With a highly-anticipated debut album and Tramlines performance on the imminent horizon, Alice Venard dives right in with Pale Waves lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie.
Following your recent sold-out gig at the Leadmill, you’ll soon be returning to Sheffield shores at Tramlines. Stoked for it?
Yeah, really excited. The Leadmill show was one of the best we’ve done on the tour so far and we’ve not played Tramlines before, so we don’t quite know what to expect. I love playing festivals. They can be a tad hectic but I can’t resist.
Why do you think that is?
The ways that music brings all these people together and makes you feel like part of a big community.
It was International Women’s Day last month and some festivals have been criticised recently for not including enough female artists on their line-ups. Tramlines is quite representative, thankfully, but do you think this an issue?
I always preach that there needs to be more girls in the industry, and in all jobs regarding arts. We’re always preaching girl power constantly; we need more girls, it’s too much of a sausage fest.
The name for your next album maybe?
Pale Waves presents Sausage Fests.
Which women inspire you?
Obviously it’s going to be my mum, she’s such a legend and has always supported me with my music. If I didn’t have her it would’ve been such a struggle to start this band. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it. But apart from her, there are loads of female-fronted bands that I adore, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cranberries being big ones in that list.
And the album is due to come out later this year. Is the EP a good taster for what people can expect?
You’ll be able to tell it’s Pale Waves but it’ll be more diverse. With a 14-track album you have the ability to be more creative and we can show people that there are different sides to us. Whereas a four-track EP, there are only four tracks to play with at the end of the day. So there’s going to be more chance to show more sides of us, sides that I don’t think people will expect.
Are there any songs in particular which you’re looking forward to sharing with fans?
There are so many, but I don’t want to give too much away. There’s one that involves me talking about what’s going on in my mind, basically. Our fans are predominately girls and I think they’ll relate to it a lot. It’s such a difficult time when you’re growing up: you know you’re trying to find yourself, trying to figure out who you want to be, figuring out what you like and feeling insecure. It’s a lot to take on and the song tackles that.
A lot of people have said that your dark gothy “look” is at odds with your more poppy sounding music. What are your thoughts on this?
It’s wicked; the fashion sense has created like a culture for Pale Waves fans. You know if you turn up to a show it’s usually all in black, black lipstick, red eye shadow and black hair. It looks great and it’s really sweet to have such an impact.
Maybe you could go into releasing your own dark eye shadow range?
It’s funny that you ask this because I actually do want to release a makeup palette as Pale Waves merch. It’d definitely have all the obvious colours like orange, red and black – just the ultimate super goth palette.
Any other surprises in store this year?
Just working on the make-up palette! Nah, but we’re doing the obvious; playing shows, getting the album out there and I really want to release an acoustic EP at some point. That’d be very cool.
