Lauren Mayberry

“One guy came to a show and was like, 'You're going to be huge. I can see it in my mind's eye. We could make you the next Pixie Lott.' I did an internal scream and ran away.”

“The bands that we've found we have something in common with are bands like The National or Tegan And Sara, and I feel like that's because all three of us come from more alternative rock backgrounds.”

“I would rather write something that's authentic to me than something that'll be likely to get played on the radio but doesn't have any substance to it. People can see through that really quickly.”

“I guess I have a weird habit of writing body part metaphors.”

“Is the casual objectification of women so commonplace that we should all just suck it up, roll over, and accept defeat? I hope not.”

“I think about politics, so it would be inauthentic not to talk about it.”

“If Radiohead made a video where Thom Yorke was featured more than the other members, nobody would say anything.”

“I did my dissertation on the idea of femininity and women's writing, so I spent eight months reading about how women are portrayed in the media in terms of images and tone of voice and what words are used.”

“I've come to terms with the fact that standing and screaming in someone's face about how wrong they are is never gonna make anyone change.”

“There are so many problems with feminism, as women spend a lot of time telling other women what to do, and that distracts from the actual problem.”

“I had somebody say to me once, 'You can't make the kind of music you're making and call yourself a feminist.' The door was slammed on them swiftly after that.”

“My band persona is 25% tougher than I am.”

“If we just stand at two opposite ends of the spectrum screaming in each other's face, we're never gonna get anything done. I don't agree with a Trump voter, but why do they feel like that? Yes, some of those people are racist and have hateful opinions, but some of those people voted for him because they felt completely left behind.”

“The music industry isn't unionised in the same way Hollywood is. If I've got a problem, who do I go to?”

“I speak a little bit of French and German, but apparently, I'm really bad at Dutch. The pronunciations are quite hard. I tried to say 'hello' in Dutch, and it did not work. People were just like, 'What?'”

“There will never be a job that I do in this industry where I don't have to talk about being a woman. I will always be a female artist. People will put that in front whether you like it or not.”

“I think looking at the front row of a Chvrches show is really diverse. It could be 50-year-old dudes who love Depeche Mode or teenagers or teenage girls and their dad.”

“The depressing reality is that campaigns like the Everyday Sexism Project would not need to exist were casual sexism not so startlingly commonplace.”

“Margaret Thatcher was a lady. I suppose she was a woman in a man's world, but that's about the only nice thing I have to say.”

“Nothing gets my hackles up like being told I can't do something.”