Pale Waves

About

Pale Waves are a British indie rock and pop band from Manchester, formed in 2014. Fronted by Heather Baron-Gracie, they broke through with their debut album My Mind Makes Noises (2018) and built a following on a sound rooted in 1980s synth-pop and guitar-driven alternative pop. Signed to Dirty Hit, they have released four studio albums - two of which reached the UK top five - and toured extensively across Europe and North America. Their fourth album Smitten (2024) drew four-star reviews and showed a more reflective, personal side to the band.

384K

monthly listeners on Spotify

211K

monthly audience on YouTube Music

13M

streams of 'Eighteen' on Spotify

BBC Sound of 2018 listing

What's new

2026-02
Guitarist Hugo Silvani left Pale Waves in February 2026 after eleven years as a band member, after which the band continues as a trio with Heather Baron-Gracie, Charlie Wood and Ciara Doran.
2026-02
Pale Waves will perform in spring 2026 as main support for the British arena dates of Louis Tomlinson's 'How Did We Get Here?' tour, with shows in Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, among others.
2025-10
The band released a studio version of The Cranberries classic 'Zombie' after they performed the song live earlier at Reading & Leeds Festival 2025.
2025-06
Pale Waves announced the 'Still Smitten Tour' for October 2025, with the band deliberately visiting smaller and less visited cities in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
2024-09
The fourth studio album Smitten was released on 27 September 2024 via Dirty Hit and received four stars from NME, which described it as an album that makes you fall in love with the band again.