THE HARD WAY

IT'S BEEN A STOP-START ROAD TO GET HERE, BUT PALE WAVES ARE BACK WITH A PERFECT SUMMER POP ROCK RECORD. HERE, THE BAND TELL THE STORY OF UNWANTED'.

- JAMES WILSON TAYLOR

Let's get into the new record, 'Unwanted' - when did this process begin? Was it during the pandemic? Heather Baron-

Gracie: "During the pandemic is when we had a solid idea for the direction we wanted to go in. Because we couldn't play live, we couldn't play the second album live... that took a year after the album was released. We were really deprived of playing live music. So we were all just set on making a record that was literally just fun to play. That really influenced this record tremendously. We wanted to have songs that were heavier, more upbeat and that were able to just give us a good time on stage. That definitely influenced the overall heavier tones and heavier sounds."

When we spoke around the early stages of writing the album, you were talking about a lot of '90s influences. How much of that translated into the final record?

Heather: "I think at the time I was still listening to a lot of Liz Phair. I feel like there's a lot of elements of Hole and Courtney Love on this record in the sense of angst and anger. We wanted to tap into a lot of emotions that we've not tapped into before. A lot of darker themes. Anger, jealousy... That's what kind of summarises this record. In this day and age, still, women can't be angry, they're labeled a bitch. I really wanted us to have an angry, angst album to say, 'No, fuck you, it's okay for me to be angry. I'm going to be angry about this'. But, as the writing went further and further, we went more alternative, rock and pop-punk rather than '90s dreamy vibes."

On the album title, why did you choose that phrase to sum up the record as a whole?