Pale Waves have discussed the progress on their “pop-punk”-influenced new EP, revealing that one track sounds like “it could be a Taylor Swift song”.
The Manchester group, who are due to tour the UK in September, released their debut album ‘My Mind Makes Noises‘ last year. Ahead of its full-length follow-up, the band are set to drop a new EP to tide fans over with a dose of new music.
With 18 tracks already in the bag for the project, Pale Waves spoke to NME about what we can expect from new material – and the reason for not jumping straight into LP 2.
“Fans are getting very impatient so I think we at least need to give them something,” Heather Baron-Gracie told NME at Radio 1’s Big Weekend. “I think that’s kind of important as well, ‘cause I don’t think the album’s gonna come for a while.”
The singer went on to explain that they currently “have so many songs” for the EP, which will be cut down to “five or six tracks”. “The ones that don’t go on the EP will probably go on the album,” she added.
Fans have recently been teased with lyrics from new songs via late-night drunken tweets from Baron-Gracie. “With some, I wake up in the morning and think, ‘Why have I even tweeted that?’” she said. “I tweeted one the other day and I was like, ‘Did I do that?! Was I that drunk?!’”
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Asked about a recent post, which revealed the chorus line “I kinda liked it when you were mine”, Baron-Gracie described the upcoming track as “a big tune” and “very, very pop”. Drummer Ciara Doran added that it was “really different” to their past material.
Chorus baby https://t.co/gPGjtgilw6
— HBG (@HBARONGRACIE) May 8, 2019
“It’s a big chorus,” Baron-Gracie told NME. “I’m excited to take it into the studio. It’s probably the best-sounding demo that we have as well.
“I mean, it could be a Taylor Swift song probably – the chorus. Maybe we’ll just sell it to her and make loads of money… if she takes it [laughs].”
Responding to whether they’d be tempted to pen hits for pop stars in the future, Baron-Gracie replied: “I mean that would be cool to do at some point, wouldn’t it? ‘Cause I feel like we could full-on go pop, but we hold ourselves back a bit.
“It’s like, we’re a band but we love pop so it’s finding that balance. But maybe one day we’ll go full pop and see what happens.”
While retaining slick pop elements, will the EP introduce any new genres?
“Pop punk, actually,” Baron-Gracie told NME. “Honestly, we’ve gone quite punk with these new tracks. [It’s] very guitar-driven, but then we do have ‘I Liked It When You Were Mine’. That’s like the poppy element that comes back in.”
Having recently toured arenas as support for label mates The 1975, Pale Waves have themselves set their sights on stepping up to take on the bigger venues.
“We’re aiming to take over the world. Why not?” said Baron-Gracie. “I always think if you’re not aiming for that then you should probably stop. We’re not one of those bands that pretend that we wanna play underground to like 15 people all the time.
“I don’t think it’s very cool to even say that. I want everyone to listen.”
Pale Waves will be supporting Muse at their upcoming UK stadium dates, kicking off this weekend.