Fünf Jahre nach ihrem letzten Album sind CHVRCHES zurück – und wollen dabei nicht einfach dort weitermachen, wo sie aufgehört haben. Mit ihrer neuen Single „Roses“ schlagen Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty und Iain Cook ein neues Kapitel auf, das vertraute Elemente der Band mit einem härteren, unmittelbareren und bewusst instinktiven Sound verbindet. Der Song feierte bei BBC Radio 1 als Hottest Record Premiere und ist der erste Vorgeschmack auf die neue musikalische Ära des schottischen Trios. Im Interview mit uns dem Frontstage Magazine spricht Lauren Mayberry darüber, wie es sich anfühlte, nach der längsten Pause der bisherigen Bandgeschichte wieder gemeinsam Musik zu schreiben, warum bei „Roses“ vieles aus dem Bauch heraus entstand und weshalb gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen ganz selbstverständlich ihren Weg in die neuen Texte gefunden haben. Außerdem verrät sie, warum das kommende Material für CHVRCHES eine besonders geschlossene musikalische Welt bildet, gleichzeitig aber eine größere Bandbreite bieten soll als alles, was die Band bislang veröffentlicht hat – von harten und schweren Momenten bis hin zu emotionalen und unbeschwerten Songs.
Frontstage Magazine: With “Roses”, you’re returning with new music after five years. What did it feel like to start writing together again after such a long break, and was there a particular moment when you realised: this is the beginning of a new chapter for CHVRCHES?
Lauren: This was the first time in the history of CHVRCHES that we have ever really taken a break between albums. Normally we take a few weeks off after finishing on the road and go right back into the studio, so it was an unusual sensation for us to not have been on that kind of strict timeline. There were some nerves but also a lot of excitement about writing together again and seeing where that would take us. We tried to put as little pressure on ourselves as possible and just be open to whatever started coming up but were pleasantly surprised that music started coming out of us very quickly.
Frontstage Magazine: You deliberately wanted to challenge yourselves and avoid going down paths you had already explored. What was the biggest challenge while creating“Roses”, and which new sides of CHVRCHES did you want to reveal with this song?
Lauren: It all happened incredibly quickly and was very gut-driven. The opening ’synth‘ is actually a vocal sample that we put through an OP1 keyboard and then things moved very fast from there. I think we had a sketch of the vocal melody and the general structure within the first afternoon. The first lyrics for the album were the spoken word bridge of this song („A woman is a woman even if you want her dead“). I wasn’t even sure what it meant to me when it first came out of my head but it sort of set the tone for what would follow it. We weren’t really overthinking anything, just following our instincts rather than thinking „Would CHVRCHES write this?“.
Frontstage Magazine: Lyrically, “Roses” takes a pretty critical look at current social developments, particularly in the UK. Why did this feel like the right moment to address these thoughts so directly in a song?
Lauren: I think there have always been those elements in the ethos of the band but we maybe haven’t been so lyrically direct about them before. It wasn’t a conscious choice — just what felt natural to write in this moment in time. It would be difficult to not let that seep into the work in some way, given what we all wake up to every day. I think that making art is in itself a political thing. I don’t really buy it when anyone says „I am not a political person“ or „I don’t do politics“. That in itself is a political choice. It takes a certain kind of privilege to be able to abstain from „doing politics“. I don’t want people to feel like we’re being didactic when we talk about certain things but also don’t want to shy away from it, if that’s what the song feels like it wants to be. It is definitely one of the storytelling strands in some of the new material but there are more personal or narrative stories in what we’ve been making too.
Frontstage Magazine: Lauren has described the upcoming music as the most cohesive vision CHVRCHES have had as a band so far. How much of what’s coming next can already be heard in “Roses” – and how much are you deliberately keeping under wraps for now?
Lauren: I am hopeful that people will be surprised by what we’ve made. I think it’s the most fleshed-out world we’ve ever built and definitely has some elements people wouldn’t expect from us. I never want to deliberately be shunning what we’ve made in the past — we all love those records and that band, and the DNA of that will always be in what we make, but we also don’t want to be repeating ourselves or trying to emulate that if it doesn’t feel natural. I think people can feel the inauthenticity in that. This new material is some of our hardest and heaviest but also some of the most fun and carefree, and some of the most emotional. Definitely the widest variety of songs we’ve ever written.
Frontstage Magazine: Imagine “Roses” isn’t a single but a mysterious door to a parallel universe: the three of you step through it and discover a completely different version of CHVRCHES on the other side. What would that band sound and look like – and what would be the most completely bizarre thing about them?
Lauren: I think that band would be quite fearless. Something we’ve always claimed to be but I’m not sure have ever fully delivered on — and with this new moment, I think we’re leaning into purely gut instincts and really being as fully present in everything, whenever we can be. We were really focussed on wanting to have everything feel as tactile and human and alive as possible. We talked about Portishead and Massive Attack in the studio as much as we spoke about Scott Walker or Siouxsie and The Banshees. I’m excited for people to hear more…
Fotocredit: Jody Evans
