Albums : CHVRCHES : The Bones of What You Believe
Albums : CHVRCHES : The Bones of What You Believe
Listen TO CHVRCHES : The Bones of What You Believe
Synthpop bands are a dime a dozen. Countless groups have sprung up in recent years on the heels of the M83 craze, but few have been able to stand out quite like Chvrches have. A three-piece band from Glasgow, Scotland, there's no deeper meaning or religious connotation behind their misspelled name. Aside from the visually appealing decision to use a "v" instead of a "u," the letter replacement was primarily so they could be found on Google.
It's a pretty fitting choice for a band that is, to an extent, a product of the Internet. After coming together in late 2011 and releasing two tracks, The Mother We Share and Lies, online mid-last year, they've since exploded onto the scene: a video (Recover) appearing on MTV, an award for best developing non-U.S. act at SXSW in March, and a nod on BBC's Sound of 2013 list, which highlights emerging artists with great potential in the coming year.
Having previously opened for Passion Pit and Two Door Cinema Club, Chvrches is hot off the heels of playing with Depeche Mode on their European tour. Gearing up to headline another North American tour (kicking off in Portland, Ore., Sept. 4) and release their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, on Sept. 24, you'd think their meteoric rise would've gone to their heads. Instead, these down-to-earth musicians choose to remain (mostly) oblivious to all the hype.
"I think that stuff can be really distracting, so we've just been really careful to focus on the things that are actually important, like getting the job done, you know?," Martin Doherty, 30, says. "It's really exciting, though. We're aware that things are going well but that's really all that we're aware of."
Basement beginnings: It all began when Iain Cook, 38, assisted Scottish band Blue Sky Archives with an EP one long weekend in September 2011. It was then that he began talking with vocalist Lauren Mayberry, 25, about the possibility of writing music together with his friend, Doherty. "We always thought about doing something together but never really got around to it because we were all busy with other things," Cook says. After that meeting, they holed up in a basement studio in Glasgow for seven or eight months, penning tunes and experimenting with combinations of synthesizers, samplers and guitar.
Chvrches gained traction on the Internet last summer and fall, and released their Recover EP in March, which received positive reviews from music publications such as Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound and NME (New Musical Express). The upcoming album — named for lyrics from their song Strong Hand — is not just a collection of a dozen two-minute pop songs, they say; it has a bit of an "ebb and flow." Having just finished it not even two months ago while touring the States, all three are thrilled to finally have it ready for fans to hear.
Jimmy and The Roots: One of their many notable achievements this year includes their live television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 19, a landmark moment for these humble up-and-comers. "We all started to cry," Mayberry says. "It was so exciting," Doherty says. "I remember how surreal it was to watch that back on the night of the show after the taping. It was quite unbelievable.
"There's also that knowledge that no matter how good you think your band is, you're probably not as good as The Roots," Doherty says, laughing.
Portrayal in media: As Chvrches' popularity continues to surge, the group remains careful of how they present themselves in interviews. This is especially true of Mayberry, who has a master's degree in journalism, wrote a dissertation on how the media portrays women, and freelanced arts and culture stories for a number of British publications until recently. Although she jokes that her reporting career hasn't made her a better interviewee, she does believe that it's helped them become more media savvy. "By and large it makes us more careful of how we project the band," Mayberry says. "You can't control what people say about you -- and I mean, that's good! Freedom of the press! -- but we all want to be presented as a band with three equal parts."
It's this sort of attitude that Consequence of Sound editor Michael Roffman says gives her potential to become "a central figure for women in rock and women in music," with a winning combination of intelligence, charm and talent that makes her "everything you want in a pop icon." Although flattered, Mayberry believes it'd be "big-headed" to talk about herself as a role model, and instead refers to artists such as PJ Harvey and Björk that inspire her. That being said, she hopes that Chvrches will show other artists that they do not need to conform to pop star or industry conventions to be successful.
Regal cover tunes: Their sound has been compared to that of the xx and Purity Ring, but their poppy hooks and bright vocals are a far cry from either of those more subdued groups. Instead, Chvrches notes diverse influences running the gamut from Lil Wayne, Cocteau Twins, Cyndi Lauper and Prince (whose I Would Die 4 You they frequently cover during concert encores). Other notable covers include Haim's Falling and the Game of Thrones' theme song, further proving the versatility of these burgeoning musicians.
