Iain, Martin, and Lauren from CHVRCHES join Barry and Lord Taco backstage at Bonnaroo on The What Podcast to talk about their previous two trips to The Farm. They discuss how different doing it for the first time versus the third time can be, and recall being watched by Trent Reznor at this year's Shaky Knees.
Take a listen to the episode above, or watch video of it over at Consequence. If you missed it, don't forget to check out The What Podcast's full recap of Bonnaroo 2022 as well.
You can also see what you might have missed at Bonnaroo by catching CHVRCHES on their remaining summer tour dates; check out their schedule and grab tickets here.
This is one of three "snackable" episodes coming from The What Podcast this week as the gang reveals all their artist interviews from Bonnaroo 2022. Check out yesterday's chat with Briston Maroney, and wait till Saturday (July 9th) for the final episode from The Farm.
Photo by David Bruce
Guests: Iain Cook, Martin Doherty, Lauren Mayberry
8:40 | The gang from CHVRCHES talks about their first two shows at Bonnaroo. |
The What Podcast, which bands this year that matter. Going through some of our artist interviews, ours, I wasn't there, from Bonnaroo 2022 in what we call a snackable pocket-sized episode, Barry Courter, Lord Taco. We have one interview that's out there, Briston Maroney. We also have today's, which is CHVRCHES. I really feel like CHRVHES one of the highlights of the festival. Now I would have gone, it would have been on top of my list because I love that live show so much. Berry, Taco, do you like the show? Yes. He saw more of it than I did. Oh, you actually did go? Okay. Yeah, I saw a little bit of it, yeah. But I like them and the interview was terrific. This was the one I teased a little bit, the last show, the bigger show that we did. We looked like we knew what we were doing. We came in with two photographers and a sound guy and a whole crew and they were very nice and met with us inside their air-conditioned trailer backstage. Did you trash it? Yes, we had a rager, as soon as they left, Taco and I just tore the place apart. Oh yeah, flipping tables, tearing posters off the wall. You should. You should. You know, we've told this story before of when I trashed Bishop Briggs's trailer. Oh, totally by accident, it was not my fault. But I don't know if I told you, but what? Yes, it kind of was. It never is. She asked for a Topo Chico, I went to open the Topo Chico and the whole cabinet came flying down. It wasn't my fault. Yeah, it's kind of not how it went. She was insistent that she was so proud that she had the Topo Chico. That's what she was loving. She loved her trailer and she got all the Topo Chicos she could drink and she kept insisting, you guys need to take one, you need to take one. Well, it was not a screw cap. So Brad's like, you know, the old college, you put it on the side of the table and you hit and you pop and they broke the table. The whole front of the table came crashing down to the ground. I was opening it for her. I was being a gentleman. I said, would you like to have a Topo Chico, Miss Bishop Briggs? And I went to open it and then it broke the place in half. And then I was like, I'll just get you another one. I'll get you another one. And then I went back to the Topo Chico stack, opened it, it flew out of my hand, got Topo Chico everywhere. She just looked down at the ground and a Topo Chico covered ground and a bottle that was sprawled all over the thing. Spinning, spinning. Spinning. And she just looked at me and she goes, just go. Just go. Yeah. I talked to her about cleaning up. She said, just go. I couldn't pack up her stuff quickly enough. Just go. So I ran into her in the city a couple of weeks ago and I brought that story up to her and she goes, do you know what? I haven't had a Topo Chico since. They're ruined forever now. She literally looked at me and was like, I think that was the last Topo Chico I'll ever drink in my life. I have the bottle. It's in my collection of Bontary stuff. Send me a picture of it. I'll text it to her. That's fantastic. I'll send it to Taka. Will, I need to enclose it in the video here. Yeah, we'll toss it in the video right here. I have the actual bottle. It was definitely not one of my finer moments, but it was not my fault. It was a shoddy construction of a cabinet that should not have been breaking just because I was trying to open a bottle. Okay. Well. She had nothing to open the Topo Chico with. I needed to be the big strong man for her. It was pretty funny. She's pregnant too, by the way. She's about to have a baby. Beautiful pregnant woman. That's not your fault either though, right? I would doubt it was definitely not my fault. I think that there's some women that just look great pregnant. She looks incredible. I don't mean that disparagingly. She looks incredible. She just shines. She's got this glow on her. She looks like she's having the time of her life pregnant. It's the glow. Yeah, she's got it. I love her. I think she's fantastic. She was great. I'm going to go ahead and say that she's got a lot of love in her. Back to churches with Lauren, Ian, and Martin. They were nice as they could be. We talked about the heat because she said, here I am wearing this wool dress. Yeah. I bet she was... I was about to ask what she was wearing because the big thing about church is she's a fashion icon. They were ready to go. Pretty much. I think Martin was not. He said, I'll change when it's almost time. But she was beautiful. They were, again, David Bruce was with us. I am Bonnaroo. Nate Gale was with us taking pictures. They went outside with David and posed for a couple, three minutes, four or five minutes. That's great. The other