Chvrches returned with a new single, “He Said She Said,” in April, and now they have announced a new album, Screen Violence. It’s their follow-up to 2018’s Love is Dead, and it’s due out on August 27 via Glassnote Records. Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty and Iain Cook recorded, produced and mixed most of it remotely via video calls and audio sharing programs, and you can see the cover art and tracklisting below.
They have shared a new single, “How Not to Drown,” a track that features vocals from The Cure‘s Robert Smith. About the collaboration, Lauren said: “It was a song that we had already been writing for the record, and then our manager had been technically sniffing about trying to see if maybe The Cure were going to tour again and maybe we could try and get a support slot or something. So he was like, ‘I wonder if somebody could put me in touch? How this would happen? How would we ask for this?’ And then he got in touch with Robert and the conversations kind of started from there. And then we sent a bunch of songs over and you were kind enough to listen to them, and we had to figure out where we might be able to collaborate and where there would be space to do something really interesting and special. And hopefully that’s what we did. I feel like that’s what we did.”
“I went through a period of just listening to a lot of different kind of music, and I was really intrigued by the idea of me trying something else without taking the band with me, just doing something,” Robert told. “I’ve never liked the idea of doing things on my own, like a solo artist. I’ve always railed against it because I like the idea of a band. I think it kind of suits my character and it’s much more comfortable to have… It’s like, ‘Us against the world.’ That sort of mentality. I’ve never wanted to kind of step away from that. But as I got more confident, I suppose, maybe starting about 10 years ago, I just thought, ‘Well, rather than take the band with me whenever we do these kind of weird things…’ I started doing some weird things. This isn’t one of them, obviously. This is not a weird thing by any means. But yeah, it allows me just to kind of try other things. And I mean, I’ve only done things with people that I really like a lot. So, unfortunately, it’s one of the hardest things saying no to people, because sometimes there are people send me stuff and I do really like it and I like them, but I think, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ I think the collaborations that I’ve done in the past, very few of them, I can’t really think off the top of my head, have been collaborative in the sense that there’s someone else singing with me. I think that’s what made the difference. I mean, with Damon, he was just kind of burbling away in the background. I didn’t know he was there. This is very different because, I mean, it’s Lauren singing and then I’m kind of like… So it’s more of a duet. It’s a kind of old fashioned sort of way of doing things.”
Listen to “How Not to Drown” below:
Screen Violence artwork & tracklist:
1. Asking For A Friend
2. He Said She Said
3. California
4. Violent Delights
5. How Not To Drown
6. Final Girl
7. Good Girls
8. Lullabies
9. Nightmares
10. Better If You Don’t
Chvrches have also announced a North American tour supporting their new album, starting in Houston on November 9 and stopping in Austin, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, NYC, Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and more. Donna Missal opens, and you can see all dates below.
CHVRCHES 2021 TOUR
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