As for artists that they're digging now? For Cook, the Vienna-based vocalist Sohn is "really exciting." And Mayberry is especially taken with musician Katie Crutchfield's solo project, Waxahatchee. "I'm starting to get worried about myself because I don't seem to listen to anything but her," Mayberry says.
All over the world: With nearly 50 shows booked through December, Chvrches has been traversing the globe as of late, playing in both Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, this weekend. "I would certainly like to go to one of the cat cafés in Tokyo, where you can basically just drink tea and pet cats," Mayberry says of her sightseeing plans while there. "I know I'm being a gender stereotype right now, but I really love tea and cats."
There are some downsides to life on the move — Mayberry is currently missing her pet hamster — but overall, she says they're having a great time on the road and they're especially excited to return to Chicago and Portland, Ore., in September. "I don't think you're allowed to make Portlandia jokes, though, which might be a problem for me," Mayberry says of visiting the Northwestern city. "I just want to do it all the time, even when I'm not in Portland. It's a great show!"
As for food, Cook and Doherty are looking forward to sampling some tacos and seafood, along with more than a few In-N-Out burgers."I've tried it," Mayberry says of the fast food, which she's not too fond of. "I'm not a massive meat eater, and about an hour after I had eaten it, I felt horrible. It's just so rich! It was very intense."
Looking to the future: With their album just over a month from release and a massive tour looming ahead, Chvrches doesn't have many other plans on the horizon. In fact, they're simply content to just soak it all in and make sure they don't take it for granted. "We're at an actual point with the band now where we've done everything we can up to this point in terms of making the record and an album that we're happy with," Doherty says. "We're trying not to look too far into the future; just want to focus on what we have control of."
"It's been a short ride, but I think we're covering a lot of ground which is great," Cook says.
The Bones of What You Believe Review
Just about a year ago, three unassuming Scots emerged fully formed with a confident synth-pop behemoth called “Lies,” and it was the straight fucking truth. Plenty of new artists can capture pop perfection with one buzzy track, sure. But CHVRCHES did it again on their follow-up (and first official single) “The Mother We Share,” a gem that was as bright and infectious as “Lies” was pounding and confrontational. With that opening combo, CHVRCHES staked their claim as the littlest big synth-pop act of 2013.
Still fresh a year later, both those songs found their way onto the trio’s debut album The Bones Of What You Believe (out September 24), alongside other impossibly melodic, impossibly vibrant bits of poptronica. Each element in every song on this first full-length sounds vital and perfectly mixed: the drums, whether real or digital, land with guttural force and snap with purpose, the vocals bend and chirp at will, the synths slice one moment and melt the next.
The result is something just as urgent and immediate as anything the hordes of laptop-wielding, MPC-mashing DJ/producers are injecting into everything from “Starships” to “Work Bitch” to Flo Rida and the rest, but without any of the tiring histrionics and cliched siren crescendos and boilerplate drops. CHVRCHES avoid these rave-y tropes because they have an ear for ’80s minimalism, and so they’ve managed to meld that decade’s version of pop’s future with EDM’s version of pop’s now. But their greatest trick is that they achieved this balance while slathering their songs with unapologetically catchy, radio-ready hooks. These guys have their cake, and painstakingly decorate it, and eat it.
Part of that ability comes from the versatility offered by Lauren Mayberry‘s voice. There’s a fair amount of acidity and vulnerability in these songs, but her Elvish vocals are either chipper or melancholic, depending on your angle, which begets that “Pumped Up Kicks” effect wherein you don’t even realize what you’re saying as you sing along. (“Gun” opens thusly: “You had better run from me / With everything you own / ‘Cause I am gonna come for you / With all that I have / I am gonna break you down / To tiny, tiny parts.” In someone else’s hands, that’s creepy and psychotic. Here, it’s sweetly menacing, a dare.)
The rich pastel synths only add to this obfuscation, and even when the band takes a darker turn, things that should be abrasive and cold are re-purposed for warmer textures. The post-chorus on “Lungs” comprises a fuzzy, serrated synth line and chopped vocals, but it ends up being thrilling rather than jarring. “Lies” and “Science/Visions” are aggressive, in-your-face synth stomps that take the warped vox and blown-out sonics to full song length. Throw in the bilious lyrics, and it’s a witch’s brew that, through sheer strength of songwriting, they turn into a sweet nectar.
