Prayer answered
A GOTH GOD TO BAND CHVRCHES, THE CURE’S ROBERT SMITH DROPS IN ON THEIR NEW ALBUM
Singer Lauren Mayberry plays the character of the Final Girl on the new album Screen Violence from Scottish synth-pop stars
Chvrches.
The bloodied and battered protagonist of all the great horror films, who survives the serial killer’s reign of terror with intelligence and resilience, was one of the inspirations behind the hugely popular band’s made-in-iso record.
For Mayberry, the Final Girl metaphor runs deep. For almost a decade, the songwriter and performer has been subjected to the systemic screen violence of social media.
She has received death threats, been criticised for wearing too little or too much clothing or makeup, slammed for daring to express her political opinions or social conscience – all par for the course for artists in the digital age.
Mayberry also acknowledges social media – and screens – have enabled Chvrches and their peers to make and engage with fans around the world.
While she has often spoken loudly on the subject, now she has chosen to write songs which attempt to address the toll of the constant barrage of unnecessary hate, its misogynistic roots and how it is allowed to fester unfettered online. “Most people think you’re being a victim and you’re not enough; they say, ‘It’s just the internet, it doesn’t matter’,” Mayberry says.
“The human brain doesn’t make that distinction if you get up in the morning and there’s hundreds of death threats in your inbox. You can try to say to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s not real, it probably won’t happen’ when this person says they’re going to come to the show at this time but they’re probably just trying to get a rise out of you. It doesn’t feel like that. And it f...ks you psychologically as if it is, quote unquote, real.”
It was hard enough for me to get taken seriously as a female in a punk alternative pop outfit
Mayberry has been as integral to the creation of the music of Chvrches as her bandmates Martin Doherty and Iain Cook.
She is the energetic, charismatic focal point of their acclaimed performances – they have been stars of Australian stages from the Sydney Opera House to Splendour In The Grass, courtesy of their previous two records Every Open Eye and Love Is Dead landing in the ARIA top 10. Mayberry chuckles wryly as she explains she dyed her hair blonde for a bit of Final Girl role-playing fun for the
Screen Violence album campaign.
Wearing make-up and dyeing your hair is celebrated as integral to the pop star mystique of male icons including David Bowie or Robert Smith. Yet women doing the same thing is a beacon for judgment and criticism.
“I used to really shy away from that stuff, especially in the early days of the band, because I felt like it was hard enough for me to get taken seriously as a female in a punk alternative pop outfit. So I tried to be one of the guys but that didn’t work either,” she says.
“Why should I not be able to use my physicality as part of my performance and storytelling instead of people saying, ‘Oh, she puts on makeup to try to look pretty for the men’ when I’m dressing for shows because I want it to be elevated and nd colourful and splashy. ashy.
“I love when little ttle girls or women my y age or gay men come to the show having done their make-up so they can feel free to be what they want for 90 minutes of their life.” fe.”
Making Screen n Violence wasn’t the he easiest creative experience, ce, with Mayberry and Doherty caught in Los Angeles when the world shut down last year, and Cook in Scotland. But the band’s most treasured collaboration for the record proved the most effortless. They are still pinching themselves their hero, The Cure’s goth god Robert Smith, landed on their single How Not To Drown, courtesy of some cheeky bravado from their manager.
The band’s rep was chatting with a British music lawyer who happened to mention he was also working with The Cure. Not one to miss an opportunity, Chvrches’ manager asked for an email address so he could pitch the band as a potential tour support act.
“But Robert Smith doesn’t have a manager so the Dark Lord himself replied saying ‘I hear you’re looking for me, what do you want?’ And then our manager had to call us saying ‘Ah, I did a thing, so what do you want to ask for?’” Mayberry says, laughing. “We didn’t f...king know! So we just sent him h songs thinking thinkin he might want to hear where whe the album was wa at in case it worked wo for touring tou – and then the the conversation con started. star
“But “B I can confirm he is even better than tha what I imagined he would w be like, just such kindness and passion and generosity when it came to creating the song.
“And I think (also) an example of how it can be done right.”