Divine Unity: “We’re not a gospel group, we’re a pop group!”

Martina – 23, Sharlene -24 and Sacha – 25, the feisty, glamorous and irrepressibly good natured girls of Divine Unity speak to Catch a Vibe about inspiration, the problem with being pigeonholed and their egalitarian approach to lead vocals.
CAV: How did you ladies get together?

Sharlene: We were raised in the same church, House of Bread in New Cross.  Sacha’s dad and my dad were in a band.  We’ve known each other since we were born practically, about three, four.  We always sung in church for fun. We took it seriously, calling ourselves Divine Unity about the age of 16, 17, 18.  Then over the last two or so years, very seriously.

CAV: What are your various musical influences?

Sacha: All three of us, we’re all different.  So for example myself, although I was raised on a lot of traditional gospel I loved pop music.  Groups from the 80s like Madness, even people like Kylie Minogue, loved them and they really influenced my writing style.  That’s where a lot of that pop feel comes from.

Martina: I was different.   Yes I was brought up on gospel but I was [also] brought up on a lot of different things.  I listen to a lot of Frank Sinatra.  It’s just across the spectrum.

Sharlene: I was raised on traditional gospel.  But I do love Lauryn Hill, Kurt Elling, Floetry, different types of music.  When it comes together it’s like a fusion but it does come under the bracket of pop.   You can’t take the soulfulness away because of church, that’s our background.

CAV: You three all seem to have a slightly different vocal style; is that down to your varied influences?

Sacha: I always wished I could riff and do all the runs like Sharlene but my voice ain’t like that, my voice has got a much lighter sound.  Tina’s got this real deep soulful voice, she can just belt those notes.  It’s just how we are.

Sharlene:  All our harmonies are all split around.  That’s how our vocal tutor trained us.

CAV: You also share the lead vocals equally.  Was that a conscious decision at the outset of the band?

Sacha:  We’ve all got something different to add to the group.  So if it was just Tina singing all the time, there’d be something missing.  So yes it was a conscious decision.

CAV: How does songwriting work? Do you all write together, do you have a chief songwriter?

Sacha: We all write songs, all three of us.  Sometimes we come together and ideas just flow.

Sharlene: Sacha, if we’re honest, could write about this bottle!   We all write songs but Sacha loves writing songs.  I write songs purely on inspiration.  It could be something that’s happened today, a thought that someone gave me.  When you talk about a formula…we literally have a songwriting day from 11-5. We’ll have a lunch break but it’s like a work day.  We have a theme and we write songs.

Sacha: It’s not always like though, it just depends.  For me, I can be walking home from work and then a tune will just grab me.  And then months later I could go back to it and the whole idea will just come out.  Or we could be just together and just decide to write a song.  So there’s no formula.

CAV: Sharlene tell us about your acting?

Sharlene: Singing is my first love but acting is definitely a passion of mine.  I believe somehow the paths are going to cross, I’m not worried.  I’d love to be in The Lion King.

CAV: Divine Unity don’t fit into the stereotypical box, image and sound-wise, that some people might have of gospel music.  Do you find that people have particular reactions to this?

Martina:  I think we get good reactions to our music.  They don’t ever expect that from us especially.  Just thinking about Charlotte Street [Blues Bar, where Divine Unity recently had a weekly residency]; they called it a gospel brunch but when they heard our music it wasn’t what they were expecting.  So [we’re] moving that out of their mind; that it’s not the style, it’s the actual message behind it.  We’ve always had good responses, even in the places where we thought we wouldn’t.

Sharlene:  Charlotte St to be honest, we were nervous about.  We thought “OK, we’ve never done anything like this before, what are people going to think, how are they going to receive us?”  People loved it. I think the thing is everyone likes to put you into a bracket.  They want to label you.  Why? I’ve always said, and we’ll say it again and again- we happen to be Christians, we write about God but I wouldn’t necessarily say we are a gospel group.  We sing about life.

CAV: What do you think of the distinction that labels such as Christian contemporary music  and gospel music carry, when they seem to be based more on ethnicity than content?  Is there still a place for them?

Sharlene:  I don’t think you can get away from it.  Wherever you go you’re going to get labelled.  We get called a gospel group all the time.  “No, we’re not a gospel group, we’re a pop group!”  It doesn’t matter; just know who you are.

CAV: What if anything, would Divine Unity like to do in changing people’s attitudes towards gospel music for the better?
Sharlene:  I have a friend and I asked him ‘Why don’t you listen to gospel music?’ First of all he said he doesn’t see the high standard that he sees in secular music and secondly he said he can’t relate to what they are saying.  With Divine Unity, as we said, we wouldn’t call ourselves a gospel group but we do sing about life and we do happen to be Christians.  That’ll be my answer to that. Don’t be so closed to it because you might just relate to something in it.  It’s about life and it’s about love because God is love and that’s what we’re really about.

CAV: With which artists would you like to collaborate?

Martina: We’ve always said Gary Barlow.  He’s a fantastic songwriter.

Sharlene:  I’d love to work with Lauryn Hill.  I think she’s great.

Sacha: I really like Mark Ronson.  He does some really good beats.

Martina:  I think at the moment there are a lot of diverse artists joining together, for instance Kanye and Mr Hudson.  The styles put together seem to somehow work.   I don’t have a particular person; just someone who is completely different from us.

CAV: What are Divine Unity’s plans for the rest of the year?
Sharlene: We just won the Cordless Show [competition] which is great. We’re going to be recording two songs at their studio and that gives us loads of exposure.  The EP is coming out at the end of the Summer if all things go to plan.  And just gigging, gigging, gigging the whole year.