Because CHVRCHES never sacrifice a good melody, there’s not much unpredictability or structural risk-taking here. Even the ballads, for the most part, eventually blossom into blissful anthems (the final third of “Tether” is the best M83 song Anthony Gonzalez never wrote). The number of unexpected moments can be counted on one hand: in addition to “Lungs” as a whole, there’s the 20-second coda of “Night Sky” and the decision to close the album with a subdued, Mayberry-less ballad.
But when the arrangements are so airtight, and the melodies and pacing so damn evocative, there’s not much room, nor need, to deviate. AlunaGeorge earlier this year released a debut that similarly warped sterile electronic sounds into a hooky-yet-clinical pop template with a saccharine vocalist, but their effort seemed hermetic at times. What separates CHVRCHES is their ability to make each song into a high drama, bite-sized epic, with the waves of synths and choruses commanding your emotions like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia.
Even in these poptimistic days, people tend to think that when a pop song is catchy or instantly gratifying, it’s less likely to stand up against deeper analysis, that it’s empty calories. But sometimes you just want a straightforward song that stirs something within you right fucking now and you don’t care why or how it achieves this. The best songs aren’t the ones that require deeper examination, they’re the ones that invite it. And that’s the type of song this band makes — songs you’ll fall for based on completely superficial “ear candy” reasons at first, but that reveal more quirks and substance when revisited (like the water-down-a-grate synths near the end of “We Sink”). CHVRCHES’ songs are exquisitely compressed and layered, but they’re also completely approachable. So you can appreciate The Bones Of What You Believe at face value, just an entertaining flash of activity akin to a flipbook. Or you can really look, to see the detail and expertise that went into the illusion, allowing you to fully appreciate it.
Contact CHVRCHES
Facebook | Tumblr | Tumblr | Soundcloud | Vimeo | YouTube | GM | UK Press | USA Press | N&S America Booking | UK & Rest Of World Booking
Contact USA Today
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Contact Idolator
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Sources : CHVRCHES Photo | Listen To The Bones of What You Believe | CHVRCHES Article | The Bones of What You Believe Review | CHVRCHES - Lies (Live) Video
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy LP
Listen TO CHVRCHES : The Bones of What You Believe
Synthpop bands are a dime a dozen. Countless groups have sprung up in recent years on the heels of the M83 craze, but few have been able to stand out quite like Chvrches have. A three-piece band from Glasgow, Scotland, there's no deeper meaning or religious connotation behind their misspelled name. Aside from the visually appealing decision to use a "v" instead of a "u," the letter replacement was primarily so they could be found on Google.
It's a pretty fitting choice for a band that is, to an extent, a product of the Internet. After coming together in late 2011 and releasing two tracks, The Mother We Share and Lies, online mid-last year, they've since exploded onto the scene: a video (Recover) appearing on MTV, an award for best developing non-U.S. act at SXSW in March, and a nod on BBC's Sound of 2013 list, which highlights emerging artists with great potential in the coming year.
Having previously opened for Passion Pit and Two Door Cinema Club, Chvrches is hot off the heels of playing with Depeche Mode on their European tour. Gearing up to headline another North American tour (kicking off in Portland, Ore., Sept. 4) and release their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, on Sept. 24, you'd think their meteoric rise would've gone to their heads. Instead, these down-to-earth musicians choose to remain (mostly) oblivious to all the hype.
"I think that stuff can be really distracting, so we've just been really careful to focus on the things that are actually important, like getting the job done, you know?," Martin Doherty, 30, says. "It's really exciting, though. We're aware that things are going well but that's really all that we're aware of."
Basement beginnings: It all began when Iain Cook, 38, assisted Scottish band Blue Sky Archives with an EP one long weekend in September 2011. It was then that he began talking with vocalist Lauren Mayberry, 25, about the possibility of writing music together with his friend, Doherty. "We always thought about doing something together but never really got around to it because we were all busy with other things," Cook says. After that meeting, they holed up in a basement studio in Glasgow for seven or eight months, penning tunes and experimenting with combinations of synthesizers, samplers and guitar.
