A lot has changed for CHVRCHES in the past few years.
When the Glaswegian trio wrote and recorded their debut, The
s Of What You Believe (2013), no one had heard of them. The
three members (Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and Lauren Mayberry)
came together with the idea of working on a writing project
together, unsure of what path that would take other than one
which belied their previous musical projects and foregrounded
melody and classic songwriting styles before everything else.
There were no pre-existing ideas of what the record would or
should be like, no pre-conceptions and nothing to live up to just
three people in a basement studio in Glasgow making music they
believed in.
The s of What You Believe went on to sell over 500,000 albums
worldwide. The band enjoyed critical success, with accoladed
coming from Pitchfork, Spin, Rolling Stone, Q, NME and many more.
They made their debut US TV performance on The Late Show with
Jimmy Fallon, and then went on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show
with Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly. They ve clocked in
364 shows in 2 years, selling out venues across the world and
making signature appearances at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Sasquatch,
Lollapalooza, Australasia's Laneway Festival, Reading & Leeds,
Summer Sonic in Japan and countless others before retiring back
into the studio for another go.
Approaching the new album, one could argue that everything is
different for the band but they tried not to treat it that way.
CHVRCHES returned to the same hometown studio that had housed
them during the of their first LP, their basic goal to
shut off the outside world and get back to what they know best:
writing.
Made in CHVRCHES Alucard Studios a converted three-bedroom flat
on the southside of Glasgow Every Open Eye offers an alternative
approach in a climate of music written by committee or the same
handful of well-known songwriters, going back to the idea that a
band can write, record and produce their work entirely by
themselves.
Using some ideas the band had recorded in venues during their
time on the road as a starting point, the band found riffs, loops
and melodies they wanted to develop or started from scratch on
the synths, pads and machines they had been gathering in their
basement to create the instrumentals of the songs. Vocal melodies
were developed as the songs took shape with the lyrics added
last, developed from words and sentences from s Mayberry
had kept on tour.
Musically, Every Open Eye seeks to do more with less. To make big
sounds without racking up endless tracks within Cubase sessions.
To make something intense and urgent and visceral, using the
basic tools of melody, rhythm and arrangement rather than the
mentality that more is more . Sonically, Every Open Eye develops
CHVRCHES signature style, juxtaposing the light and the dark,
creating their own brand of twisted pop music that uniquely
merges the with the electronic, molding sounds and ideas
forged over two years on the road into an electronic-pop record
with a heart.
Lyrically, Every Open Eye is not a break up album. It is a record
about past heartbreaks and getting over them ( Leave A Trace ).
About perspective and the benefit of hind. About being
unapologetic and not being told what to do or who to be ( Bury It
, Never Ending Circles , Playing Dead ). About moving on to
better things, holding on to the good and letting go of the bad (
Down Side Of Me , Clearest Blue , Afterglow ).
Mixed by Spike Stent and mastered by Bob Ludwig, Every Open Eye
will be released on September 25, 2015 via Glassnote. Lead single
Leave A Trace is out on July 16.