CHVRCHES and the sound of 80s horror

09/14/21 • 33 min

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CHVRCHES is well-known for their comprehensive use of synthesizers and their updated take on “synthpop”, a subgenre of pop we most closely associated with the 1980s. While gearing up to make their second album in 2015, CHVRCHES members Iain Cook and Martin Doherty spent much of the recording budget buying up many of the original synthesizers used to make those iconic 80s dance tracks. Contemporary replicas of those synth sounds are now commonplace with pop acts like Dua Lipa and The Weeknd. But CHVRCHES has been wielding these sounds for more than a decade, and their newest project is a great reminder of how closely we link that synth sound with not just to a bygone era, but specifically to the eerie sound of horror film.

Screen Violence is their new album. It draws inspiration from classic horror films like John Carpenter's Halloween. With its horror frame, the lyrics explore dark themes, like the violent online abuse CHVRCHES lead singer Lauren Mayberry has endured for much of the band’s existence, a hyper consciousness of her own mortality brought on by that abuse, and fears of losing her grip on reality. Switched On Pop’s co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Lauren, Ian, Martin from CHVRCHES about the making and meaning of Screen Violence.

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Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry: 'I will not accept online misogyny'

SONGS DISCUSSED

CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles
Dua Lipa - Physical
The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
CHVRCHES - California
CHVRCHES - Lullabies
CHVRCHES - Final Girl
CHVRCHES - Violent Delights
CHVRCHES - He Said She Said
CHVRCHES - Asking For A Friend
John Carpenter - Halloween Theme
Suspiria - Markos
John Carpenter - Christine
John Carpenter - Turning The Bones (CHVRCHES Remix)
CHVRCHES - Good Girls (John Carpenter remix)
CHVRHCES - How Not To Down (with Robert Smith)

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MORE

Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry: 'I will not accept online misogyny'

SONGS DISCUSSED

CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles
Dua Lipa - Physical
The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
CHVRCHES - California
CHVRCHES - Lullabies
CHVRCHES - Final Girl
CHVRCHES - Violent Delights
CHVRCHES - He Said She Said
CHVRCHES - Asking For A Friend
John Carpenter - Halloween Theme
Suspiria - Markos
John Carpenter - Christine
John Carpenter - Turning The Bones (CHVRCHES Remix)
CHVRCHES - Good Girls (John Carpenter remix)
CHVRHCES - How Not To Down (with Robert Smith)

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Previous Episode

From Taylor Swift to Bon Iver, Aaron Dessner Finds Meaning in Musical Community

On August 27th Big Red Machine, the joint musical project of Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner - artists known for their work as Bon Iver and in the rock band The National, respectively - returned with new music. You’ve most definitely heard Dessner’s production work elsewhere, like on Taylor Swift’s pandemic albums evermore and folklore. The Big Red Machine album, titled How Long Do You Think it's Going to Last, celebrates the fruits of creative partnership and the importance of family and community. At least, that’s what we took from our conversation with Dessner. “A lot of my favorite music - usually there's something elusive about it, in that whatever is elusive is coming from this weird cocktail of different people's input. There's just this weird, swampy alchemy, and you can't easily put your finger on why it's so moving.”

Dessner told us he draws much of his creative inspiration from the kinetic energy generated by multiple musical brains working in tandem, which makes sense given the list of features on this album - everyone from Swift to Sharon van Etten to Anaïs Mitchell to The Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold. “I'm such a born collaborator. I'm definitely interested in this exchange where you make something and you send it out into the ether and then it comes back slightly changed or radically changed. Then you work on it and send it again. I like this handoff, this communal approach to music making.”

The musical collective fostered by Vernon and Dessner on How Long Do You Think It's Going to Last is a testament to the power of musical communities in a year of intense isolation. We’re so pleased to bring you Nate’s conversation with Aaron Dessner in this week’s episode.

Songs Discussed

Big Red Machine - Birch, feat. Taylor Swift
Big Red Machine - Phoenix, feat. Fleet Foxes & Anaïs Mitchell
Big Red Machine - Magnolia
Big Red Machine - Renegade, feat. Taylor Swift
Big Red Machine - Mimi, feat. Ilsey
Big Red Machine - The Ghost of Cincinnati

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Next Episode

Deja Vu: Why Olivia Rodrigo keeps giving up songwriting credits

In the last few years music copyright claims have skyrocketed. More and more artists are giving songwriting credits away. Frequently, credits are given retroactively to avoid the cost of long jury trials like when Sam Smith credited Tom Petty. Smith’s melody for “Stay With Me” clearly drew from Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” On rare occasions these cases go to court, where music litigation is at an all time high. In the last ten years there have been 190 public cases, up over 350% from the prior decade, according to The George Washington University & Columbia Law School Music Copyright Infringement Resource.

This story has come in and out of the news cycle in closely watched jury trials including artists like Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, and Katie Perry. Historically, courts have extended copyright to only unique combinations of words and music, not rhythms, chords, instruments. But recent cases increasingly litigate the core building blocks of music. Many artists fear that a bad court outcome could let an artist copyright a “vibe” using commonly used musical language.

The question of whether someone can borrow a vibe resurfaced when Olivia Rodrigo shared songwriting credits on her hit 2021 album Sour with Taylor Swift, and comparisons have been made to the art of Courtney Love and music of Elvis Costello. Many listeners have commented on Rodrigo’s more obvious influences on social media. Viral TikTok videos compared Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” to Paramore’s “Misery Business,” which share a common chord progression and vibe. This online campaign likely contributed to Rodrigo handing songwriting credits, also known as publishing, to Hayley Williams and Josh Farro of the band Paramore.

This week we are airing the conversation Switched On Pop’s Charlie Harding had on the podcast Decoder with host Nilay Patel who is also editor and chief of The Verge. Together we try to understand how the byzantine music copyright system works, and how its rules affect the sound of pop music today and in the future.

SONGS DISCUSSED - Spotify Playlist