Cover Feature Chvrches: The eye of the storm

“See, the excitement graph for me personally,” starts Chvrches’ Martin Doherty, tracing his finger across the table in front of him in an attempt to illustrate the band’s most recent studio experience, “starts up here at absolute maximum. Then it goes,” his invisible graph dips slightly and evens out. “Then you do some nice production,” the line creeps up again. “Then you get the mix back and it goes all the way back to the top.” He stops to conclude. “Right at the beginning it feels amazing, but you lose that kind of excitement after a while, until you hear it completely finalised and think, ‘Yes! It’s as good as I thought it was!’”

After two years on the road in support of debut ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’, it’s not surprising to learn Chvrches were excited to return to their own Alucard Studios in Glasgow. Happy to admit that the studio tends to feel more like their natural environment, it was during the latter half of their touring campaign that the itch began to creep back. They started to try and make notes of melodies, work on loops and segments, and keep their creative brains switched on.

Six weeks after coming off the road late last year – having given themselves “a little bit of distance from it all,” says Iain Cook - the band found themselves heading back into the same converted three-bedroom flat where their debut had come to life. This time, however, they had a plan of action.