Yesterday (May 16) began like any other day. It ended rather unexpectedly with an answer to one of electronic-pop’s great mysteries of the 2010s: Why do CHVRCHES have a freakin’ “V” in their band name?
Without much warning (at least to us), Lauren Mayberry took to the band’s TikTok to explain the situation and deliver some top-shelf Sunday content. The reasons Mayberry provided are ones we probably had guessed at some point or anything right after the Scottish electronic-pop group became instant indie darlings with their breakout 2012 hit “The Mother We Share,” off the following year’s debut album The Bones of What You Believe.
We’ve always just kinda assumed there were reasons for the styling, though we’re unsure if we ever heard an actual explanation from the group (if so, don’t @ us).
Mayberry offers up three main reasons for the “V” situation: One, a friend created a band logo and it looked cool with its Roman numeral styling; two, tweaking the spelling made the trio way more searchable on the internet than if they went with the standard “Churches”; and three, perhaps most understandable of all, turns out there was already a band with the name here in the States, and that band, according to Mayberry, told them to add a “UK” to their name, in the spirit of The Charlatans and The Chameleons.
Of course, “Churches UK” would have led to some easily uttered “Churches Suck” retorts, so that was quickly abandoned. And they probably didn’t ring up Brett Anderson of Suede to get his thoughts on going by The Glasgow Churches. Although that name does sound kinda cool.
Anyway, fire up CHVRCHES’ recent single “He Said She Said” and watch Mayberry finally set the record straight below.
@chvrches The story of the “V”… #chvrches #fyp #storytime
♬ original sound – CHVRCHES