Chvrches Frontwoman Hits Back At Sexually Offensive Messages

Lauren Mayberry, frontwoman of Scottish indie-synth outfit Chvrches, has admitted that the barrage of offensive messages sent to the band's Facebook page have brought her to tears on a number of occasions.

Mayberry, who will visit Australia next year for the Laneway Festival, recently took the band's Facebook to highlight the misogynist messages they receive and has followed that up with a blog for The Guardian.

“I read them every morning when I get up,” she wrote in regards to the messages sent to the band's page. “I read them after soundcheck. I read them, as we all do with our emails and notifications, on my phone on the bus or when I have a break in the day. And, after a while, despite the positive messages in the majority, the aggressive, intrusive nature of the other kind becomes overwhelming.

“During this past tour, I am embarrassed to admit that I have had more than one prolonged toilet cry and a 'Come on, get a hold of yourself, you got this' conversation with myself in a bathroom mirror when particularly exasperated and tired out. But then, after all the sniffling had ceased, I asked myself: Why should I cry about this? Why should I feel violated, uncomfortable and demeaned? Why should we all keep quiet?”

She admitted, “I am incredibly lucky to be doing the job I am doing at the moment – and painfully aware of the fact that I would not be able to make music for a living without people on the internet caring about our band. But does that mean that I need to accept that it's OK for people to make comments like this, because that's how women in my position are spoken to?”

Chvrches, who are managed by Australian-based Laneway promoter Danny Rogers' Lunatic Entertainment, debuted at 13 on the AIRA Album Chart this week with their debut The Bones OF What You Believe and are hotly tipped to be one of the festival season's biggest imports.

Mayberry said in the blog that she doesn't want to be the centre of the sexism debate, but hoped that by speaking out the issue you gain further exposure.

“Of my numerous personal failings (perpetual lateness; a tendency towards anxiety; a complete inability to bake anything, ever), naivety is not one. I am often cynical about aspects of the music industry and the media, and was sure from the off that this band would need to avoid doing certain things in order for us to be taken seriously as musicians – myself in particular… I am not a martyr, nor am I attempting to change the world in any revolutionary way. I am only in a band, not one of the many wonderful people in organisations striving for change. My involvement in this discussion is not motivated by a self-righteous or self-pitying urge. My hopes are that if anything good comes out of this, it will start a conversation, or continue the conversation which is already happening, encouraging others to reject an acceptance of the status quo, and that our band can continue to do what we are doing in our own way and on our own terms.”

She concluded, “For us, this has always been – and hopefully will always be – about the music, and that is what we will be getting back to now.”