Lauren Mayberry has just entered a new era with her second solo album Vicious Creature (out today). Following over a decade in her formative group Chvrches, with her new album Mayberry is sharing the most daring, feminine and powerful version of herself we’ve yet to hear. A performer and professional musician for more than half of her life, Ms. Mayberry has grown up professionally sharing the limelight with her Chvrches bandmates and like a butterfly in a cocoon, she is ready for her final form with Vicious Creature. The coinciding tour already has close to 30 gigs lined up throughout Europe and North America.
Since Lauren is now fully running the show, she is in charge of her band’s rider and what makes the cut on their tourbus, which surprisingly is extra stinky because this mature crew is on their protein and probiotic wave – think krauts, veggies, jerkys of all proteins, kimchis, sardines and other tasty but stinky nutrient-rich foods. We linked up with Mayberry to talk about her snack interests and also discussed her habits on tour, like trying to avoid $20 mini bar beers, being antisocial around other hotel guests and skipping continental breakfast in favor of solitude, and when the time is right to get the annual steak indulgence (Lauren mostly lives by the code that you should only eat what you’d be willing to hunt yourself, with steak being a special occasion exception).
She opened up about some of her favorite spots in Glasgow, being a Scot herself, as well as her feelings about personal carbonated sludge favorite IRN-BRU, Mr. Whippy ice cream, Tesco candies and the classic blood pudding. We were lucky enough to connect with Lauren before her performance at Bumbershoot, where she put on an incredible performance, which was all the more amusing, knowing that she intentionally avoided eating hours before singing on stage, to preempt any accidental burping into the mic.
What is on your rider when it comes to food and drinks?
We’re quite boring to be honest. It’s mostly sensible stuff that you can put in the bus. So we enjoy a little hummus and carrots situation. A little jerky. A lot of teas. Weirdly, for a minute there, we were getting kraut because we’re not as young as we once were. So you’ve got to think about these things. But then, yeah, kraut and kimchi makes the bus smell mental, but it keeps our guts healthy.
What’s your go-to tea?
I try and go for a peppermint tea, spearmint tea sometimes. Sometimes a little dandelion tea. I’m an equal opportunity person with the herbal teas.
Is there a brand or type of jerky that you favor?
I’m a little scared of the beefy ones. I’m a little scared of the truck stop jerky. Give me a bit of the fear. I don’t really know how much of a thing jerky is in the UK. We don’t really deal with it.
But you’ve somehow adopted it?
Well, yes. My my doctor told me I had to eat more protein and then recommended that and little cans of fish. So I’m really fun to be around on a tour. I don’t stink at all.
I enjoy a lot of fish jerky. I know that my tour manager says it’s like cat food. A little salmon jerky. A little turkey jerky. I’m a guilty vegetarian. My theory is if I could end its life myself, then I could eat it. But if I couldn’t, then I shouldn’t. So I don’t know if I could kill a Turkey but I think I could kill a fish. I’m not sure. And then I have my biannual steak and then I feel really bad about it afterwards because I couldn’t murder a cow.
Where are you getting your biannual steak?
I try and employ that if you’re in a place and there’s like specialty, then maybe it’s time to try the thing. Chvrches played in Brazil and it’s a very meaty situation down there, so we had a shared table experience. That was a good place to spend those bucks. Sometimes I spend them at hotel or restaurant and it’s never good. (The opportunity to have a steak) will pop up and then I’ll make the decision. I kind of weigh up the pros and cons and then we’ll go for it.
So your rider is pretty much identical to what you would have on the tour bus or sprinter?
Generally, we’ll just shove (the food from the rider) in the back and take it into the bus. Sometimes we do a Mexican beer, sometimes some red wine. I’m a trad Pacifico kind of girl. My partner really loves really hefty, creamy IPAs and things, which I can’t do. I’m trying to not drink in the house, then I’ll request that he brings home the sour ones so I’m not tempted by it. But weirdly, I can do a Guinness or something, but that doesn’t feel as creamy or disturbed by the IPA craft beer movement.
When you’re in the studio, is it a different type of setup for food? Do you have certain foods you like to have that give you some creativity, energy or are you ordering takeout in the studio?
