Sometimes it can feel like a band came out of “nowhere.” But that is almost never the case.
Glasgow’s Chvrches are quickly becoming one of my favourite groups. Pitchfork caught up with the group to get some of their ideas. One part that stood out for me was lead singer Lauren Mayberry talking about women in music and in pop music.
“I did my dissertation on the idea of femininity and women’s writing, so I spent eight months reading about how women are portrayed in the media in terms of images and tone of voice and what words are used. It’s something that I think about all the time, so I’ve been on the offensive with that from the start. We’ve had a couple of situations where people pitched things to us that we would never do, like individual entries in women’s magazines. It’s nice of them to offer, but I don’t ever want to do that. Not that there’s anything wrong with anybody doing that– that’s absolutely their choice– but it would make it trickier for me to sleep at night. I worry enough anyway.”
She goes on to talk about her lyrics.
“Someone once said to me that no one gives a shit about the lyrics in pop songs, but I find that very offensive because I always listen to them. I never wanted to write really cheesy pop lyrics– like, “baby, baby, the sun is shining”– that’s not something that interests me personally. I’m always wanting to write something that has some kind of meaning.”
Great article. And band member Martin Doherty performed with the Twilight Sad? Awesome.
Go with yourself.
BTW, Lauren Mayberry is a founder of a Glasgow women’s collective called TYCI. http://www.tyci.org.uk/
awesome Alex, thank you.