WEBVTT - CHVRCHES 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:04.400 Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:07.720 Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan run Tug, 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.400 But enough about me, Let's talk about my guests, who 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.200 are truly one of my favorite bands in existence right now. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.919 Since bursting onto the world stage almost exactly a decade ago, 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.280 this Scottish trio have carved out a unique sound, bringing 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.440 d i y punk ethos to cynthy dance pop bangers 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.560 like The Mother We Share, Leave a Trace and Clearest Blue. 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.240 Their latest album, Screen Violence, is told through the refracted 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.600 lens of a horror story. It's not quite a concept album, 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.000 but the affectionate nod to eighties slasher classics doubles as 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.879 a biting commentary on our modern screen centric existence. It 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.080 also spotlights the constant abuse and harassment that women are 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.879 regularly subjected to online end in real life. Tracks like 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.200 He Said, She Said, Good Girls and Final Girl all 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.280 grapple with themes of misogyny, abuse of power, and gender standards. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.080 These issues are tackled from a place of strength, with 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.880 a lyrical intellect that's become part of the group's trademark. 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.880 I'm so happy to welcome Lauren Maybury, Martin Doherty and 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:08.160 in Cook of churches. The new record is incredible. I 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.200 can't wait to to go deep on that. But to 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.000 begin with, I want to ask you a simple question, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.959 which is one that's taken on a new residence, i'd say, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.200 on the last eighteen months, which is, how are you? 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.119 How are you guys doing today? I mean, it comes 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.280 and it goes, isn't it I suppose for everybody? But yeah, 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:23.960 we feel good. I feel good that the record is 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.320 finally out and that people have been really responsive to it. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.600 And you know, it's not always given, especially in these times. 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:32.640 So I think we feel I feel thankful for that. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:34.560 Oh that is wonderful to hear. I mean the new 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.440 album is called Screen Violence, and much of it was 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.840 made through screens during during lockdown, when you were all 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.959 separated in some cases by an ocean. Was it challenging 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.920 making this record in such a segmented way effectively, you know, 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.760 in your own individual vacuums. Yeah, I mean we definitely 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.480 had to adapt and think on our feet and sort 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.120 of really shake up the way that we were used 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.320 to working in order to get it done. But eventually 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.600 we we sort of figured out ways that we could 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.560 make the technology work, and the time zones work, and 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.720 uh and and ultimately got to a place where we 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.800 were working really efficiently and really creatively, just as we 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:08.760 would sort of normally. So I guess we're lucky in 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.600 that regard to have managed to figure that out. But yeah, 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.240 I definitely had its challenges. But you know, I guess, 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:15.919 as they say, the proof is in the pudding. And 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.840 I'm so proud of this album. And I think whatever 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.960 we did, we did something right. That's amazing. I mean, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.120 none of those challenges come across at all listening to. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.600 I mean, it's also cohesive. It's amazing to think of 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.200 how you did put this all together. It's really incredible. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.440 I mean, we've relied on our screens so much more 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.760 in the last eighteen months, I mean, for being connected 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.280 for entertainment, for information. Has this weird period changed your 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.600 relationship with technology in anyway? Um, I feel like I'm 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.320 always learning about new audio programs I never heard of before. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.960 To be honest, like still to this day, we didn't 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.639 interview yesterday and they used to program I've never heard 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.440 of in my life, and I was that, well, it's 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.519 just a whole world that I don't understand. But yeah, 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.720 I feel like touring and stuff. I definitely appreciate smart 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.160 full and video calling in those things anyway, but especially 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.240 in the last year, wheneveryone's been so disconnected. Yeah, if 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:07.840 we didn't have any of those things, I think all 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.200 of this would have been a lot more isolating and lonely, 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.080 and it would have been basically impossible to make a 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.960 record without it, I think. So it's funny. I've been 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.360 talking to a number of musicians in the last year 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.000 and a half, and so many seem to have leaned 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.399 in with their music to sort of up tempo, optimistic, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.640 sunny positive. You seem to have embraced the darkness in 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.720 an awesome way and embraced the ambiguity of life. I 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:31.840 guess in a in a way the record that opens 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.519 with the line I don't want to say I'm afraid 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.520 to die on the opening track asking for a friend, 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.000 would you say that you're a band of optimists? I 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.080 mean in the date, like I guess you know, we've 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.360 made songs that are sunny