At this point, Lauren Mayberry has a well-established career: She’s the leader of Chvrches, a successful synth-pop group that’s gearing up to release its fourth album, Screen Violence, in August. Years ago, though, Mayberry was a journalist, which she spoke about with Mark Hoppus on After School Radio on Apple Music. During the conversation, she explained why, in her eyes, she wasn’t an awesome music critic.
After Hoppus asked about her past in journalism, Mayberry said:
“I was a bad entry level journalist, yes. In my early twenties, I was doing music writing stuff. I was not a good music journalist because whenever you have to do reviews, I think if you’re in a band, […] it’s hard to review other bands the way that people, critics, want you to. Because that would be like, ‘This is where I think they might’ve taken some inspiration. It wasn’t for me, but they clearly worked hard on it, and it’s difficult to make anything, so maybe somebody will like it.’ And that’s a bad review, that’s not helpful.”
She went on to say that the experience was useful in giving her a different perspective on how the media works: “But I think it was helpful in so far as you see how the sausage is made. It gives me an insight into what the media process is a bit, and especially what it’s like for women in music as well, because I would be like sub-editing things and be like, ‘Wow, that’s a terrible headline. Why are you putting that on it? That’s not what she said.'”
