Martin Doherty was a touring member of post-punk rockers The Twilight Sad, and Iain Cook was a member of post-rock troupe, Aerogramme. It was while producing an EP for Blue Sky Archives on a weekend in September 2011 in Glasgow that Cook met their vocalist Lauren Mayberry and asked her to sing on a couple of demos. Impressed with the sessions, he introduced her to his former university friend Doherty. Cook, Mayberry and Doherty wrote together for half a year in a basement studio in Glasgow before deciding to form a new band after the sessions proved to be fruitful.
Doherty explained the story behind the band's unusually spelt name to Interview magazine: "Chvrches came around because it was crunch time in deciding the name," he said. "We tried, and tried, and tried. We couldn't agree on anything, which was unusual, because the music was coming about really well and really easily, we just couldn't figure out a name. We just chose it because it was big and bold, and just one word. And it wasn't difficult to pronounce." "After we decided on it, we realized it was more or less impossible to Google," Doherty continued. "It wasn't until 'Lies' came out that we came to this realization. [laughs] There's a girl called Amy who's designed all of our artwork. She'd already stylized the logo with the "V" in it. It kind of felt natural just to go with that. Now, we don't have to compete with anyone, which is cool. You don't want to go up against that Jesus guy. He is pretty popular."
Prior to Chvrches, Iain Cook was writing for television and adverts. He worked on two series of CBBC spin-off Dennis the Menace and Gnasher.
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