New Focus Track from St. Divine!
St. Divine is about to release a new video of the next focus track from our new EP on July 10th! Here is all the preview information. Hope you swallow it whole!
Artist name: St. Divine
Album title: you can’t go forward and you can’t go back (debut EP released May 2, 2025)
Swallow Video Release date: July 10, 2025
Genre tags: punk, Americana, garage rock, psychobilly, jangle pop, twee
Bio: St. Divine is a New York City-based five-piece band whose sound blurs the edges of Americana, garage, and punk. Formed in 2024 by vocalist/guitarist Will Croxton and Judy Ann Nock after performing together with punk legend Ivan Julian, the band quickly gained traction on WFMU, WGXC, and college radio across the U.S. Their debut EP, you can’t go forward and you can’t go back, released on May 2nd, 2025. St. Divine includes Philip Yanos on lead guitar, Jesse Barnes on bass, and Michael Ratti on drums. Their video for the second focus track off the EP will hit their YouTube channel on July 10th. Preview it here: official "Swallow" video
Upcoming tour dates:
July 12th, Boston, MA, The Burren ( with Girl With a Hawk)
August 9th, Chicago, IL, The Hideout (with The Handcuffs featuring Brad Elvis of The Romantics)
Focus tracks: Swallow
Social tags: Instagram: @stdivine_official YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stdivine_official
ABOUT THE FOCUS TRACK:
Swallow marked a turning point for the Croxton/Nock songwriting duo. The two had collaborated on songs before, notably with Nock providing vocals on Four Walls, primarily written by Croxton, as well as Nock writing lyrics and adding lead vocals to Throwing Cards, a track recorded shortly after the band formed. While both of these tracks, included on their debut EP, resonated with listeners and were well received (Four Walls has aired on WZBC 90.3 FM and Throwing Cards on WFMU 91.1 FM, among others), Swallow was a markedly different process that resulted in a punk rock duet. “I had a riff in E that I sent to Judy,” said Croxton, “nothing much of anything. Judy sent back lyrics that were a call to arms. They just lifted off. The rest of the song came fast and furious.” Swallow comes off like a sonic cage fight with love and aggression served in equal measure. Loaded with chemistry, sleaze, and double entendres, Swallow makes for some shocking fun that has led some to characterize the band as “fearless (Alt77)” or alternately, rife with “jangling anxiety (Return of Rock)” making for an intriguing display of critical polarity. Specifically, Alt77 elaborates and describes the track as a “kinked up call and response love song that even a band like The Kills, whose sound resembles this, would blink twice when asked to include on a record.” The band realized they had something special when all anyone in attendance seemed to be talking about after the show was the chorus, “ S-W-A-L-O…”
For Nock, the process went something like this: “When Will sent me the opening riff for what would later become Swallow, it was a percussive acoustic snarl that inspired me to pen the refrain ‘you make me wanna swallow’ with that devastating pause before the next lyric ‘my pride.’ I sent it to him in a voice recording, fully expecting him to suggest I either seek professional help, enroll in therapy, or dial it back a bit, but instead, he sent me a bridge. It solidified St. Divine for me because I knew that in Will, I had met my match. We shared cultural backgrounds and musical influences, and lots of friends, but none of that is really indicative of how we were going to work together. Swallow proved that we were not just musically compatible but could also function as a breakout songwriting team in a very authentic and wholly collaborative vein.”
