IAIN COOK of CHVRCHES: Search For A Light In The Dark
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Formed in Glasgow in 2011, Chvrches could have been viewed as just another synth-pop band but with the release of both their EP Recover – which featured the stunning track ‘The Mother We Share’ – and debut album The Bones of What You Believe in 2013 they soon took pride of place in any discerning music lovers collection.
Fast forward to 2018 and Chvrches has just released their third studio album entitled Love Is Dead. It signals a change in gears for the Scottish three piece who have allowed a few more outside influences into their usually close knit family; the result being an album that while aimed more at the mainstream market is also challenging its listeners both old and new to question society’s ‘death of empathy’.
Iain Cook is the former member of both Aereogramme and The Unwinding Hours and has been a member of Chvrches since their inception. Playing synths, guitar and bass as well as providing backing vocals he is certainly what you could refer to as a multi-faceted musician.
I recently spoke with Iain in regards to the making of the album, Chvrches decision to involve outsiders this time around and what it’s like to work with an industry legend…
The title of your recently released third album Love Is Dead; it’s more of a question than a statement correct?
“I would say so, yes. I think it’s more a question or a statement that is designed to provoke and start debate rather than a definitive nihilistic statement on that. It’s got more to do with the fact that the state that we’re in just now, in the world, I think is mostly indicative of the fact that people don’t really have a lot of empathy for other humans you know? And I think that when that happens things fall apart. People become selfish, they become fearful, they become protective of their own borders to the point where it becomes problematic and people are left out in the cold.
And that’s what we were kinda driving at is that in this world, we’re in this together. We’re all here on the same planet; let’s get on with eachother and get on with it you know because we need to do that otherwise it’s not working.”
The overarching theme I am getting from the record is one of opposites… duality. Acknowledging that there is darkness in the world – like you were saying we are losing empathy for eachother; but still actively seeking out the light.
“Well of course! Because at the point where you stop looking for the light, or looking for an answer that’s when you give up really, that’s effectively giving up and you can’t do that. And I think that music, even though music is just music, and musicans aren’t politicians, or you know philosophers or whatever, I think that people still get a lot of comfort and a lot of inspiration from listening to music. And it still feels like we’re kind of searching and I think that that’s a positive message to put out into the world… hopefully it is.” [chuckles]
I believe it is – and I also believe that music in all its different forms and genres does indeed bring comfort and a great source of inspiration. It’s a universal language that everyone understands.
“Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve heard people say that but I’m not sure that music is entirely free of cultural boundaries. I think that if you or I were to listen to African music or some Indian music, there’s a lot that we would lose culturally in there. I think we could still listen to that and enjoy it, but not really get it, you know not in the way that other people might get it [chuckles] but yeah I guess it is quite universal…” [chuckles]
Historically Chvrches has always been in many ways a self-sufficient group – typically Lauren always writes her lyrics on her own. However this time you all wrote together in one room I understand? Did that change the dynamic of the music for you guys?
“Yeah, we normally write the instrumental stuff and come up with a melody and some nonsense lyrics and then we’ll go away and work on the music, but that was more or less the case this time, except that we kinda agreed on a few lines this time in the room.
Like a couple of key lines and a chorus for example that would then be a kinda blueprint for where the rest of the lyrics would go. And I think that that made the whole thing quite cohesive in a way that it didn’t quite so much before.
There were times I could think about on our previous records where there was almost a disparity between the lyrics and the music and it’s something we’ve always kind of been aware of and addressed to an extent; in that you can have a quite bright sounding track and then the lyrics would be quite dark; like a song like ‘Empty Threat’, kinda a song about drowning you know?
But this time I think we tried to marry these things more and have the lyrics more kinda tightly aligned with the music; I think that was a really positive thing, I think we will probably carry on down the track as it seems to work!”
Now you guys also had a musical legend from one of my favourite bands in the world – Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics – play a mentor style role with this record. How did this come about?
“Yeah completely, I think Revenge by the Eurythmics was the first record I ever got, like I’m a huge fan of that band. Probably part of the reason why I ended up playing in a kinda synthy pop band you know?
I don’t know how it actually came about, I think we were putting the feelers out for people to collaborate with, because we were just really interested in exploring and one day we got an email that was like ‘Hey, do you fancy doing a session with Dave Stewart?’ and we were like ‘Fuck yes!’ [mutual laughter] he’s an absolute legend and hero.
Quite intimidating the thought of it as well but once we got in the room with him and we all kinda of loosened up and had a chat and started working on music we were all getting excited by the same stuff and that was the point at which we were like ‘Oh this if fuckin’ cool’ you know?
It’s sad that none of the tunes that we did with Dave made the album; we did about four or five songs with him that came out really nice but I think it was just because it was quite early in the process and with us we tend to kinda gravitate towards stuff that we basically wrote yesterday. So it was ‘Oh well this is obviously the best song’ because then it is really fresh and new you know? [laughs] and it’s just not always the case.”
So the songs didn’t actually make the album, but I am assuming that his influence still had a profound effect on you all? Which may have then translated into the new album?
“Yeah particularly I think for Lauren, he kinda of took her aside on day one; Martin and I had to go to the airport to catch a plane and she was sticking around for a little bit and I think he kinda of like said ‘What is it you are trying to achieve? And why don’t we just fucking do it already?’ you know cause he could see her kinda skirting around it and shying away from certain things [so he was like] ‘Just own it and make it yours’ and I think that that was a really useful conversation for Lauren even though at first it was a little bit uncomfortable like ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’ [mutual laughter] but then suddenly like ‘Ok, I think he’s right’…
So I think it was kinda a great motivational and inspirational moment for her and for all of us really.”
