Pulp It Up! Electro-pop star Lauren Mayberry in her interview with Hot Press

Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry is one of the most compelling stars in the contemporary pop landscape. Charismatic and boasting a sharp intelligence, she always holds forth on social, cultural and political subjects in a hugely engaging manner.

Chvrches’ latest LP, the provocatively titled Love Is Dead, boasts a notable cameo from The National’s frontman, Matt Berninger, who lends his powerful baritone to the track ‘My Enemy’. Layering his typically sombre crooning over down-tempo electronica, the tune utilises his voice in a very imaginative way.

“I’m glad you picked up on that,” says Mayberry, speaking down the line from New York during a break in rehearsals. “We all love The National so much, and Matt is such a storyteller in the way he uses his voice. Hearing him sing lyrics that we had written really blew our minds. We were really conscious of making it sound like a National-style vocal production as much as possible. We wanted it to keep it true to his vibe, then put that in a completely different environment and see what happened.”

With Lauren now based Stateside, is there more of a political dimension to this record than previous Chvrches output?

“It’s definitely more political, but it’s still coming through a personal lens,” she replies. “It’s not like we sat down and wrote an album full of manifestos thinking we were U2. I always write about emotions from a personal point of view, but it doesn’t always have to be about personal relationships – it can be about other things.

“A lot of the stuff that makes me saddest at this point are things that aren’t personal – they’re out of my control. I felt it was necessary for that to seep into the record in some places, and I don’t think people should be scared of that, because we didn’t go in to do it in a calculated way. But if that’s what feels honest in that moment, you have to do it, because music is about honesty first and foremost.”

When I previously interviewed Mayberry at Electric Picnic in 2015, she had just recently made an appearance on Channel 4 News to discuss the misogynistic online abuse she had endured since joining a band.

In the aftermath of the Me Too movement, all of the issues raused by the singer at the time have taken up a central place in the cultural agenda.

“That was what was so frustrating to me at the time,” reflects Mayberry. “I know that I didn’t invent this as an idea. I feel like that because of the way I was brought up and because of personal experience. And also because of women in bands that I loved, like Shirley Manson, Karen O and Kathleen Hanna. So I was going, ‘Wait – I am going crazy? Why is everyone asking me to justify myself? It’s basic common-sense.’ So in that way, it feels a lot less isolating and lonely now.

“We’ve talked about gender in pretty much every interview we’ve done since the album came out. Even before we got to misogyny, rape culture or any of that stuff, people were asking ‘girl in a band’ questions. At least the conversations were more constructive after Me Too, because it did feel like every single discussion you had was justifying why you were being belligerent. That feels really fucking depressing and draining a lot of the time.

“I feel like now, the trend has swung another way, and the conversation is being had on a much more mainstream platform. That’s really good, because the more people think about these things, the more we’ll change how we interact with each other. I guess at this point, it’s hard to say what will change in the long run. It’s great that we’re talking about it in the entertainment industry, but is anything outside that going to be affected? I don’t know.”

In the aftermath of a mass shooting in a Texas church at the end of last year, Mayberry also made an eloquent plea for greater gun control in the US in a video posted on social media. But even allowing for the incredible bravery of the Parkland shooting survivors, it’s not to feel very pessimistic about the situation, with Donald Trump recently stating that arming civilians may one possible solution.

“I feel lot that’s what a lot of the record is about,” says Lauren. “It’s about how you sit with this weight of disappointment in people, and still feel positive and push forward. I used to identify as a big optimist, and part of the record is about getting to the point where you realise that maybe you’d idealised things too much. But I don’t know, we’re seeing the worst parts of some people in this moment, but we’re also seeing the best parts of a lot of other people.”

Love Is Dead is out now on Virgin.
Chvrches play Electric Picnic on September 2.