If it’s a studio in the town that I live in, then I’ll probably bring something from home, some leftovers or what have you. Mostly for singers, I feel like it’s more like foods that you should avoid. I shouldn’t drink a lot of carbonated stuff if I’m going to sing because burping and singing at the same time is a tricky thing. Or dairy. I love spicy food, but the day before I’m supposed to be singing, I have to avoid spicy stuff a bit because the acid.
Do you eat other snacks outside of the things that are on your rider?
I do. When I’m at home, I have a very addictive personality, so I need to be conscious of what I keep in my house and what I don’t. I really fuck with a cheese puff. Very much into that. Cheese in general when I’m not touring, I love a stinky blue cheese, get that with some crackers or some apples or some pickles, like a little cornichon guy on the side. I really enjoy a kind of sour, fizzy sweet. No offense to your great nation, but America tastes really crap sweeties in my opinion.
I think the whole Red Vines, Twizzlers thing and they both taste like cables to me, they both taste like plastic. So I enjoy a Haribo or a really good sour. There’s these Haribo tongue plastics. Those guys, they’re little jelly sweets, but they’re sour and they got sugar on the outside. But even in the UK, my favorite just cheap shit snack is a packet of fizzy strawberry laces from Tesco’s and they’re the perfect level of sweet and sour.
Are you more sweet or savory when it comes to snacks?
A little of both. I’ve got the Pavlovian response of needing, a sweet treat after dinner and I try to flop myself off with a frozen strawberry. But it’s not the same. It’s not the real deal.
After your show are there certain foods that you have to have in your room? Are you hitting up the mini bar? Are you going to the local CVS or market and getting some snacks to bring back to your room?
If we’re going to be there for a few days, I go and get some breakfast-y stuff normally. When you’re on tour, I don’t really want to go to the gym and be around a bunch of people and I don’t want to go to breakfast and be around a bunch of people. That makes me sound very antisocial. But I think because living in a bus on top of everybody all the time, when you get the hotel, a day of solitude is nice. Also, who wants to be fucking social at 20 past seven in the morning?
So I go and get some overnight oats or a little yogurt and some fruit and stuff and I’ll keep that in the fridge.
No mini bar for you?
I’ve definitely done it, but I think I’ve done it when I’ve already been at the pub and then my decision making has been impaired. Then when I check out I’m like, “Fuck, $20 for a beer, that was unnecessary. I didn’t need to do that.”
After a show though, are you typically going out to eat afterwards? Are you getting room service? Do you get delivery? Is there any sort of routine or is it just you’re back on the tour bus?
I try not eat, but it kind of depends. Today the set time is quite odd, so we have to eat after the set because two hours is my time limit before the show because otherwise again, the burping, you’ve got to remember these things. There’s a microphone really close to your mouth. Normally if we’re playing at 9:00, I’ll eat at 6:00.
What are you eating at six before your show?
Our tour manager makes fun of me because she said, “Oh, she loves a bowl.” I do love a bowl. I’m sorry.
I was a vegetarian on tour at the start of Chvrches and it was a different time for vegetarianism on tour and you would just eat pasta or pad Thai all the time. That’s not that great for you. So the access to a miscellaneous bowl of vegetables and stuff is quite helpful and also, when in doubt in America, Chipotle.
After the show, I’ll have a little snack. We used to get loaded pizza and I think that’s death. That’s death because then you’ve just eaten cheesy bread and then you go to bed. You get warped around by a bus all night and it’s probably not great for you.
When you’re on tour, are there any cities that you’re excited to get to because there’s a restaurant that you’re going to get to eat at?
Well, a lighting guy that we toured with taught me about Google Map bookmarks. It was during the second Chvrches album and it blew my mind. I’ll bookmark places I’ve been to, but if I see people talking about a place or somebody recommends it, then I bookmark them in advance. So when we get to a place, I open up my maps and I can see a little spread of things. We’re going to San Francisco next month for a show and there’s a sushi place in San Francisco that I always like to go to, around the corner from this little bar. That one was just a happy accident on a night off. I just looked up because I fancied some sushi. I wandered around to this bar, Owl Tree is what it is called. They were playing Talking Heads and they had a documentary about parrots on with the sound down and it was great.