thing too I love about her is that she's got this massive voice. Her voice is huge and she is a teeny, tiny little pixie. She's very, very tiny. Yeah. She's a tiny, bitty, tiny little pixie and adorable too. Absolutely adorable. The sweetest. But boy, she's got that voice. How that voice is packed into her is insane to me. You'll hear this was their third Bonnaroo. They compared their first two and were just getting ready when they talked to us for their third. That's one of the things we love about Bonnaroo is you get these repeat acts. You get to catch up with them and watch it develop and all that. That was really cool. That was one of the highlights for me. It's work related. Not everybody gets that opportunity, but that was a lot of fun. Also I don't know if you know this, but somebody that we know very, very well will be listening to this episode who is a major, major Church's fan. You want to guess who it was? Big time celebrity going to be listening to this episode. I don't know. That'd be a Miss Kristin Korter. She loves churches. I'm not going to tell them that this is happening. If they hear it, this is their sign. This is the closed caption message to the Jared and Kristin Korter family of her P.O.P. Yeah, cool. Yeah. It was a lot of fun, wasn't it, Taco? You had seen them. He asked about that. He had seen them at Shaky Knees. Yeah, I just caught their show at Shaky Knees. It was fantastic. It was one of the best shows of the weekend. It's a great show. Anything else before you want to get into this chat? No. Just looking forward to hearing it. By the way, everything went great. The sound was good. We recorded. What? Yeah. Everything went great. We looked like we knew what we were doing. It was cool. It was fun. Yeah. Well, you're bound to get one. You're bound to get one. This was the one. Yeah. Congratulations, guys. Church is on the What Podcast. All right, guys. Welcome back to the What Podcast. I'm Barry. Across from me is Lord Taco. You all know. I'm sure you know the folks sitting on the couch. We're so proud, so honored to have churches with us. Thank you for having us. Yeah, we're backstage. You guys are staying cool, getting ready for your show later. Trying to, yeah. I don't know. We were wearing black and wool. Why have I done that? This is wool. Why haven't I done this? It's tight, isn't it? Tight song? I don't know. You know, it's funny you mentioned that. I've always wondered. It's kind of a, it's got to be a tricky thing for a band, right? Because you got to look cool. You got to dress right. Yeah. You can't really wear what you would want to wear in this kind of weather because then it doesn't fit with the image of the band, you know? Yeah. I don't know. I'm kind of just at that point in the tour where I'm like, fucking. Wear whatever's comfortable. You got the shorts on. I'm getting changed for the show. Wear whatever's comfortable. That's the Bonnaroo way. You guys, we were talking before we went on the air here. This is your third time, right? Third time, yes. I think we were just looked up to double check. 2014 was the first time. And then 2018 we played and Hayley Williams got to sing with us on a song. Well we got to sing with her. I don't know where. It sounds bad. And then this time. So lucky number three. What are your memories of those two shows and what are you looking forward to for this one? Gosh, it's a bit of a blur. 2014 seems like so long ago. Remember Kanye was playing that night. I have a very. Like 2014 Bonnaroo, I'll never forget because it was the night that I injured my back during the show and I had the same recurring back injury for like 10 years. I still have it. Oh, that's not a good Bonnaroo memory. But the crowd was so crazy and the show was so crazy that it was like I was just having a bit too much fun. Wow. And then I felt something go, oh man, that's a bit weird in the middle of the gig. It's like that doesn't feel right. And then the next day I was like stiff as a board and I couldn't move. So I'll never forget it. Taco and I were talking beforehand. He saw you guys what a couple of weeks ago in LA. Yeah, for Shakin' Ease I was there for you there and I caught your show there. It was amazing. Perfect vibe. Another sweaty situation, isn't it? Apparently I didn't see but apparently Trent Reznor watched a little bit of our set. Oh did he? I'm glad I didn't know that at the time because I would have been extra nervous. That would have been awful had we known he was actually watching us. We would have made so many mistakes. Then he left so maybe he didn't like it. That's the scariest thing of all. If someone only watches a little bit of your set, does that mean that they hate you? I like to believe he just had commitments. He's a very busy man. Oh yeah, he was on right after us. Yeah, he was going to play a show so I guess he had to go and get ready. That's what we're telling ourselves anyway. What are you looking forward to? Go ahead, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I watched the whole thing. It was great. I didn't make you any nervous that I was watching it. If you had known Taco left early. We were like, no, it's going to be so embarrassing when we talk to him in two weeks. What are you looking forward to in this one? Now that you've done it, do those sorts of things play into I guess your mindset or your thinking you know it's going to be hot, you know the crowd's going to be into it and ready to see stuff? Do those things, do you think about those sort of things in a place like this? I think now, yeah I mean totally, but now instead of being truly terrified as I might have been like in the early days, it's more just excitement now. Like nervous energy, but the