CHVRCHES have today announced their highly anticipated fourth studio album, Screen Violence, due out August 27th on Glassnote Records. The band has also shared today the second single from the forthcoming record, titled “How Not To Drown,” featuring one of the trio’s ultimate heroes, Robert Smith. The Cure frontman’s signature voice melds perfectly with Mayberry’s, both supported by the dark, piano driven song that is based on the concept of staying conscious when you drown.
CHVRCHES is featured on New Music Daily on Apple Music, with Zane Lowe today inviting the band on his Apple show for their first ever interview with Smith.
Recorded almost entirely remotely between Los Angeles and Glasgow, members Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty and Iain Cook self-produced and mixed the album via video calls and audio sharing programs to create something that is unique and special, but inherently CHVRCHES.
Screen Violence was originally conceived as a name for the band. A decade later, and during a pandemic when the reality of screen violence has never been more pertinent, struggling to make the people you love feel more than the characters on a TV show, and experiencing a world of trauma as if it were another, CHVRCHES revived the term for their forthcoming album title. Narrating the theme of screen violence in three main forms – on screen, by screens and through screens – the album touches on feelings of loneliness, disillusionment, fear, heartbreak and regret.
“I think for me it was helpful to go into the process with the idea that I could write something escapist almost,” Mayberry says of the album. “That felt freeing initially, to have concepts and stories to weave your own feelings and experiences through but in the end, all the lyrics were definitely still personal.” While Martin Doherty adds, “To me, the screen aspect was a bit more literal. When we were making the record, it was like half of our lives were lived through screens. What began as a concept was now a lifeline.”
The making of Screen Violence also marked a decade together for the band – a decade whose sound they have helped to create and define from their 2013 breakthrough The Bones of What You Believe and 2015’s Every Open Eye, to their most recent 2018’s Love is Dead.
“How Not To Drown” follows the release of “He Said She Said,” a song Vulture called “A predictably huge song…And the hook is a fitting moment of pandemic catharsis.” The single is fast rising on the US Alternative charts, and debuted #1 on the NACC Singles Chart and went #3 on the Submodern Chart. The single is accompanied by an official video directed by multi-disciplinary artist Scott Kiernan.
Eager to get back out on the road where the band and their impressive stage production can truly connect with their fans, CHVRCHES are excited to announce an extensive North American tour beginning this November. The dates will kick off at Houston’s White Oak Music Hall on November 9th, followed by three nights at ACL Live in Austin, two nights at NYC’s Terminal 5 and finishing up on December 17th at The Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. See all tour dates below. Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 11th at 10:00AM local time. Visit www.chvrch.es for more information.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
11/09/21 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
11/10 – 11/12/21 Austin, TX – ACL Live
11/14/21 Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
11/15/21 Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
11/17/21 Minneapolis, MN – Armory
11/18/21 Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
11/19/21 Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
11/20/21 Columbus, OH – Express Live!
11/22/21 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
11/23/21 Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
11/26/21 New York, NY – Terminal 5
11/27/21 New York, NY – Terminal 5
11/30/21 Washington, DC – Anthem
12/01/21 Boston, MA – House of Blues
12/02/21 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
12/03/21 Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
12/05/21 Cincinnati, OH – Ovation
12/06/21 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
12/08/21 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
12/09/21 Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
12/10/21 Salt Lake City, UT – Union
12/11/21 Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl
12/13/21 San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
12/14/21 San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
12/16/21 San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
12/17/21 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
