Song Exploder - CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue

Episode Date: June 28, 2018

CHVRCHES is a trio from Glasgow, Scotland. In this episode, they break down the song “Clearest Blue,” from their sophomore album Every Open Eye. You’ll hear the band’s original demo as well as why they start songs with a set of rules, but then quickly abandon those rules.This interview was recorded live at the Dropbox Podcast Studio at SXSW.songexploder.net/chvrches

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. I interviewed the Scottish band Churches back in March 2016 in Austin, Texas. A few weeks ago, in May 2018, they released a new album called Love is Dead. It features contributions from David Stewart of the Erythmics and another past song Exploder guest, Matt Berniger of the National. So in honor of Church's new record, I wanted to go back and listen to their episode again. Here it is. Churches is a trio from Glasgow, Scotland.

In this episode, they break down the song Clearest Blue from their sophomore album, Every Open Eye. You'll hear the band's original demo, as well as why they start songs with a set of rules, but then quickly abandon those rules. This interview was recorded live at the Dropbox podcast studio at South by Southwest. I'm Martin, and I play keys and stuff.

I'm Lauren, and I sing. I'm Ian, and I also play keys and stuff. We were trying to make a laid-back song, weren't we? We, honestly, I swear, I swear. That's the thing about this band, though. We always, like, set out with rules, and then we're useless at sticking to them. Like, the other rule for this song was,

let's do a song with two chords. And of course, ten minutes later, Martin's off on another, you know, with the minor. But we're terrible at sticking to rules, but that's the fun part is, like, creating boundaries and then smashing them, you know? You have these reference points and rules, as Ian says, is and they're a great place to start in the creative process, a really important thing to have a, today we're going to try and achieve X, Y, Z.

And then you'd start to try and do it, and it doesn't quite work out where you plan. But then you've got a different idea, and then that's where you take the song to you. It's a useful jumping off point. It always gets rid of the whole, you know, the kind of blank page syndrome where you're just like, oh, I don't know what to do it.

So the rules were to make a laid-back song with only two chords. It went well. The very first thing is actually it made the final record. You can still sort of hear it. It's like a vocal sample. It kind of goes, you hear it? Runs all the way through the whole song. That riff itself, the keyboard, was, it's two notes.

You know, it's just octaves. Just trying to write a really irritating riff. Like really percussive and not so, well, less emphasis on melody and really focused on. on the interplay of rhythm. And as long as you've got like a high hat holding that down, being really, really rudimental and really straight, you can dance around a beat and it becomes a bit lighter

and a bit more fun. After the kind of basic track is down, like the chords or a beat or like a sample loop or whatever, is that we'll kind of like bounce ideas around between each other, just like kind of singing at each other, that sort of thing. And then really quickly, the bones of the melody starts to emerge. And then Martin kind of pulls it together a bit and puts down a track of his own vocals just kind of singing nonsense. Just kind of silly words so that don't mean anything.

And that kind of defines the kind of vocal phrasing and the basic shapes that end up in the final track. That stuff is the first thing that comes into my head. Lauren really takes it to the next level. I just go, I take that demo and I go across the hall to write lyrics for those guys work on the music. Either I'll look through a notebook to try and find words that I've written, or sometimes there'll be a certain word that it sounds like Martin said, and then that's what I'll write off of. In the verse of the demo of Martin's vocal,

there's a bit where it sounds like he's saying, like I always do. And then I was like, oh, and then I was like that bit, she'd repeat those two lines, she'd come in couples every time in the verse, and that's kind of how that bit started, like it always was, like I always was, and then it's not enough, not enough. Like I always was. Like I always was. But it's not enough.

It's kind of interesting. Sometimes I'm like, this is my poetry I've written. And they're like, yes, but that vowel sound and that doesn't fit or this isn't as percussive as it should be. So sometimes using the guide that's in there to think about the shape of the words and things like that. Like what they sound like sonically is helpful. Because I always go for what the meaning is.

And it's helpful. I think the important thing for us is tying those two things together. You want it to mean something. but you want it to fit progressively and melodically as well. The marriage of those things is absolutely everything. Like that's what a hook is, where those things meet,

percussion, melody and sentiment. Whenever I feel it coming on, you can be well aware. If ever I try to push away, you can just keep me there. So please say you'll meet me halfway. I think at the time I thought I was writing a love song. I guess I have a tendency towards

negativity and a kind of depressive nature sometimes and I guess I often worry about how that affects my personal relationships or people around you and you know if you're trying to figure out those kind of things you don't know it sometimes it's really unpleasant to be around or you're just imagining it's unpleasant to be around and you're projecting that on other people

so I guess for me I kind of was thinking about you know how people perceive that is what that is meant to mean I think and then just hoping crossing your fingers that it doesn't make too much of a mess. When I was writing it, I was kind of coming from the standpoint of wanting to believe in something and wanting to believe that it can be so, but not being sure if the surrounding circumstances

will allow that to happen. To me, the phrase, we are tied to the shifting ground is like circumstances constantly changing. Like I always was. I was trying to be hopeful. And it didn't necessarily come out like that. But I guess to me, that's, I like those kind of things that have light and dark in them.

That's the stuff that connects with me because it feels more authentic, rather than writing, oh my God, isn't it amazing? We all have these amazing people in our lives and everything's awesome. And I guess I was a lot more aware on the second record of how I want to communicate

with my voice, I think. Weirdly, I found hand actions are very helpful to me for singing, and I didn't really think about it that much until I realized for certain parts of songs I do a lot of pointing. For certain parts, I do kind of like chop actions and there's a lot of fist clenching.

or if I'm trying to do high things, or for some reason put two hands on my stomach to, I guess, remind myself that I'm supposed to be, like, going from the diaphragm. That is the climax of the song there, but the vocal approach is not trying to be super climactic and, like, punch the air, you know, it's mirrored in the lyrical content.

The whole thing becomes more frantic and more frenetic at the climactic section. It's more like a moment of rest. song exploded and now here's clearest blue by churches in its entirety visit songexplor.net for more info on churches including a link to buy this track I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th

it's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name Rishikesh her way I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists. And it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope.

I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April. And I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city. Like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzuchas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin, Clion, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage. And then I'll play with my band.

The album is called In The Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. If you heard about a sponsor in this episode and you want to learn more, you can always go to songexploder.net slash sponsors to find all of the current offers available to song explodeer listeners.

You can find all the past and future episodes of SongExploder at songexplor. or on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you download podcasts. Find the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, at Song Exploder. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary story-driven shows. Learn more at Radiotopia.fm. My name is Rishi K. Shirway. Thanks for listening.