ear and songs that are 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.480 not as sunny, and I feel like it's just about 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.200 trying to figure out where you're at when you make 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.040 things like if you try and push yourself to do 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:51.520 one thing or the other, then it's not going to 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.200 come out quite right. So yeah, I think that we 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.560 were just kind of ready for a bit more of 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.160 the gasthy darkness when it came time for this, And 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.360 you know, in a way lucky to have had that 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.760 template going in, because I think it would be really 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.720 difficult to make super cheery, smiley music last year when 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.240 nobody feels like that. I don't think it's already mining 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.920 something that was then you felt more of when you're 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.560 locked in your house. It's definitely a point where our 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:22.120 management we're kind of urging us to write happier because 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.479 you know, it's like if everybody's going through the same 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.440 really dark time, and the fear, I guess is that 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.479 like there will be a flood of sort of miserable, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.120 depressing music. But no, I think I think you can 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.240 only really write what's true and authentic to yourself at 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.840 the time. And I think for us to write like sunny, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.800 happy pop music and ignore the fact that you know 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.640 that we're grounded and where we're at it is like 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:45.880 it would have been a really difficult thing, like a 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.360 really difficult thing for us to go off, and I'm 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.000 glad that we saw because I do think that even 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.919 though the music is quite melancholy and the lyrics are 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.000 are quite sad in places, I do think that there's 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.840 always with this band, like a kind of optimistic like 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.320 ray of unshine in there as well, you know what 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.640 I mean. Balance, Yeah, absolutely, I mean again, it's it's 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.760 much more, I think, emotionally authentic to what people were 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:09.400 feeling in the last year and a half and to 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.839 pretend that, you know, did you have a p pure escapism? 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:13.960 Would ask you about the title because on the surface, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:15.640 when I first heard, I thought, oh my gosh, what 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.760 a way to crystallize the last year and a half 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.640 screen violence, everybody on the screens. I didn't realize that 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:23.920 that was in the running to be a band name. 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.240 When you when you formed a decade ago, Can you 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.000 tell me more about how you landed on that as 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.359 the as a title. I guess it was kind of 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.279 a happy unhappy accident. They ended up being more poignant 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.040 than we intended. But yeah, it was a band name 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.960 that we've talked about in like two eleven twelve, Like 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.120 we all really loved the imagery of it and what 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.000 it's referring to like that year of cinema and horror movies, 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.400 but it felt maybe it just wasn't right for a 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:51.960 band name. But we were touring in twenty nine and 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:54.960 re found this list of names and it just seems 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:59.479 like a very vivid, not concept but writing starting point 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.120 to go off of. And it's been really fun, especially 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.560 with the visuals and like the little tonic tongue and 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.320 cheap references on the record. It's been fun to play 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.440 with those kind of things and have those elements be 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.679 more escapist, even though the songs are still I feel 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.200 personal to all of usn't a grounded in that space? Yeah, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.040 how did the horror motif come through? How did that 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.000 idea take route? Yeah? I guess it was the screen 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.479 violence concept, and now that it's a concept album per se, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.640 it gave us a kind of like lens to focus 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.800 the music through and the and the lyrics through, you 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:30.280 know what I mean. It was it's like we've all 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.960 been such big fans of of horror movies and sort 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.039 of sci fi movies growing up, and and musically a 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.960 lot of those things were formative, you know, like watching 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.880 videos of like The Terminator and Ghostbusters and Nightmare on 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.520 the Street as kids, and of course that they're not 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.520 just the film stick with you, but the music sticks 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.440 with you in the atmosphere that music creates. And that's 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.880 something that we were definitely quite keen to sort of 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.720 experiment with, leaning into a little bit more because you know, 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.200 it's fun more than anything else. How much it's true, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.599 I mean, just how indelible it is to the to 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:02.520 the story of your band. Didn't you meet at a 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.159 screening of The Exorcist? But yeah, learning I um, that's 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.840 I think the first thing that we met. Yeah, she 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:10.880 was working at the cinema. Yeah, And it's funny, I 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.480 guess like each of us individually and together have memories 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.040 of those things too. And then remember on the first record, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:18.760 I was looking for a bunch of photos the day 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.120 and I found a picture of us all watching Buffy 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:22.760 the band first there on the bus, like on the 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.400 first first buster that we did. And I feel like 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.240 it's always been part of what we love as people 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.920 on as a band, and it's nice, nice in a way, 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.800 it's quite poetic that came right background to that. You know, 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.520 a lot of making music we take seriously, but it's 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.160 fun in a way. To not have to be so 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.960 serious about certain things, and like there's always been that 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.800 element to the band when you guys have been putting 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.120 in certain references or certain bits are left in the 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.560 music which are supposed to you know, which are not. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.640 Which your references is something or fun in jokes to things, 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.520 and it was nice to be able to do that 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:55.600 in a way on this record, which on the face 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.720 of it can be quite serious, but in another way 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.200 it's quite knowing and tongue in cheek I suppose, I 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:01.920 mean taking it back to the very beginning. I've read 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.280 that you actually used visual cues and mood boards before, 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.800 like when you at the very beginning of these sessions. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.680 Can you tell me more about how that factored in 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.120 into the music. Well, I don't. I think that's definitely 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.040 something that I've started doing in the last few years, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.400 probably the first the third album was the first time 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.280 we started sending those kinds of things around. But some 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:21.960 of the visuals on that record are really cool, but 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.720 some of them didn't really end up how we intended 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:26.480 them too. And I think going into this, because we 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.080 knew there was more thematic stuff going on around it, 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:31.880 it felt like, oh, maybe this will be fun to 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.160 plan in terms of just giving the ideas. I didn't 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.080 really think this will end up being a brief for 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.079 what happens, but you know, happy accident, I suppose. But 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.360 I feel like for lyrics especially, that's always how it's 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.800 helpful for me to start like taking in lots of 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:50.160 other art, whether it's films or books or actual physical art. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.520 And I love I love a good interest board. These 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.880 kids that like look at my twelve interest boards about 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.680 definitely different things to do this albums, but some gets 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.240 sometimes I feel like like they don't want to see 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.680 my multiple bost if nobody wants to see the Pinchess 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.880 board about March should, I feel like I enjoy it, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.600 like it's nice. That's funny you mention that I was 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.560 a screenwriting major in college, and whenever I was stuck 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.720 on a plot point or a scene, I would go 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.560 for a walk and listen to music, and either the 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.559 mood of the music or a lyric line would inspire 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:23.280 a part of the dialogue or something. It would always 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.240 kind of re prime the pump and kind of fix 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.199 whatever was blocked in my head. So it's funny that 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.000 kind of goes both ways by using visuals for for 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.240 audio cues. Yeah, and I feel like it's never I'm 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.560 always often a fred almost to listen to other music 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.320 when I'm trying to write music, just in case something 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.800 seeps into your brain literally that you shouldn't so well. 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.160 If anything, I feel like it has to be other 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.560 art forms that do that. And I listened to our 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.840 podcast with Sophia Coplow where she was talking about that, 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.240 and she was talking about all the soundtracks in her 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.920 films and why they're so important to the stories, where 0:09:57.960 --> 0:09:59.800 she says that when she writes, she always going to 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.439 sets of a mood with like a playlist in the 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.840 background of what she thinks she wants to channel. And 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.160 I was like, oh, she doesn't too, so capital well, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.240 like she's obviously mining really interesting things of that. So 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.800 interesting how the different art forms feed into another. And 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.440 your last album you worked with producer Greg Kurston, who's 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.160 worked with everybody at the All Food Fighters. Was it 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.360 always the plan to to get back to producing this 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.280 album completely on your own or did the pandemic kind 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:26.840 of make it so that that just sort of made 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.080 more sense from a practical standpoint to just keep it 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.920 among yourselves. Yeah, it was something that we that we 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.800 had decided on before before we were sort of taken 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.320 down by the pandemic, you know, the last album was 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.360 we decided to experiment with you know, honestly, we had 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.679 a sort of six to eight month period in New 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:46.400 York where we were writing on our own and the 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.800 things weren't like really there wasn't like any real momentum, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.320 and the songs weren't amazing, and we kind of decided 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.640 to kind of cast the net wide and see what 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.000 working with other people would bring in terms of inspiration 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.400 and sort of you know, fresh ideas. But I think 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.120 when you when we particularly work with other people, were 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.920 always kind of like trying to steal there the techniques, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.520 not their ideas, but their techniques, and and I think 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.240 that was really eye opening ou a lot of ways. 