Chvrches gained traction on the Internet last summer and fall, and released their Recover EP in March, which received positive reviews from music publications such as Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound and NME (New Musical Express). The upcoming album — named for lyrics from their song Strong Hand — is not just a collection of a dozen two-minute pop songs, they say; it has a bit of an "ebb and flow." Having just finished it not even two months ago while touring the States, all three are thrilled to finally have it ready for fans to hear.
Jimmy and The Roots: One of their many notable achievements this year includes their live television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 19, a landmark moment for these humble up-and-comers. "We all started to cry," Mayberry says. "It was so exciting," Doherty says. "I remember how surreal it was to watch that back on the night of the show after the taping. It was quite unbelievable.
"There's also that knowledge that no matter how good you think your band is, you're probably not as good as The Roots," Doherty says, laughing.
Portrayal in media: As Chvrches' popularity continues to surge, the group remains careful of how they present themselves in interviews. This is especially true of Mayberry, who has a master's degree in journalism, wrote a dissertation on how the media portrays women, and freelanced arts and culture stories for a number of British publications until recently. Although she jokes that her reporting career hasn't made her a better interviewee, she does believe that it's helped them become more media savvy. "By and large it makes us more careful of how we project the band," Mayberry says. "You can't control what people say about you -- and I mean, that's good! Freedom of the press! -- but we all want to be presented as a band with three equal parts."
It's this sort of attitude that Consequence of Sound editor Michael Roffman says gives her potential to become "a central figure for women in rock and women in music," with a winning combination of intelligence, charm and talent that makes her "everything you want in a pop icon." Although flattered, Mayberry believes it'd be "big-headed" to talk about herself as a role model, and instead refers to artists such as PJ Harvey and Björk that inspire her. That being said, she hopes that Chvrches will show other artists that they do not need to conform to pop star or industry conventions to be successful.
Regal cover tunes: Their sound has been compared to that of the xx and Purity Ring, but their poppy hooks and bright vocals are a far cry from either of those more subdued groups. Instead, Chvrches notes diverse influences running the gamut from Lil Wayne, Cocteau Twins, Cyndi Lauper and Prince (whose I Would Die 4 You they frequently cover during concert encores). Other notable covers include Haim's Falling and the Game of Thrones' theme song, further proving the versatility of these burgeoning musicians.
As for artists that they're digging now? For Cook, the Vienna-based vocalist Sohn is "really exciting." And Mayberry is especially taken with musician Katie Crutchfield's solo project, Waxahatchee. "I'm starting to get worried about myself because I don't seem to listen to anything but her," Mayberry says.
All over the world: With nearly 50 shows booked through December, Chvrches has been traversing the globe as of late, playing in both Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, this weekend. "I would certainly like to go to one of the cat cafés in Tokyo, where you can basically just drink tea and pet cats," Mayberry says of her sightseeing plans while there. "I know I'm being a gender stereotype right now, but I really love tea and cats."
There are some downsides to life on the move — Mayberry is currently missing her pet hamster — but overall, she says they're having a great time on the road and they're especially excited to return to Chicago and Portland, Ore., in September. "I don't think you're allowed to make Portlandia jokes, though, which might be a problem for me," Mayberry says of visiting the Northwestern city. "I just want to do it all the time, even when I'm not in Portland. It's a great show!"
As for food, Cook and Doherty are looking forward to sampling some tacos and seafood, along with more than a few In-N-Out burgers."I've tried it," Mayberry says of the fast food, which she's not too fond of. "I'm not a massive meat eater, and about an hour after I had eaten it, I felt horrible. It's just so rich! It was very intense."
Looking to the future: With their album just over a month from release and a massive tour looming ahead, Chvrches doesn't have many other plans on the horizon. In fact, they're simply content to just soak it all in and make sure they don't take it for granted. "We're at an actual point with the band now where we've done everything we can up to this point in terms of making the record and an album that we're happy with," Doherty says. "We're trying not to look too far into the future; just want to focus on what we have control of."
"It's been a short ride, but I think we're covering a lot of ground which is great," Cook says.
The Bones of What You Believe Review
Just about a year ago, three unassuming Scots emerged fully formed with a confident synth-pop behemoth called “Lies,” and it was the straight fucking truth. Plenty of new artists can capture pop perfection with one buzzy track, sure. But CHVRCHES did it again on their follow-up (and first official single) “The Mother We Share,” a gem that was as bright and infectious as “Lies” was pounding and confrontational. With that opening combo, CHVRCHES staked their claim as the littlest big synth-pop act of 2013.
