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With one foot in the bright, new wave sky and the other imbedded in hard Scottish soil,
CHVRCHES have produced a magnetic sophomore effort. By Zoë Radas.
darken the
chvrch door
G lasgow: Land of the gutsy and home of
the staunch. All three members of
Chvrches spent their formative years
in the city, and returned to its melancholic fold to
record this month’s Every Open Eye.
“When you live in a place for so long, it kind
of imprints part of itself on you,” explains Martin
Doherty. “Whether you like it or not, you’ve got
that culture ingrained in you. It’s an amazing
place with a lot of soul, but it’s suffered a lot
from poverty, much like northern English towns
like Manchester and Liverpool. It’s very much an
industrial city and that all kind of fell through; it
left a lot of people poor. It’s always had that sort
of edge to it.”
That edge slices its way through the spirited
electronica of Every Open Eye, even as the
album – the second for the band – skips across
bright synth arpeggios all curled up with lead
vocalist Lauren Mayberry’s brave, aerial vocals.
(Dare I say, she even sometimes evokes the
ultra-feminine power of Aqua vocalist Lene
Nystrøm, without the twee factor). Tracks
like Leave a Trace and Make Them Gold are
comparable to Sky Ferreira’s best in their proof
that scuzzy guitar and sepulchral vocals are
unnecessary to communicate pathos; it’s a far
more delicate balance with Chvrches.
Doherty (synths, samplers and back-up vocals,
although he does take the lead on the wonderful
High Enough to Carry You Over) says he looked
to some of the most outstanding synthpop
oeuvres in figuring out how to make the new
songs sound big, without just endlessly
layering tracks.
“It was about the… focus on a single bass
line, or keyboard line, as the main supporting
melodic element to the vocal – which should
always be the star, at all times,” he explains
slowly. “Of course, we do aspire to [Jackson’s]
songwriting, which is just some of the best
songwriting you’ll ever hear. The biggest Jackson
tunes are untouchable, in my opinion. Prince
has got some real consistency issues, whereas
Jackson just did it again, and again, and again.”
It looks like the efforts of Doherty, Mayberry
and third bandmate Iain Cook have connected
with audiences immediately: reams of
performance footage have begun appearing
across the net in the last month as the group
begins to tour the new material, but Doherty
clarifies that the ‘big live moments’ are a
symptom and not the cause of the way the
finished release has emerged.
“It’s important that your record translates live,
but there’re a few pitfalls if you try and actually
generate those live moments on record,” he
When you live in
a place for so long,
it kind of imprints
itself on you
FEATURE MUSIC visit
28 SEPTEMBER 2015