CHVRCHES 'Maybe' Working On New Music

CHVRCHES performed at the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO festival yesterday alongside Fall Out Boy, Rosa Linn, Phoenix, Beach Weather, Muse, Jack White and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Backstage, the Scottish trio were interviewed by Hudson Hott from ALT 97.8, who asked if new music is coming soon. The band chuckled, and singer Lauren Mayberry responded, "Maybe," with a shrug.

New music coming from @CHVRCHES soon?? 👀👀👀 @hudsonhott_ #iHeartALT2023 pic.twitter.com/SF30K3gQtv

— ALT 98.7 (@ALT987fm) January 15, 2023

CHVRCHES fans have been speculating that the band are involved with the soundtrack to the video game Death Stranding 2. Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the 2019 original game, has shared multiple photos of himself hanging out with the band, implying that a collaboration is ahead.

Mayberry is a big fan of horror movies, and their latest album, Screen Violence, references The Nightmare On Elm Street on Violent Delights and The Lost Boys in California.

"On California, I was like, I love the idea of the town where The Lost Boys is set and how everything seems really nice and lovely," she revealed in The Music's cover story on the band. "And underneath, there are all these horrible things happening. And I was like, 'Well, isn't that just life, isn't it? So let's take that as a metaphor, and off we go.'"  

She added, "Now that album has been out for a year and a little bit, it's really lovely to go to shows, and people are wearing their favourite horror shirts. They've carried makeup from different tours that we've done on the record. It's nice to feel like people can express that kind of stuff. It feels like a friendly little community around the album and that it isn't just ours anymore."

There are often a lot of Final Girl t-shirts worn by fans in the front row; Mayberry loves that fans have made their own shirts. "I've seen a Final Dad one, a Final Gay one, and I was like, 'Yes, everyone is reclaiming Final Girl for their own purposes!' That, to me, is the great thing about the horror genre. On the face of it, some things are misogynistic and do not handle gender, sexuality or race very well. 

"But other films talk about those things and dig into those things. There's so much interesting discussion around the role of women in horror and the role of queer stories. It's been fascinating to see that play out over the album to people making and finding their own space within those themes."