photo by: Charlotte Patmore

Lauren Mayberry

When Lauren Mayberry hits the stage in Lawrence on Sunday, it will be a familiar feeling, but still a change from the last time she was here.

When Mayberry performed here in 2013, she was touring with the band CHVRCHES — an acclaimed electro-pop band with over 2.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. That was the same year the band’s first album, “The Bones of What You Believe,” was released.

After over a decade performing with the band across the world, Mayberry released her debut solo album, “Vicious Creature, in December 2024,” which the New York Times called “an ambitious and emotional pop odyssey.”

photo by: Contributed

Lauren Mayberry’s debut solo album Vicious Creature, released Dec. 6, 2024.

As the Scottish performer returns to the stage at the Granada on Sunday, Feb. 2, as part of her first solo tour, she said the experience isn’t “a million miles away” from touring, but the process of creating the album has helped her break out of a comfort zone and improve as a songwriter.

Fans of the band CHVRCHES, which is currently taking a pause, might be happy to know that her solo work “is still as melodically focused” as the band, but that doesn’t mean it is just a “rip off” of the band’s work, Mayberry told the Journal-World. Mayberry said there are different ’80s influences — Madonna, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, to name a few — in her work compared to the band, and added it has a singer-songwriter quality of artists like Sinead O’Connor.

Mayberry said part of the desire to put out a solo project was to get out of a comfort zone. With the band taking a breather, she felt this could be a time to break away from a routine and be in a role in her solo project to be more at the “helm of the creative process.”

“It felt important to me to push myself and test my creative brain outside of a format I knew very well,” Mayberry said.

One thing that Mayberry said was a focus in “Vicious Creature” was in the songwriting and lyrics — something Mayberry said she can be “obsessive” about. Mayberry added in the process of making her solo project, there were a lot more women and nonbinary people involved in making it, and the album features more personal themes of sexuality and empowerment that reflect her experience as a woman.

Working on the project was at times “exciting and freeing,” but other times felt overwhelming. However, she thinks those conflicting feelings helped her come out as a better writer after the process of creating her album

“I don’t want to write the same song over and over,” Mayberry said. “I think sometimes (as an artist) you have to go to some pretty uncomfortable places. I had to recognize what I am good at, what I need help with, what I love, what I hate.”

As far as the performance itself, Mayberry hopes fans can come enjoy the show and gain a bit of respite and distraction from the chaos of the world.

“I hope people can come to the show and be in a place they feel comfortable and safe and just connect with some music before they have to go back to the rest of reality,” Mayberry said.

Tickets are still on sale for the show at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. Doors open Sunday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m.