I will say that I am completely jealous; I have no shame in declaring that…
[chuckles] “It was amazing…”
Chvrches extended their family even more with this album; famously you have always produced your own work but this time you brought in Greg Kurstin who has worked with Foo Fighters, Sia, The Shins and one of my other favourite musicians Beck…again what prompted you guys to bring an outside influence in?
“Really just in the spirit of exploration, like we didn’t really entertain the notion of even doing that on the first two records; people mentioned it like ‘Why don’t you try working with x, y and z?’ and it was like ‘No, this is our thing and we’re just going to do it ourselves’ and it was kinda like a closed book. And that was fine for the first two records because I think we needed that to cement the identity and the sound of the band. And then for this one it was just ‘Let’s just cast the big, wide net out a little bit and see what happens and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. And if it does, well great!’
The first day that we worked with Greg we wrote the song ‘Get Out’ which was the first single on this record and yeah we felt like he got where we wanted to go without us ever really having a conversation about it. We just like, you know, turned on our Moog synthesizer and connected that bass line at the start and we’re like ‘Ok, here we go!’ [chuckles] it was just amazing.
And it went there from then really, we had five days with him and in the first four days we got like a new song and all of them made the album so we really felt he was like on the same wavelength as us and he just kinda fitted into the process, almost like just another member of the band which was quite surprising you know? He’s kinda a musician’s musician really; he gets musicians in a really intimate and intuitive way.”
You just mentioned ‘Get Out’ which is indeed the first single released from the album; why did you choose this song in particular to lead the charge of this new album?
“I don’t really have that much to do with the decisions to release songs for singles, I think that’s something that is a larger conversation with our partners… like I’m not an A&R guy I don’t know what’s going to sell [laughs] or connect with people. We just do the music bit and then we’re like ‘Well, there you go. Good luck with it’ [chuckles]
But I think it just felt like a really bold song to come out with. It just jumps out of the speakers, it’s quite upbeat and funky and it’s got a couple of big moments on there so it’s like as good a choice as any. Yeah there was a couple of other ones that we were talking about but that was the one that everybody seemed to agree on, but you know whatever [chuckles] it’s just a single.”
That’s fair enough. I have to admit that an early favourite for me had to be ‘My Enemy’, and it’s probably because I am a huge fan of The National. How did it come about that Matt Berninger came to guest on this track?
“Yeah that guy is amazing. We had met with him a couple of times just at festivals and stuff and we just had this idea that we would see if he fancied dropping a vocal on a song that we had the demo for and he wrote back straight away saying ‘I love the song, I’ll do it tomorrow’ and then he just sent the files along and we were like ‘Oh, wow, that was fast!’” [chuckles]
Wow, that’s impressive!
“I know! It was crazy! Like how lucky are we? But the man is an incredible talent and actually hilarious on the personal level. When you listen to their music, you’re like ‘Oh this is really fucking intense and really deep’ and I’m sure he is but he’s also very, very funny” [chuckles]
So what track for you personally are you particularly proud of?
[chuckles] “It kinda changes from day to day, I kinda feel like this is a band that has different polarities. The most overtly pop song is in my opinion is probably ‘Miracle’ on this record and I’m just so dead proud that we would do a song like that with Steve Mac [award winning British musician with thirty UK No. 1 singles to date] in London.
But also the darker side of what we do like ‘God’s Plan’ – not the Drake song, but our song – [mutual laughter] I love that, I love that you can have these two things co-exist on an album; they’re both kinda dark in their own way but stylistically very, very different you know?
And I love that we can still do stuff like that and it gets very satisfying to have both sides of the equation. And for live as well to have that… to be able to switch gears like that on stage is a really exciting thing and I think people really respond to that. So those two at the moment are probably my favourites.”
Obviously with the new album now out you will be touring; any plans to come back down to New Zealand?
“I don’t know actually when we’re going to get to New Zealand, but fingers crossed it will be sometime next year. I know we’re coming over to do some stuff at the end of the year in Australia, but I don’t know if we’ve got anything lined up for New Zealand just yet; certainly nothing that we can announce [chuckles] but yeah I would certainly love to – I love that part of the world. It feels a lot like Scotland in some ways – but nicer.”
[laughs] So where to from here? The album is out and the tours will be happening, but are you the sort of band that writes on the road etc?
“Yeah we do I think for the most part – kinda switch between modes you know. It’s like, I find it difficult to write on the road but Martin finds it easier. I don’t know, I want to try and get better at it because I feel it needs to be more fluid rather than just like ‘Ok, this is what you are doing now, and this is what you are doing now’ it feels unnatural to break that momentum. So I don’t know, we’ll try, but up til this point it’s kinda been ‘Ok, down tools, park up’ and then ‘Ok now we’re in writing mode.’”
The last thing I wanted to ask you if possible is about the music industry itself; you’ve been part of it for a long time as you have had quite an illustrious musical career before joining Chvrches; how do you currently see the state of the music industry? Lauren has always been quite vocal about the state of play and with the #metoo campaign… do you think things are improving?
“It’s very difficult to predict the future of the industry, like it’s changed unrecognizably since I started playing in bands and making music. I mean I hope so, I certainly hope that across the board for women it’s going to become more of an equal existence because even now there’s so much that’s just glaringly disparate.
But we can do only what we can do and hope for the best you know? I have no idea how it’s going to go but I can’t see things going back to the way they were. It just seems like there has been a sea change in terms of people’s awareness of how bad things have been for the longest time…
But I don’t know, I would love to say it’s really hopeful… but who can say?”
Chvrches have just released their new album ‘Love Is Dead’ on Virgin EMI records. You can purchase the album on CD, blue vinyl or a limited clear vinyl from Mighty Ape, and is also available on all major streaming services.
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