Chvrches (stylised CHVRCHΞS and pronounced "Churches") are a Scottish synth-pop band from Glasgow, formed in September 2011. The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and, unofficially since 2018, Jonny Scott. Mostly deriving from the synth-pop genre, Chvrches also incorporate indietronica, indie pop, and electronic dance into their sound.

Two years after their formation, Chvrches released Recover EP in March 2013, which included hits "The Mother We Share" and "Recover". Their debut studio album, The Bones of What You Believe, was released on 20 September 2013, while the band was ranked fifth on the Sound of 2013 list by the BBC. Two years later, on 25 September 2015, the group released their second album, Every Open Eye. Their third album, Love Is Dead, was released on 25 May 2018. Their fourth album, Screen Violence, was released on 27 August 2021.

In 2003, musicians Iain Cook and Martin Doherty met as students at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Doherty was a member of the band Julia Thirteen, and asked Cook to produce the band's 2006 extended play (EP) With Tired Hears. Although Julia Thirteen never recorded any further material, the experience proved vital, as Cook and Doherty formed a mutual interest in eventually starting their own project. A few years later, Doherty joined Cook as a member of Aereogramme, but the band broke up in 2007 due to a lack of exposure. After the dissolution of Aereogramme, Doherty then became a touring member for the band the Twilight Sad, but quit in 2012 after he grew tired of playing someone else's music. He had planned to retrain as a history teacher before reconnecting with Cook, and the two formed the music project that would eventually become CHVRCHES.

A few years after Aereogramme broke up, Cook took an interest in the electronic sound of the band Emeralds. Cook bought a Minimoog Voyager and began "playing around with soundscapes and stuff like that ... kind of with a view of doing stuff from the '80s". In September 2011, he produced an EP for the band Blue Sky Archives, and asked the band's vocalist and drummer Lauren Mayberry if she would be interested in singing backing vocals for an electronic music project he and Doherty were working on. Mayberry was intrigued by the offer, as neither of them had any background in electronic music. "For me it was nice to write over different instruments and not have to try to sing and scream over live drums and a Marshall bass stack," said Mayberry.

The three musicians quickly bonded, and spent the next few months writing and recording songs in a basement studio. During these sessions, Mayberry wrote the lyrics and hooks, Doherty provided melodic ideas, and Cook produced the songs. Once the sessions had concluded, the three decided that they worked well enough together to try and perform the songs as a band. The initial plan was to have Doherty sing lead vocals, while Mayberry would sing backing vocals. Mayberry was eventually promoted to lead vocalist after Cook and Doherty heard her singing abilities. In addition to her new role, Mayberry became the band's frontwoman, and gave the other members a reading list about the inner workings of the music industry.

The band members settled on the name CHVRCHES (stylised as CHVRCHΞS), which uses the Roman letter "v" instead of a "u". This spelling was chosen to differentiate themselves from actual churches in online search results. There was no conscious decision to have a name with religious connotations; instead, the band members felt that the name gave "a strong vibe that could be interpreted in many different ways". Mayberry also noted that the v is a subtle nod to band names from the influential witch house genre of music, including bands such as SALEM and Ritualz. "We did consider putting upside down crosses at either side of our name, but that would have dated us, I think" said Mayberry.

Doherty noted how Chvrches began as a studio only project, saying: "There wasn't really any goal other than to put a song out on the internet and see what kind of response we got". In May 2012, Chvrches posted its debut song "Lies" on the Neon Gold Records blog. Instead of a picture of the band members, the song was accompanied by a picture of nuns in masks, which added to the perceived religiosity of the Chvrches name. The response was almost immediate; "Lies" reached number one on the MP3 aggregate blog The Hype Machine, and similarly received constant airplay on SoundCloud and BBC Radio 1. The band members were amazed by the reaction to "Lies". "It was unbelievable, way beyond what we expected," said Doherty.

Despite the popularity of "Lies", Chvrches had yet to perform a live show. There was a growing expectation that the band would eventually perform live, although the band members were anxious at the prospect. To curtail this fear, Chvrches played its first two live shows under the name Shark Week, before making its official debut at the Glasgow School of Art in July. When Chvrches began to attract A&R representatives, Mayberry was dismayed that most of them wanted to make her the central figure of the band; one representative called her the next Pixie Lott. From the beginning, the band's goal was to give equal treatment to all three members, and to not have any one person become the focal point. As Doherty stated: "We could have sold 200,000 more albums if we'd hidden Iain and I from view and put Lauren on the cover of every magazine. We ended up doing it in an indie band style. We broke through via word of mouth. It was about doing it in an honest, right way." This mentality meant that the band had to decline early offers for photo shoots and interviews that excluded Cook and Doherty.