STACK NZ Sep #66

MUSIC

FEATURE

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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

songs sound big, without just endlessly layering tracks.

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.

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

“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

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

SEPTEMBER 2015

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