CHVRCHES frontwoman Lauren Mayberry has formally launched her debut single as a solo artist: a stark, intimate piano-driven ballad entitled ‘Are You Awake?’
Mayberry wrote the music in collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr, in addition to Zedd collaborator Matthew Koma – who additionally served because the music’s producer. Previous to its launch, Mayberry introduced her first-ever solo tour and teased the only with a 30-second preview. On the time, she shared on social media that she was “flip-flopping between pleasure and abject terror” when it got here to her impending solo debut.
Per a press assertion from Mayberry, ‘Are You Awake?’ got here collectively over a writing session between herself and Jesso that noticed her initially preoccupied by “pondering lots about loneliness and homesickness”.
“As quickly as Tobias began enjoying the chords, the lyrics and melody got here to me actually rapidly,” she mentioned. “I completed the music with Matthew, who actually understood what I used to be making an attempt to say.”
Take heed to ‘Are You Awake?’ beneath:
Mayberry goes on to notice {that a} solo profession, not to mention making any music outdoors of the speedy framework offered by CHVRCHES, was initially one thing she “couldn’t think about doing”. This in the end modified, nonetheless, when she got here to the realisation that “some issues that [she] wanted to jot down needed to be carried out from purely [her] personal perspective.”
“I by no means actually thought I’d write a piano ballad, or a solo album full cease, so life actually is filled with surprises,” she mentioned. “I’m actually wanting ahead to this chapter, and might’t watch for individuals to listen to extra of the music.”
Previous to the discharge of ‘Are You Awake?’ Mayberry’s solo credit had been minimal. She contributed visitor vocals to the Demise Cab for Cutie music ‘Northern Lights’, which featured on their 2018 album ‘Thank You For Right now’.
She additionally collaborated with The Nationwide‘s Aaron Dessner on a canopy of Frightened Rabbit‘s ‘Who’d Kill You Now?’ for ‘Tiny Modifications’, a commemorative tribute album for the band’s late frontman Scott Hutchinson.
CHVRCHES’ most up-to-date studio album was 2021’s ‘Display Violence’. The Scottish synth-pop trio are presently gearing as much as launch a tenth anniversary reissue of their debut studio album, 2013’s ‘The Bones Of What You Consider’. The brand new version, which incorporates 4 previously-unheard songs and 5 dwell recordings from 2013, is ready for launch on October 13.
