Last fall, Chvrches should have been celebrating the release of their debut album, “The Bones of What You Believe.” The dramatic and emotionally arresting collection of synth-pop songs was given critical acclaim almost across the board, duly hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart and peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard 200. Impressive achievements for a group of unknowns from Scotland. But instead, singer Lauren Mayberry and multi-instrumentalists Iain Cook and Martin Doherty were spending their time speaking out against the vile “fan” messages sent to the band’s Facebook account.
The notes ranged from sleazy to downright menacing. When Mayberry posted a screengrab of one of the offending messages, a few continued to taunt her. One of the worst read: “This isn’t rape culture. You’ll know rape culture when I’m raping you, bitch.”
In a follow-up blog post for the Guardian, Mayberry explained she was refusing to accept online misogyny as part of her job. The majority of fans and music-industry figures came out in support. “We don’t get so many condescending questions now,” Mayberry tells The Post ahead of the band’s three-night stand at Terminal 5 starting Friday. “Before, the guys would get fans and journalists asking about the music, and I’d get the questions about my hair!”
Although the web caused the band difficulties, Chvrches has also benefitted from it greatly. The group formed in Glasgow in 2011. Cook and Doherty attended college together and came across Mayberry when Cook was producing an EP by her old indie-pop band. When Chvrches released its first single, “Lies,” in May 2012 (via the partly New York-based Neon Gold music blog), the response across the blogosphere made the trio realize their little studio experiment was destined for much more.
A year ago, they released their first EP, “Recover,” and the online buzz around Chvrches’ first few songs was already big enough to warrant their first American tour. The band’s Terminal 5 run was expanded from one to three nights due to demand, and will also play Brooklyn’s McCarren Park as part of the Northside festival in June. The band will also start writing its second album this summer.
Even though it’s become one of the hottest underground bands, Chvrches is determined to stay independent by continuing to produce and record everything themselves. “You know that what you’re making is yours,” says Mayberry. “We’re not going to have fancy Timbaland beats on album No. 2.”