Chvrches at the Biggest Weekend Festival in Swansea on May 26, 2018 and captured for posterity by BBC6 Music
CHVRCHES are from Glasgow, they formed in September 2011.The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and, unofficially since 2018, Jonny Scott. Mostly deriving from the synth-pop genre, CHVRCHES also incorporate indietronica, indie pop, and electronic dance into their sound.
Two years after their formation, CHVRCHES released Recover EP in March 2013, which included hits “The Mother We Share” and “Recover”. Their debut studio album, The Bones of What You Believe, was released on 20 September 2013, while the band was ranked fifth on the Sound of 2013 list by the BBC. Two years later, on 25 September 2015, the group released their second album, Every Open Eye. Their third album, Love Is Dead, was released on 25 May 2018. Their fourth album, Screen Violence, was released on 27 August 2021.
The band members settled on the name CHVRCHES (stylized as CHVRCHΞS), which uses the Roman letter “v” instead of a “u”. This spelling was chosen to differentiate themselves from actual churches in online search results. There was no conscious decision to have a name with religious connotations; instead, the band members felt that the name gave “a strong vibe that could be interpreted in many different ways”. Mayberry also noted that the v is a subtle nod to band names from the influential witch house genre of music, including bands such as SALEM and Ritualz. “We did consider putting upside down crosses at either side of our name, but that would have dated us, I think” said Mayberry.
Known for their clean sound, Chvrches’ music style is usually tagged as synth-pop, electropop, pop, indie pop, indietronica, electronic rock, indie rock, alternative pop, electronica, and electronic. Neon Gold described their sound as “a godless hurricane of kinetic pop energy”. Kitty Empire of The Observer wrote they “make accessible electro-pop that’s only just short of truly brilliant”. Wired noted following Every Open Eye’s release that the album “cements the group as today’s heir apparent to Depeche Mode, New Order, and other titans of British electronic music.”
On 12 April of this year, Chvrches released a 10th anniversary special edition of Every Open Eye for Record Store Day. The release features eight bonus tracks, and is available as a double vinyl repack and two disk digital format.
Grab their new album and in the meantime, dig in.
