CHVRCHES and Robert Smith (Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski & Kevin J Thomson)
CHVRCHES recently announced their highly anticipated fourth studio album, Screen Violence, due out Aug. 27 on Glassnote Records. The band has also shared 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 Lauren Mayberry’s, both supported by the dark, piano driven song that is based on the concept of staying conscious when you drown.
Watch the official music video for “How Not to Drown” by CHVRCHES featuring Robert Smith on YouTube:
Recorded almost entirely remotely between Los Angeles and Glasgow, members Lauren, 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,” Lauren said 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.”