Next Wave #633: Pale

Deep, sweeping electro-soul vibes for night-time drives...

“She wasn’t meant for me/turn me on, turn me wild, take my energy” sing Pale in ‘Silence’, a sweeping electro-soul track that’s brimming with understated, but ice-clear emotion. “It’s about about having an emotional affair,” Alan, one half of the duo, tells Clash. “I wrote it about a month before I got married.”

This is the type of straight-forward, honest answer we come to expect from Alan, who says that major labels are “blood sucking vampires”, that the pairs upbringings were “uninspiring, disillusioned and disappointing”, that “the 00’s weren’t very exciting” and that “the internet, art, communication, food, music, festivals, sport, technology, the environment, fashion, talent, sex are all just subjects for corporate manipulation. They are not yours or mine, which they should be. They don’t define our time in the way we are led to believe they do. Unless we’re happy to be defined by hashtags, Vita Coco, yoga and e-cigarettes.”

Do they feel it’s harder to write songs when they’re happy? “I’m never happy,” discloses Alan, “So that’s not a problem.”

Indeed, despite the smattering of sticky 80’s synths and power-heavy drum beats, there is something decidedly melancholy about the pairs sound. But buried beneath the gloom lies a swathing, R&B-tainted stylishness. It’s music made for nighttime drives and sweaty, intimate venues.

“When I first decided I wanted to sing in a band, I wanted that band to look exactly like Jesus and The Mary Chain,” explains Alan. “I tried to make the band of my dreams, and failing that we created Pale. We couldn’t afford a rehearsal room. We couldn’t find a drummer. We made music on laptops in my mum and dads garden shed. We rehearsed in my Aunt’s flat, which was empty because she died a few months earlier.”

“It came out like this because we made do with what we had. But I’m glad we never ended up resembling The Jesus And Mary Chain. I am happier being what we are.” Alan pauses. “But I promise we’ll make a post punk record when the time comes.”

Words: Daisy Jones

– – –

– – –

WHAT: Deep, sweeping electro-soul vibes for night-time drives
WHERE: London
GET 3 SONGS: ‘Silence’, ‘New Man’, ‘Too Much’
FACT: Alan’s favourite book is ‘A Hero For Our Time By Mikhail Lermontov. 

Buy Clash Magazine

Get Clash on your mobile, for free: iPhone / Android

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.