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.280 And we took a lot of stuff from that back 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.680 to home base and sort of processed it in a 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.920 way that suited us. And that's a lot of the 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:19.920 reason why I think we feel so happy with the 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.280 way this album came out, because it's like the product 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.240 of all the stuff that we've learned since over the 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.920 last ten years working with us, working with other people, 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.120 and being able to sort of channel that back into 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:40.480 the original open home based set up. You know, Martin, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:42.880 I know, well the rest of us in Lockdown, we're 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.640 making sour to bread and banana bread. I'd read that 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.479 you were making guitar pedals. Did any of that experimentation 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.959 come to to bear on on this new album? I 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.199 made some sort o bread to, Yeah, but I had 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.839 to start making surtle bread because I was eating it, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.400 and uh, Lockdown, I'm not as you know, as active 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.640 as you might be in regular life. So first I 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.840 started building a pedal board because I thought it would 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:12.840 be fun to have a few guitar pedals to mess 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:18.240 around with. And then in that process also I thought, oh, 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.440 it would be nice and cool if I finally learned 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.160 how to solder cables. So I cut all the cables 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.600 and solder to all the cables and put together this 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.720 gargantuan guitar pedal board. The beast this So I thought 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.719 it was really fun and a really great tool in 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.840 the studio. But once I guess, like any ambitious person 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.600 or any kind of natural scholar, once you get to 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.280 the end of that process, you go, oh, well, what 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.160 does the next level look like? So I started opening 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.920 up the pedals that I bought and looking at them 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.760 and going, oh, that's interesting. This distortion pedal has only 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.200 like this a very simple circuit instead of here. And 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.480 then next thing you know, you're looking at schematics online 0:12:57.480 --> 0:12:59.599 and one thing leads to another. Now I have a 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.800 like a bunch of pedals that I made myself that 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:07.120 are based off of old and rare guitar pedals that 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.560 it's hard to come by now. So I sort of 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:14.400 turned it into a money saving experiment because I don't 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.920 have to pay thousands of dollars for these weird, rare, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.560 rare pedals and be like a learning experience, but they 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.320 and and also a creative tool because those the product 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.520 of that learning. If you're a musician or a creative 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.640 then the product of that learning ends up on in 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.240 the music that you make. You know. Then I got 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.079 a dog, which is like what everyone does in the pandemic, 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.520 and I had to stop building pedals because she was 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:43.440 always trying to run around near there are tuning the 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.240 wires and like and then I'll be like, oh great, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.720 my dog has a tiny transistor in her mouth and 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:55.560 I'm chasing her around the house stab herself. So yeah, 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.600 that unfortunately, but it's probably maybe it's for the best, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.880 because by now this this would be cool of things 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.400 that I've made. In fact, I built this microphone that 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.520 we're using as well, which is wow. But I had 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.720 to stop. Can you walk me through what is the 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:11.839 process for you of actually beginning a song? What what 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.280 are the bare bones you begin with? I mean, I 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.079 guess it depends. I don't know. It's kind of different 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.640 for certain albums and for certain songs. And this instance, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.720 I think about half the songs of the album came 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.720 from maybe just over half came from demos that had 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.160 done before we got together, and then we wrote some 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.040 in the room together and we finished most of it 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.360 over lockdown. Sometimes the start can be a very solitary process, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.600 and that's a good thing, but I think I prefer 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.480 to write when there's other people there. In this instance, 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.560 the way that things worked out, the way that we 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.880 were not together as much, it was like, oh, well, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.320 we've written four songs together. That's awesome, but now Ian's 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.400 in Scotland and we have to find an album, so 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.760 we either like right and Lauren I can hang out. 