It’s been about two and a half years since the Glaswegian synthpop trio Chvrches came out with Love Is Dead. On that record, Chvrches pivoted toward mainstream pop, working with producers who’d previously collaborated with people like Adele and Ed Sheeran. The album was a divisive move, but it’s had legs. Earlier this year, for instance, the Love Is Dead track “Forever” became a viral hit after appearing in the horny Netflix show Élite. In the years since Love Is Dead, though, the sound of mainstream pop has shifted, and the next Chvrches record might reflect some of that shift.

Right now, Chvrches are working on a new album that’s tentatively set for a spring 2021 release. Talking to The Guardian recently, frontwoman Lauren Mayberry spoke a bit about the as-yet-untitled new album and how it might sound. Along the way, she had some enthusiastic things to say about Billie Eilish. When asked whether the group feels pressure to keep up with the changes in pop music, Mayberry said this:

The vocal production on the Billie Eilish album is absolutely phenomenal — that is an advancement in pop music. We want to be aware of it because there’s just awesome pop music and you can learn something from it. Learn the production tricks but don’t learn the other parts: I think that was the challenge of this album. We did two albums that existed in a certain space, and by the third record it felt like what we were doing had been popularized by other people. How do you run that race next to other people? Well, we’ve realized that we don’t have to run that race. You’re never going to win in a race that is saturated by people who are bigger, better and more popular, so you might as well pivot and go somewhere else.

Mayberry also said that the band has been returning to old favorites: “We sat inside and listened to music that we really loved all year, like Depeche Mode, the Cure, and Brian Eno. I wanted the music that was the most comforting to me and that era of tunes was very formative for our band.” She also said that the new album is “not the frilliest of Chvrches records,” but she also clarified that “it’s not screamo or anything like that.” (Now that she mentions it, I would love to hear a Chvrches screamo record.) You can read that full interview here.