seinäjoki so it seemed like a better future for The Divisive. Unfortunately Kalle still lived in Suomussalmi and now it was kind of a problem... Late 2000 Kalle resigned from the Divisive and we had no bass player. Luckily Toukos friend from Seinäjoki, Heiska, was willing to try and he did it! Heiska still can´t play but his energy on stage is unbelievable, and that´s the thing that counts! In the late 2000 Full Contact Resistance from Belgium contacted us. Again, after messing around in April in 2001 came out our first mini-Cd called Why?, and Full Contact Resistance released it. Cd includes 8 songs and this time we already knew what to do in the studio so I think we did much better work than last time. It was really d.i.y release, it is Cd-r and we made all the artwork ourselves. We played shows in our area in the late 2000 and early 2001 in places like Lapua, Nurmo, Vaasa, Alavus and Seinäjoki. Heiska was learning all the time and he grew up to be a good The Divisive member. In the summer of 2001 we went abroad. The Divisive did a little tour of 8 shows in Belgium and Holland, playing with bands like Fist of Fury, THL, Go Ape, Brewed in Belgium, Ten Slash Two, Flatcat and HankyPac. We had great time there and people seemed to like our honest energy on stage. Only the first show in the legendary Frontline in Gent was a little disappointment. We were too tired and a bit shy so our show was a little soft. Rest of the shows were great, especially in Tongeren in Tjonc. Also in July of 2001 Full Contact Resistance released 4-way split Cd with FoF, THL, Go Ape and us. Cd includes three best The Divisive songs so far. We made excellent work in studio and we are almost starting to sound like a real band! Nowadays our music is much more hardcore than it used to be. It´s also faster and more melodic. It may sound stupid that we are more hardcore and we have more melodies but that´s the way it is. Biggest influences for this change have been Pennywise, Good Riddance, Endstand, NoFx, Agnostic Front and maybe some Dutch sxe bands. We are NOT sxe ourselves but some sober people do really good music too! Our main message is tolerance. All different - all equal. It´s as simple as that. The Divisive doesn´t support any kind of violence either. Our message as a band is tolerance, as said before, but we have our individual opinions on many other subjects. The Divisive is a really good party band, we don´t take it too seriously, we wanna enjoy life!

Group Members Touko - guitar, voc Jaska - drums Heiska - bass

Albums Split 7, Why?, 4-way split-CD

Location Seinäjoki, Länsi-Suomi - Finland

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