CHVRCHES have returned with their first new single in nearly two years, “He Said She Said”.
After dropping Love Is Dead in 2018, the Scottish trio embarked on an extensive tour, before beginning 2020 with what they thought would be a quick break. Instead, they found themselves quarantining on opposite sides of the world, with Martin Doherty and singer Lauren Mayberry isolating in Los Angeles while Iain Cook holed up in Glasgow.
The indie poppers became much more familiar with video call and audio sharing technologies, writing songs together despite being over 5,000 miles apart. “He Said She Said” was the first result, and it combines an irresistible melody with lyrics full of white-hot rage. Mayberry recounts some of the obnoxious comments she’s received from men over the years, singing, “He said, “You need to be fed”/ “But keep an eye on your waistline” and/ “Look good but don’t be obsessed”/ Keep thinking over, over, I try.”
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In a statement, Mayberry talked about “He Said She Said” and how “being a woman is fucking exhausting,” explaining,
“Like everyone, I’ve had a lot of time to think and reflect over the past year; to examine experiences I had previously glossed over or deeply buried. I feel like I have spent a lot of my life (personally and professionally) performing the uncomfortable balancing act that is expected of women and it gets more confusing and exhausting the older I get.
“Be successful but only in the way we want you to be. Speak up for yourself but not so loudly that you steal men’s thunder. Be attractive but only for the benefit of men, and certainly don’t be vain. Strive to be The Hot Sad Girl but don’t actually be sad in a way that’s inconvenient for anyone. Be smart but not smart enough to ask for more than what you’re being given.
“‘He Said She Said’ is my way of reckoning with things I’ve accepted that I know I shouldn’t have. Things I pretended weren’t damaging to me. It was the first song we wrote when we started back up, and the opening line (“He said, You bore me to death”) was the first lyric that came out. All the verse lines are tongue-in-cheek or paraphrased versions of things that have actually been said to me by men in my life. Being a woman is fucking exhausting and it felt better to scream it into a pop song than scream it into the void. After the past year, I think we can all relate to feeling like we’re losing our minds.”
Check out “He Said She Said” below, and stay tuned for more new music from CHRVCHES, including one of our most anticipated albums of 2021.
Back in 2019, CHVRCHES provided the title track to the Playstation 4 game Death Stranding. Last year, they made a new music video for their 2018 song “Forever” after it was prominently featured on the hit Spanish language series Élite. They subsequently performed a socially-distanced version of the tune on Fallon.