good kind of nervous energy where when we first came around things happened really fast so we found ourselves on these stages that you know maybe we would have considered to be too big for us or maybe I thought personally everyone is an imposter you know. But we did a lot of growing up in front of people. But now when we think about tonight it's just fun. Oh my god, not the same feeling as 2014. It's interesting you say that. I talked to Kane Brown who's a country singer from Chattanooga and he said basically it's almost like sports where you hear the game slowed down. The first year or two for him he just wanted to get on stage and that was it. You know get through it and now he wants to make jokes and talk and enjoy and think about it. Is that kind of what you're? Yeah. Yeah I think we were just, I guess it's interesting because it's coming around to 10 years of the first album so it's been nice to kind of reflect on that time period a bit and be like huh we were just like terrified the whole time. So yeah it's nice to be able to think about it a bit differently and be terrified about different things. We were talking about the years and you guys this is your third. It's my 17th. One of the things we love about coming to Monterey is to be able to see bands multiple times as they grow and progress and all that. So it works both ways I guess. Well all right, Taco do you have any other questions? I know you guys are on a tight schedule. Yeah no I'm just looking forward to your show tonight. Thank you and thank you guys for having us. Thank you so so much for doing this. We really appreciate it. A consequence podcast network exclusive churches on the what podcast. Barry taco nice job. The pictures look great too by the way. If you haven't checked those out I guess we'll social them. The what underscore podcast. Where is it the underscore what podcast. I never remember. The what underscore podcast on Twitter and the what podcast on Instagram and everywhere else. Like share subscribe rate review. It's all very helpful. Good work gentlemen. Looks great. Now Barry I will say the pictures are great but you look a little underdressed next to her. You look a little. You know there's times in life there are times in life when you have a chance to look back and rethink some things. At that time in my life I was concerned about only the heat. Got it. I wasn't thinking about what it's gonna look like for the rest of eternity. What did I tell you I look like? A giant Keebler elf. This Keebler elf really smokes a lot of weed. The bandana is a big part of Bonnaroo for me because it keeps the hair out of the way and it keeps me dry. See this is the problem. I actually don't agree with this strategy Barry. Why would you cover up the money maker? Do you see me wearing a hat at Bonnaroo? No but see and it's again I'm rethinking it now. Now that there are cameras involved I'm gonna have to find a different way. Plus you have such a head of hair. You don't ever want to tame that. And secondly if you put it under a bandana wouldn't it just make it hotter? No actually it felt really good. Interesting. But yeah it was hair and makeup next time. If you're just listening to this on the audio version hop over to YouTube and come check out come see ELF Urge on the podcast. I swear to God if we don't get a Photoshopped version of you and Keebler elf I'm gonna be so mad. I demand that. I demand somebody make that Photoshopped. Please God. It is what it is. I have to you know I saw it and I thought it looked like a giant elf. Anyways. Now wait a second. Speaking of. Would a giant elf considering an elf is an elf would a giant elf be a berry? A baby. I don't know. Full grown I don't know. A full grown elf is a berry. Full grown elf yeah. Not a baby a berry. Speaking of artwork you know I kept running into Aaron Carlson at the farm and he was one of our patrons. We had him on the show and he was the one that drew that masterpiece for the contest where he just went into MS Paint and just you know sketched out you know you and me and or you and Barry and then I was just like a Canna Miller Highlife. Well your favorite beer. Yeah. That's fantastic. So what was he doing there? Whipping up another piece of art? Was he what was he doing on the fly? Was he printing t-shirts? What was his gig on the farm? I don't know. Well it was just weird. I kept running into him you know and there's you know just by chance. I know it's not hard to run into people when you're basically at a family picnic. When there's 50,000 people there and you keep running into I mean I saw I ran into him every single day it seemed like. At different places. Different shows you know walking backstage. I think he had one of the platinum wristbands on or something. Wow did he do platinum? I think so maybe. I would like to find one of the four or five people that did platinum this year. That would have I'd love to hear their experience in my campsite. Yeah I want to grill them for stealing our real estate. That's a good idea. Yeah. I wanted to see if they felt shame. I really appreciated it. It's like when somebody breaks into the house just to hang out at the pool. I hope you're enjoying it. I really hope you're enjoying what we built with our hands and our labor. Seriously though if you did platinum and you're listening reach out. I'd love to talk to you. I'd like to know what was good, bad, whatever about it. And if you do it again. Because that's a big price to have. Yeah. Say no so we can get our campground back. No kidding. Eliminate platinum. That's our new thing. Yeah. Move platinum. Move them back to the hill or another hill. All right there you go. Churches on the What Podcast. We'll see you soon. a little bit.