CHVRCHES Talk Debut Album: “It’s Not Your Standard X-Factor Style Pop”

On their recent jaunt around the country, CHVRCHES set tongues wagging when they announced during their set at London’s ICA that their debut album is currently scheduled for a September release. The Glaswegian trio - Lauren Mayberry (vocals), Ian Cook (synths) and Martin Doherty (synths) - have only released a handful of tracks so far, including the wonderful ‘The Mother We Share’; but many more are on the way.

‘We’re finished tracking,’ Martin tells DIY, at the tour’s hometown show; ‘a special one’ for the band. ‘I’m the last guy on earth that can finish things; I’ll happily go on tweaking forever! The other day Lauren just said to me, ‘STOP, just STOP now!’ It’s kind of an obsession; I’ll just work and work and work. I think sometimes you just need to know when to close the book on this sort of thing, otherwise you can completely lose sight of where you were going with it in the beginning.’

Along with the aforementioned smash internet hit, they’ve also recently released single ‘Lies’ and EP ‘Recover’. Their first full-length however is set to be a slightly different beast. ‘It’s a bit more diverse, there’s two songs that I sing lead vocals on. It’s more of the same in terms that it’s big aggressive pop in places, not your standard X-Factor style pop. There’s a few cinematic moments on there and we explore a more 80s Moroder sound to an extent as well which is something I’m definitely a fan of.

‘There’s certainly more depth than on the singles but I guess it’s about striking a balance. No one wants to listen to a record where it just goes off and becomes very self-indulgent and doesn’t tie in. Conversely, I don’t want to listen to a record of just three-minute pop songs either. There has to be a balance there. When we’re selecting the tunes for the album from what we have, a lot of that will be about getting the right sequence and balance.’

Read the full interview in the new edition of DIY Weekly, available from iTunes now.