Felix Mackenzie-Barrow, co-vocalist and guitarist with breakthrough alt-country band Divorce, is today sharing details of his first solo project under the moniker Book of Churches. His debut album of the same name will be release on 6th March via Gravity / Capitol. The album’s lead single ‘Song By A Stranger’ is out now.
2025 has been some year for Felix with his band Divorce, which won rave reviews, awards nominations, toured the length and breadth of the UK, debuted in Europe and North America, and landed on major festival mainstages. At various junctures during this whirlwind year though, Felix was snatching moments away in isolation, pressing forward with a writing process that describes as “incredibly DIY” and “kind of naive.” Each song was written in one day, recorded the next, and left largely untouched until the album was handed over to Richie Kennedy (Interpol, The Last Dinner Party) for mixing. Charting lost love, dread, grief and anger, ‘Book of Churches’ was about breaking some of his own creative rules, trusting his own singular voice, and committing to “the raw contents of my brain.” The result is a timeless minimalism in the tradition of folk singer-songwriters like Nick Drake and Fionn Regan, or Leonard Cohen.
Felix comments on the lead single: “Song by a Stranger is the first song on the record because in some ways it felt like the blueprint for how I wanted to make the album. I wrote a note in my phone whilst in the back of the van about a shaft of light falling like an arm across the seats in front of me. I got home for a couple of days off and wrote the song the night I arrived. The next day I recorded it and I didn’t touch it again until Richie Kennedy mixed it in late 2025.”
Continuing about the album he says: “It feels a bit like a travelogue. In some ways, when I wrote these songs, I was talking to the person I was no longer in a relationship with – just saying hello. Sometimes, the songs were attempts at looking for a North Star that I could speak to. It’s this idea of how big the world is, and how precious those few connections that you have with people are, and how you can feel those so acutely across vast spaces and times. Book of Churches is basically a metaphor for how I felt making these songs. These songs are like my version of whatever church is.”
Pre-order the debut album Book of Churches HERE. Hear lead single ‘Song By A Stranger’ on streaming services here and share the video on YouTube below.
Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday 9th January HERE