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.120 So it was basically just like, here's everything that I 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:00.880 have do you want to make an album out of it, 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.120 and we basically the produced out from there. Do you 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.440 find that the best songs come the fastest or is 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.120 it more fulfilling to have the ones that you really 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.480 build up piece by piece. I've experienced both sides of 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.240 the coin. I mean, I can say the biggest songs 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.120 come the fastest usually, but the ones that I like 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.720 the most don't necessarily come the fastest. So I don't know. 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.560 Maybe that's a that's a that's a tricky question to answer. 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.880 You can write, let its write melody and and and 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.520 a beat and like music. You could write four of 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.360 those a day very easily, but let its take a 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.760 lot longer if you want them to be good. I 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.080 wanted to ask you about the lyrics on on this album, 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:41.960 and there's been a lot of reviews that have noted 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.040 that the lyrics on this album addressed themes of misogyny 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.320 and abuse of power and gender standards in a way 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.000 that hasn't cropped up so much in your music, although 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.360 it's addressed in your interviews and in in op ed pieces. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.560 It right, Lauren, Uh, what do you make of that? 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:56.800 First of all, I wanted to ask you if you 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.840 agree with that assessment, and then secondly, if so, what 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.720 led you to address these these topics in your music 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.160 on this album, Like it's just a natural by product 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.960 of where we're at in life. Probably, Like, you're definitely 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.640 right that gender and feminism have always been part of 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.800 the conversation around around the band and in every single 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:18.880 interview all the time. That's what people ask is about. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.320 But it's not really anything we were writing about, necessarily, say, 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.800 other than the fact that a lot of my lyrics 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.080 are from my point of view, which is a female 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.920 point of view. But yeah, I feel like you write 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.920 about things that you know and what your experience have been. 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.240 So it's like chicken and egg kind of thing, like 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.920 a self fulfillient prophecy that that would make its way 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.600 into the music somewhere. But I don't think when I 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.200 was sitting down to write songs that I was consciously 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.120 thinking we should make more reference to those themes on 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.120 this album. It just kind of happened over the course 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.560 of it. And yeah, you never want something to feel 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.200 preachy or didactic or any of those things. I feel 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.240 like it has to be just a personal perspective on something. 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.200 And then with enough in dree and fiction around it 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.920 to make it feel not fun for people. But you 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:05.240 know what I mean. I feel like, when you're writing, 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.199 it should be personal to you, but it can't be 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:11.119 so completely about that situation that people can't find themselves 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:12.960 in it. And I guess that was what was fun, 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.440 especially with the horror imagery, because there's so many things 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.560 you can dig into and horror films in terms of 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.040 how women are written and what stories they get, how 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.080 the how female viewers of horror feel. And I feel 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.320 like that was definitely Maybe that's very academic, but that's 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:29.119 something I was thinking about when I was writing it, 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.480 especially something like Final Girl and my Okay. That's definitely 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.560 leaning into that world. But it's not literally a song 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.040 about a Final Girl. It's just having fun with that 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.520 can imagery. Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that. I mean, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.280 I was speaking to two women friends of mine who 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.080 are extremely into horror fans. They collect old eight s, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.280 VHS types of it, and I was asking about it 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.199 and they said that it resonates with them, and I 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.840 imagine many women because the women in those movies are 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.600 the objectification and the way that that sort of putting 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.920 these impossible positions where they can't win in the violence. 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.600 That's not an abstract notion that to them, that's something 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.800 that you know, it is part of their you know, 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.359 daily lives unfortunately in some ways. And it really was 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.880 a way that they could feel uh seen, I think 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:17.400 was sort of how they put it, which I thought 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.400 was not a way that I had looked at those 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:21.879 movies and embarrassed to say, but it was definitely educational 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.040 to to speak to them about that. Well. Yeah, And 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.000 I think that it's just I hate that really basic 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.480 argument of horror as a genre as misogynists, because only 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.080 will any film in any genre could be misogynists or 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.399 come from that lens depending on who made made it 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.880 and what you're trying to see. But I do feel like, 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.199 especially over the course the last couple of years, like 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.040 underwriting this record, I've watched a lot of we all 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.960 watched a lot of horror films to kind of reunite 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.080 that part of her brains. And like, yeah, for me, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:49.960