Chvrches talk new album and online abuse

The band Chvrches is set to perform at the 2016 Laneway Festival.

Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry talks to Lydia Jenkin about the band's return to Auckland, abusive reaction to its latest video and the much-anticipated new album.

Nearly two years ago to the day, TimeOut spoke to Lauren Mayberry about Chvrches' first visit to New Zealand to perform at Laneway Festival, and their debut album The Bones of What You Believe. Now they're returning to Laneway and have a second album ready to drop tomorrow.

There's an odd sense of deja vu as Mayberry answers the phone in Glasgow, just sitting down with a cup of tea. "That's very weird, and a bit creepy but in a nice way," she laughs at the coincidence.

Obviously a lot has changed for Chvrches in those two years, and their return to New Zealand will see them sounding bigger, stronger, and more assured.

"The whole thing just feels a lot more assertive and a lot more sure of itself to me," Mayberry explains.

Part of that is simply being in a band for two years, solidifying who they wanted to be as a band, and what they wanted to make. And part of that is a kind of response to all the crazy trolling and vile comments that have been levelled at Mayberry through various online forums in recent times.

Mayberry, who previously worked as a freelance music journalist (with a law degree and a masters in journalism), and who founded a feminist collective in Glasgow called TYCI, has become something of a spokesperson in the battle against trolling and misogynist messages, first writing an article for The Guardian in September 2013, and last month talking to Channel 4 News in response to a new wave of abusive comments in the wake of the video for new song Leave A Trace.

She has shared some of the comments she receives, but many are truly horrific and unprintable, yet she somehow manages to remain calm and eloquent when confronting the issue.

Chvrches feature on the cover of this week's TimeOut:

"I guess the band's experience over the last couple of years has taught me you have to master the internal scream, you can't always do it out loud, you have to maintain an illusion of calm even if you're going 'Oh my God, this is the sickest thing that's ever been said to me'."

She's well aware she's not the only one receiving this kind of abuse, which is the main reason she continues to speak up about it.

"I think it's interesting to keep having discussions about it, because even within the group of people who would generally condemn that kind of behaviour, there's different tiers. And some people have the stance of 'Well that is unfortunate but she does put herself to the front in the video, and she is wearing a mini-dress, and she doesn't normally do that'.

"And to me that still feels like quite a negative argument, because it falls back on victim-blaming, and says that somehow my actions have caused people to speak or write these horrible things. It comes out of a society that tries to accept that kind of culture. So that's what gets me frustrated, I think, not just the people who are being vile and threatening, but the people who have these misguided arguments about it, who should know better."

Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches.

Despite these difficult experiences, Mayberry still loves the internet - Chvrches were effectively discovered on the internet, and they love all the interactions they have with fans, as well as finding it a deep well of inspiration

"I can't be mad at the internet, it gave me cat gifs and Amy Poehler memes - I need all these things," she says. "I think it's so amazing to see people being passionate about stuff online, and it's really cool for us to see positive things happening on the internet, and all this amazing creativity and connection and knowledge.

"Unfortunately there's an undercurrent that's become a bit of an issue, but I promise that we are actually very much upbeat, blue-sky thinking kind of people."

It certainly seems that way when you hear their music. Their synth-laden electro-pop, infused with flourishes of the 80s, defiant disco and joyous grit has a heartfelt nature that flows through the sometimes aggressive production or darker lyrics. "From my point of view, this album sounds a lot more thematically and sonically tied together, I guess because it was purposefully written to be one record, but also maybe because of a closer, tighter time-frame.

"We didn't really sit down in advance and talk about what we wanted it to sound like, we more talked about what we didn't want to do. And I guess because we toured the first album for so long, and we know those songs inside out, we discovered how much extra stuff we'd put into them that didn't need to be there. So it was about trying to resist that urge to put more and more and more into a song, with the idea that we were making it bigger and more epic, and rather just giving things space to breathe, which can sometimes be more important."

In the press notes for the album, Mayberry makes an interesting statement: "Lyrically, Every Open Eye is not a break-up album."

"Oh wow, someone actually read that" she laughs.

Electronic trio Chvrches.

"I guess in my mind there are songs on the record about the bad aspects of relationships, but there were also songs that are about the good aspects, and songs that aren't about romantic relationships at all - but when I was talking to Iain and Martin about it I realised it can be interpreted differently.

"I guess also, I didn't want what we'd made to be written off as 'just a break-up album'. I like that there's a lot of different emotions sitting next to each other on the album, both sonically and lyrically, and I think that feels very authentic."

Their live show has also become a dynamic, critically acclaimed beast, well-honed in 22 months on the road, and the trio have taken that experience into the rehearsal room as they prepare for their next album release tour.

"It's always interesting for us when we start thinking about the live show, because we try not to bear it in mind too much when we're writing. So it's almost a different discipline, taking a song and translating it for the stage. We're very conscious, maybe because of the bands we all used to be in, that the show will be a proper live experience, and not just a playback party with everything run by a computer.

"Also, I feel like these songs are lyrically and vocally more assertive, and I think I enjoy playing that character a bit more now, in the live sense."

Who: Lauren Mayberry, frontwoman for Scottish band Chvrches, alongside Iain Cooke and Martin Doherty
What: New album Every Open Eye, out September 25
Where and when: Performing at Laneway Festival in Silo Park on Monday February 1, 2016.