CHVRCHES, featured in ‘Mockingjay’ soundtrack, plays Manila tonight
“I guess if it wasn’t for the music, we’d be food tourists.”
Iain Cook, synthesist/bassist/guitarist/vocalist for the Glaswegian electronic trio CHVRCHES, answers with a chuckle in response to the question of dietary requirements on the road.
Beside him, synthesist/vocalist Martin Doherty clutches his drink, either coffee or tea, as vocalist Lauren Mayberry waits eagerly to answer in detail.
Goal: not to eat crap
Their gig in SM Aura’s Samsung Hall is a full day away and they’ve only been in the country for a few hours (“It’s warm!”).
Thanks to a three-hour wait in the airport for their luggage, they have yet to acclimatize and search for restaurants in Manila, but thankfully, they are friendly, polite and ready to face the press. And perhaps looking forward to dinner.
“I think our main dietary requirements are just not to eat crap,” Mayberry says with a rapid fire lilt and usually ending her sentences with an inquisitive tone.
“Like last year we toured 10 or 12 months, and if you constantly eat shit from service stations you probably won’t be alive for very long?”
Beginnings
CHVRCHES (pronounced as “churches” because they’re kinda nvts that way) formed in 2011.
Cook and Doherty went to the same university; the former played in bands such as Aerogramme and The Unwinding Hours, the latter for The Twilight Sad.
Mayberry, who learned piano as a child, drummed in bands from age 15 to 22, and finished a four year law degree and has a Masters in journalism.
An EP for Mayberry’s band Blue Sky Archives (where she was vocalist, keyboardist, and drummer) was produced by Cook. Doherty and Cook started a new project with Mayberry on board and the trio wrote together for months.
Critical acclaim
The success of their efforts led to the proper formation of the band.
On November 2012, they released their official debut single and signature tune to date, “The Mother We Share.”
Critical acclaim followed and almost exactly two years after their formation, the highly praised debut album “The Bones of What You Believe” was released on Virgin Records.
Synth pop in truest sense
The band’s sound is heavily influenced by the eighties: layers of arpeggiated synthesizers, staccato sampled vocals, processed percussion and the like.
Mayberry’s singing, like a more pitch-precise Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, is plaintive yet soaring.
It is synth pop in the truest sense.
Social networks important
It’s no surprise that their musical reputation spread online and, at this stage, they continue to personally handle their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“I grew up on message boards and I have a media background so it makes sense to me to use those channels to communicate directly with people and create a sort of community,” Mayberry opines.
But, she adds, “I don’t think necessarily social networks and (ensuing) opinions will have an impact on what (music) we’ll write… once you open yourself up to that many opinions… it will be too confusing I think. It’s important for us to be involved in that community but not like when it comes to creative choices that we’ll make.”
"KAMUSTA PHILIPPINES #CHVRCHESMANILA," the band posted on Instagram:
Their new song on ‘Mockingjay’
The band’s newest track is “Dead Air” off the “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” soundtrack curated by Kiwi phenom Lorde.
According to Doherty, “We didn’t really have much time to play around with the arrangement. Ella (Lorde’s birth name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor) asked us to do it and I told her we had plenty of time to talk about it later in the time frame but we only had three days together in the same country…”
They wrote the song on Day 1, recorded vocals on Day 2 and wrapped it up on Day 3.
“We’re really happy with it,” Doherty says.
Lorde: ‘It’s perfect’
But, he adds, “Ella gave us a general outline of what she wanted and she was very hands-on but wasn’t pushy. It was a very good partnership.”
After the band emailed the file and anxiously awaited feedback, Lorde’s response was simple: “That’s perfect.”
Mayberry jokes, “I’d like to think that everybody else (who contributed to the soundtrack) got loads of notes and that means we’re better.”
The band laughs but she hastily adds, “Hopefully that comes across as sarcasm in print…” The entire band is relaxed enough to be conversational but Mayberry, the journalist, catches herself, all too aware that the levity of the moment can be misread once written down.
Critics change the course of creativity
As for the next album, they feel no pressure.
“None at all. In order for that to create a pressure, we would have held what people were writing or saying about the band up in such high regard. Sure it’s important that critics like your record to an extent but we don’t take them onboard because it changes the course of your creativity one way or another if you take what people say to heart.”
Mayberry concludes, “I guess you have to cut yourself off and put yourself in a bubble and just try and cross your fingers and make that leap of faith that what you’re writing will resonate with somebody. You can overthink it… in a cynical way, and that will be quite sad.”
Vybe Productions presents CHVRCHES Live in Manila, Nov. 26, 8:00 p.m., Samsung Hall, SM Aura Premier, Taguig City. Tickets at P5162.88 and 4087.28 are available at Ticketnet Online. A DJ set after party at Raven in W Fifth W Fifth Building, Fifth avenue, Bonifacio Global City happens at 11:30 p.m. Entrance is P537.80 for CHVRCHES concert ticket holders.