The sushi restaurant is called Ryoko and it’s down these stairs into this little teeny tiny restaurant. Me and my boyfriend were there on the night off and we went down and we sat at the bar and had this delicious sushi.
I really enjoy being in Spain and France because I feel like when I eat bread in the States sometimes it gives me weird reactions. I mean, it’s a different kind of yeast. I can eat all the bread in the universe whenever we’re in France and it doesn’t fuck with my body at all. And I feel like when we tour in Spain, and just really fresh, tasty, small plates, it’s just a real treat
What is something that you love the snack on that people either look at you funny about or think is gross or weird?
The fish and the kraut’s not ideal. I’ve been eating a little tin of fish in the van and one time we stopped suddenly and I did spill a little fishy juice on my backpack. I enjoy a little cottage cheese. I think a lot of people find that disgusting.
I really love cilantro and arugula, so I could eat that with a packet crisps. They’re so peppery and so nice. We call arugula “rocket” in the UK. Here I was like, “Arugula? What is this?” And cilantro was coriander. It took me a long time to get my head around it.
Is there anything that you see other people eating that you’re like, “I can’t believe people are eating that”?
There’s a guy who keeps popping up in my algorithm and his whole premise is “can it Martini?” He chooses different food items and sees if they work in a martini. He takes a Gherkin or some kimchi and then goes through his martini-making process. Sometimes it works out really well and sometimes it seems really disgusting. He did pickled chilies and in theory, I’m like that would be great because you’d have a spicy martini, I’ll have to try it.
Do you have any favorite places you like to eat when you go back home?
I grew up in a teeny tiny village. In the place I come from, there’s one pub and it’s called the Lion and the Unicorn, and that’s it.
I haven’t been there for a long time, but Glasgow is where all my friends and family are and there’s lots of good food in Glasgow, lots of good Indian food especially. There’s a place called Mother India’s Cafe, which is very good. It’s good because it’s small plate style. I’ll always get like a saag paneer, some kind of daal and maybe a chili king prawn situation, and I’ll get a half plate of kingfisher and a bit of naan.
What about if you want Scottish food?
Americans think that we all sit around and eat haggis and we don’t really, not for the most part.
Do you like blood pudding and stuff like that?
I’ve dabbled. It’s not the first thing I reach for, but I’ve done it. There’s a place called Singl-end, S-I-N-G-L-E-N-D, which is a breakfast lunchy place and it’s all very fresh, nice ingredients and that’s good.
I remember being at university and being vegetarian and there was one place and then it would be a very dry hockey puck veggie burger and that’s what you would get.
What are your feelings about IRN BRU?
I’m done with Irn Bru. My partner’s English and when he first tried it, he was not having it. He wasn’t loving it. It’s hard to describe when people are like, “What does it taste like?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” “It just tastes like IRN BRU.” Like ginger, bubblegum, I don’t know, but I do enjoy it.
In the summer I went to the Highlands for a bit with some friends and the meal that made me teary-eyed was at a little service stop – I had a cheesy tomato toastie and IRN BRU – it reminded me of my gran and I had a lovely time and everyone was like, “Really? Is she crying over a toastie?” I feel like food is very connected to memories.
Can you tell us a little bit about Mr Whippy Ice Cream?
I guess it’s like soft serve, but less fancy. Back in the day you would go to an ice cream van and you would get a 99 for 99 pence. Which is just cone, vanilla Whippy ice cream and a chocolate Cadbury’s Flake on top. I love a Van Leeuwen as much as the next guy, but I’m like, this tastes fancy and there’s certain things that I want, like a shitty Tesco’s doughnut and I want a chemically tasting ice cream.
It reminds me of being on holidays when I was a kid. You’d go to the beach and you would get your Mr. Whippy. Even when playing UK festivals, I always do make a little pilgrimage out into the site to get (Mr. Whippy). I remember being at Reading and Leeds and asking if the guys wanted to come and get a Mr. Whippy and they did not. I had to take myself out to get a Mr. Whippy.
I watched Arctic Monkeys while eating my Mr. Whippy, which feels very British.
