Pale Waves: Finding Their Own Frequency

For Pale Waves, music has always been about evolution. From the early days of playing intimate Manchester venues to Madison Square Garden and major festival stages, the band have built a sound that sits somewhere between indie rock, pop and the darker shimmer of 1980s synth music.

On 4 July, I caught up with frontwoman Heather Baron Gracie at Crystal Palace Park, where Pale Waves were performing alongside Alanis Morissette. The Manchester band were travelling with Morissette as part of a run of dates that brought together generations of alternative music, culminating in a world class set from the Canadian American star. Earlier in the day, Skunk Anansie, The Big Moon and singer songwriter Ruti had each brought their own energy to the stage, setting the scene for an afternoon steeped in alternative rock nostalgia.

Pale Waves first emerged in 2017 with There’s A Honey, quickly attracting attention for their distinctive blend of guitar driven pop and 1980s inspired sounds. The band were named Q’s Best Breakthrough Act, toured with The 1975 and eventually found themselves playing some of the biggest stages in the world.

Their Manchester origins remain central to that journey. Baron Gracie and drummer Ciara Doran began developing the band after meeting through university, with Hugo Silvani and Charlie Wood completing the line up. Their earliest shows were small, formative gigs at venues such as the Castle Hotel and Night & Day, experiences that helped establish the identity of a band determined to create music on their own terms.

That philosophy remains important. Baron Gracie recalls moving from writing acoustic emo songs to experimenting with an inexpensive electric guitar and pedals, a transition that ultimately helped shape Pale Waves’ sound. The band’s influences stretch from The Smiths, Joy Division and Oasis to The Cranberries, Prince and Joni Mitchell.

Their latest album, Smitten, released in 2024, represents another chapter in that evolution. Written largely around Baron Gracie’s experiences of love and relationships with women, the record is deeply personal and unapologetically queer. Tracks such as Perfume capture the album’s emotional centre, while the band deliberately returned to some of the musical instincts that defined their earlier work.

The making of Smitten was anything but glamorous. Four weeks were spent recording in Eastbourne, with the band even discovering what appeared to be mice in the studio. Yet those long sessions allowed them to embrace a more traditional approach to recording, taking greater time to develop the songs.

Away from the studio, Baron Gracie has also experienced a significant personal change through sobriety. After years of touring and late nights, she found that stepping away from alcohol brought greater focus, productivity and balance. Rather than seeing sobriety as a statement or a responsibility to her audience, she describes it as something she chose for her own wellbeing.

Now, with new material already taking shape, Pale Waves are once again looking forward. Around nine songs had been written for their next project when we spoke, although Baron Gracie remained characteristically cautious about what might eventually make the final cut.

For a band that has spent nearly a decade refusing to stand still, uncertainty seems less like a problem and more like part of the process. Pale Waves are still finding their frequency, one song at a time.