The Scottish trio got to use the new Moog One for this one-off exclusive performance.
Ahead of their return to Coachella this Sunday which launches their North American tour, and following their first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 with their Marshmello collaboration, the Scottish trio CHVRCHES recently stopped by The Moog Factory in Asheville, NC to give a rare live performance of “Wonderland” inside the Moog Sound Lab.
“This is one of the few songs from the new album that we haven’t played live in any context and we wanted to do something special for the MSL performance…”, says Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry, “I think this will probably be the only place a live version of Wonderland will exist…”Chvrches synthesize their re-imagining of “Wonderland” using a Moog One, Subsequent 37, and DFAM– composing the spontaneous analog arrangement on the spot in the Moog Sound Lab. During the in-studio session CHVRCHES had some time to answer a few questions with COS about their experience:
1) What was it like to visit the Moog Factory?
“So much of our sound is shaped by Moog instruments so getting to see the love and care people put into the development and creation of those instruments is really something. That place is literally a wonderland for synth lovers so maybe the song title is a bit ironic… “
2) Did any new or unexpected additions make their way into this performance while reimagining Wonderland for the MSL?
“Iain, Martin, and Jonny reimagined all of the instrumental parts of the songs for the performance so it sounds pretty different from the record. Once you’ve released an album, so much of your time is spent touring which is great but not necessarily hugely creative so when opportunities come up to use the creative part of your brain again, it’s exciting for us.”
3) How did they translate the track into a live setting since they never played it before?
“We did the arrangement all in the room, once the guys had figured out what instruments each of them wanted to play. It was nice to be spontaneous and just see where we ended up.”
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