On This Track #21: DIVIL – “ORANGUTAN”
- Raven
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Catharsis as Practice, Friendship as Survival
With “ORANGUTAN”, Dublin trio DIVIL approach songwriting not as reflection after the fact, but as a process unfolding in real time. Released ahead of their debut EP "DIVIL I", the track emerges from a period shaped by grief, illness and uncertainty, transforming personal turmoil into a document of collective survival.
The origins of DIVIL are inseparable from the circumstances that brought the band closer together. Following the death of vocalist Danny Dempsey McMahon’s father and bassist Conor Cusack’s diagnosis with a rare and aggressive cancer, music became a space where fear, frustration and vulnerability could be confronted rather than avoided. “ORANGUTAN” captures a different aspect of that experience. Where the band’s debut single “Thanks A Million” focused on the support offered by others, “ORANGUTAN” examines what happens when those efforts are resisted and self-destructive impulses begin to take over. Musically, the track retains an unusual immediacy. Built around an original iPad recording of guitarist Jocelyn Vance experimenting with looping chord progressions, the song preserves the rough edges of its creation rather than smoothing them away. That decision becomes central to its meaning. Instead of treating recording as a process of refinement, DIVIL embrace the imperfections and urgency embedded within the original performance. The result feels less like a reconstruction of a moment and more like the moment itself.
Lyrically, “ORANGUTAN” documents an internal struggle between discipline and escape. Written during what McMahon describes as a self-imposed period of isolation, the song captures the restless energy of someone pacing through a house, fighting cravings, frustration and the temptation to abandon restraint altogether. Importantly, the track does not romanticise that state. Instead, it treats songwriting as a mechanism for slowing down, processing experience and regaining perspective. The act of creation becomes inseparable from the act of coping. Within contemporary independent music culture, “ORANGUTAN” reflects a broader tendency toward emotional transparency without spectacle. Rather than presenting suffering as identity, DIVIL frame vulnerability as something shared and navigated collectively. The band's story is ultimately not only about grief or illness, but about the role friendship can play in sustaining people through circumstances beyond their control.
In that sense, “ORANGUTAN” functions as more than a song about personal crisis. It documents a creative process rooted in trust, where music becomes a way of carrying difficult experiences together. The track suggests that catharsis is not simply release, but a practice of remaining present long enough for transformation to occur.
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Further perspectives are available in our Artist Features, Cultural Essays and Three Track Week, each situating music within broader cultural and structural contexts.
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