Chvrches have spoken out about what to expect from their hotly-anticipated second album - describing it as 'emotional' but 'accessible', and dealing 'in scenes' with the misogyny levelled against them.
Earlier this month, the band confirmed that work no LP No.2 was complete, with fans now hopeful for a release by the end of summer. Now, Chvrches have given insight into what went into making the record in a new interview with Pitchfork.
They reveal that song titles on the album include 'Never-Ending Circles', 'Make Them Gold' and 'Leave a Trace' - the latter, singer Lauren Mayberry describes as an angry 'middle-finger mic drop'.
"After making one record that people really like, some bands reject the things that everyone liked about them and make some really deep, thoughtful, dark record," said synth player Martin Doherty, "but I wanted to avoid making a 'mature' album. That said, it’s not like we’re making saccharine shite. There’s important lyrical content, and we’re still pushing the same emotional boundaries, but also trying to make it as accessible as possible."
Iain Cook continued: "In our musical backgrounds before this band, we did stuff that was quite willfully obscure. With this band, though, we allowed ourselves to write the kind of music we wanted to write. We all love pop music, we love great melodies, classic songwriting. It's fucking great fun to play music and see people actually dancing and losing their shit. I'm sick and tired of being at gigs where it's just a bunch of bearded guys."
Speaking of the album's lyrical content, Mayberry said: "I thought I had legitimately written a happy love song for this album, and I asked [engineer] Dave [Simpson] about it—and he wasn’t sure. Because the album was written over such a long period of time, it’s about the goods and the bads, the beginnings and ends. Personally, I’m in a good place right now, but there’s definitely anti-love songs on there as well.
She went on: "'Leave a Trace' is the middle finger mic-drop. It’s about that point where you’re like, “There’s no point having this conversation anyways: There will be no resolve, I won’t feel better about it, you won’t feel better about it, no outcome from this will actually change my reality.” It makes me feel better to write about that—I’ve done something constructive with it. You don’t put that on other people, you put that into what you do. That’s always the way I’ve written lyrics. My ex-partners are not friends with me, but I’m OK with that."
Watch Chvrches discussing what to expect from their new album with Gigwise below
When asked if the album deals with her experience of online misogyny and rape threats, Mayberry replied: "Not specifically, but there’s scenes in a couple of songs that are about relationships where people try to decide what you should be doing for you. I had somebody say to me once, “You can’t make the kind of music you’re making and call yourself a feminist.” The door was slammed on them swiftly after that. Nothing gets my hackles up like being told I can’t do something."
She added: "We’ve never made a decision that we didn’t want to make. Life’s too short to be shoehorned into a box that isn’t for you."
The Scottish synth-pop trio (whose LP The Bones Of What You Believe was Gigwise's Album Of The Year in 2013), have been hard at work in the studio for some time - but now it looks like they're ready with the follow-up to their exquisite debut.
They took to Instagram to share the above image with the caption “WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED RECORDING AN ALBUM AFTER 5 MONTHS IN THE STUDIO.”
The band, who last year unveiled one-off tracks 'Get Away' and 'Dead Air' from Zane Lowe's Drive and The Hunger Games soundtracks respectively, say that their new album will be a 'progression' but not unfamiliar - taking in more of a Prince and Michael Jackson influence.
"Everyone knows you don't go mad weird until your third record," synth player Martin Doherty told Gigwise last year. "First album, you establish yourself, second album is similar but better and third album you can go as weird as you like."
This summer sees Chvrches return to the road with appearances at V Festival and Lollapalooza Berlin among others. We are excited.
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