Still fresh a year later, both those songs found their way onto the trio’s debut album The Bones Of What You Believe (out September 24), alongside other impossibly melodic, impossibly vibrant bits of poptronica. Each element in every song on this first full-length sounds vital and perfectly mixed: the drums, whether real or digital, land with guttural force and snap with purpose, the vocals bend and chirp at will, the synths slice one moment and melt the next.
The result is something just as urgent and immediate as anything the hordes of laptop-wielding, MPC-mashing DJ/producers are injecting into everything from “Starships” to “Work Bitch” to Flo Rida and the rest, but without any of the tiring histrionics and cliched siren crescendos and boilerplate drops. CHVRCHES avoid these rave-y tropes because they have an ear for ’80s minimalism, and so they’ve managed to meld that decade’s version of pop’s future with EDM’s version of pop’s now. But their greatest trick is that they achieved this balance while slathering their songs with unapologetically catchy, radio-ready hooks. These guys have their cake, and painstakingly decorate it, and eat it.
Part of that ability comes from the versatility offered by Lauren Mayberry‘s voice. There’s a fair amount of acidity and vulnerability in these songs, but her Elvish vocals are either chipper or melancholic, depending on your angle, which begets that “Pumped Up Kicks” effect wherein you don’t even realize what you’re saying as you sing along. (“Gun” opens thusly: “You had better run from me / With everything you own / ‘Cause I am gonna come for you / With all that I have / I am gonna break you down / To tiny, tiny parts.” In someone else’s hands, that’s creepy and psychotic. Here, it’s sweetly menacing, a dare.)
The rich pastel synths only add to this obfuscation, and even when the band takes a darker turn, things that should be abrasive and cold are re-purposed for warmer textures. The post-chorus on “Lungs” comprises a fuzzy, serrated synth line and chopped vocals, but it ends up being thrilling rather than jarring. “Lies” and “Science/Visions” are aggressive, in-your-face synth stomps that take the warped vox and blown-out sonics to full song length. Throw in the bilious lyrics, and it’s a witch’s brew that, through sheer strength of songwriting, they turn into a sweet nectar.
Because CHVRCHES never sacrifice a good melody, there’s not much unpredictability or structural risk-taking here. Even the ballads, for the most part, eventually blossom into blissful anthems (the final third of “Tether” is the best M83 song Anthony Gonzalez never wrote). The number of unexpected moments can be counted on one hand: in addition to “Lungs” as a whole, there’s the 20-second coda of “Night Sky” and the decision to close the album with a subdued, Mayberry-less ballad.
But when the arrangements are so airtight, and the melodies and pacing so damn evocative, there’s not much room, nor need, to deviate. AlunaGeorge earlier this year released a debut that similarly warped sterile electronic sounds into a hooky-yet-clinical pop template with a saccharine vocalist, but their effort seemed hermetic at times. What separates CHVRCHES is their ability to make each song into a high drama, bite-sized epic, with the waves of synths and choruses commanding your emotions like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia.
Even in these poptimistic days, people tend to think that when a pop song is catchy or instantly gratifying, it’s less likely to stand up against deeper analysis, that it’s empty calories. But sometimes you just want a straightforward song that stirs something within you right fucking now and you don’t care why or how it achieves this. The best songs aren’t the ones that require deeper examination, they’re the ones that invite it. And that’s the type of song this band makes — songs you’ll fall for based on completely superficial “ear candy” reasons at first, but that reveal more quirks and substance when revisited (like the water-down-a-grate synths near the end of “We Sink”). CHVRCHES’ songs are exquisitely compressed and layered, but they’re also completely approachable. So you can appreciate The Bones Of What You Believe at face value, just an entertaining flash of activity akin to a flipbook. Or you can really look, to see the detail and expertise that went into the illusion, allowing you to fully appreciate it.
Contact CHVRCHES
Facebook | Tumblr | Tumblr | Soundcloud | Vimeo | YouTube | GM | UK Press | USA Press | N&S America Booking | UK & Rest Of World Booking
Contact USA Today
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Email
Contact Idolator
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Email
Sources : CHVRCHES Photo | Listen To The Bones of What You Believe | CHVRCHES Article | The Bones of What You Believe Review | CHVRCHES - Lies (Live) Video
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy LP
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