Lauren Mayberry has shared her second solo single ‘Shame’.
The track, which she recently performed live during her solo show in London on Monday (October 9), follows her previous single ‘Are You Awake?’.
The Chvrches’ frontwoman first teased the track, which had been previewed at shows on Mayberry’s recent North American headline tour, last week. You can listen to it below.
“I had the idea for a while of a song that had the tagline of ‘what a shame’, but in a sarcastic way. And the word ‘shame’ having a double meaning – the shame you feel and internalise, but what a shame you feel like that and can’t change it,” Mayberry said of the single in a statement.
She added: “Looking back on a lot of my life in terms of relationships, sexuality and my sense of self in the world, there is a lot of shame associated with that. I came into my teens in the early-mid 2000s, a time period we now regard as a bit of a shithole in terms of gender and media messages (post–Woodstock 99, the dawn of sex tape leaks, Girls Gone Wild, etc. etc).
“What was deemed ‘attractive’ for women and girls was quite disturbing in hindsight, and that’s what went into my brain at a formative time, romanticising bargain basement, local band boy versions of Reality Bites Ethan Hawke. But now I know better, my wiring is still to find those things attractive on a cellular level. I know not to want those things academically, but emotionally, romantically, sexually, I have been trained to find those things valuable and attractive. I know you are what you eat and it’s the taste that keeps me tame.”
Explaining her inspiration across her upcoming debut solo album, the singer recently revealed to NME how she was looking to make sense of the “isolating” experience of being a woman in a male-dominated music industry.
“I was 23 when Chvrches started, and from minute one it felt like all anyone wanted to talk about was my gender,” she said. “A lot of the narrative was around what I looked like, what the guys didn’t look like and how that fit into the context. It felt odd, and it gives you quite a strange psychological separation from your physical self.
“Everyone was having this conversation about me, at me, and I wasn’t really involved in it. If you spend most of your formative years in those environments, how do you psychologically stitch that back together to have a more connected experience with yourself, your life and your writing?”
Reviewing her show at KOKO earlier this week, NME gave Mayberry four stars and said the performance was “a thrilling intro to her main character moment”.
Meanwhile, Mayberry will kick off her European tour in Amsterdam tonight (October 11).
Her remaining tour dates are below. Visit here for EU tickets.
OCTOBER
11 – Amsterdam, NL, Melkweg Oz
12 – Berlin, DE, Lido
13 – Munich, Strom
15 – Paris, FR, La Maroquinerie
16 – Cologne, DE, Luxor
17 – Prague, CZ, Rock Cafe
19 – Vienna, AT, Flex
21 – Zurich, CH, Bogen F
22 – Milan, IT, Magnolia
24 – Barcelona, ES, La Nau
25 – Madrid, ES, Sala Copernico
The post Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry shares new single ‘Shame’ appeared first on NME.
