ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S05E23 • Pale Blue Eyes
Ever wondered how a great band finds its voice? Sheffield's dream pop trio Pale Blue Eyes offers a fascinating glimpse into the alchemy of friendship, creativity, and musical evolution that shapes extraordinary music.
Fresh off their spring UK tour, Matt and Lucy describe how their most recent performances felt like "one big party" with their best mates, culminating in their biggest London show to date at Islington Assembly Hall. This camaraderie extends beyond the stage; it's the foundation of their creative process.
Their origin story reads like indie music serendipity—a photographer named Aubrey, originally there just to document a studio session, stepped in when a bassist didn't show up. Despite never hearing the songs before, he immediately connected with the material. Six months of rehearsals without gigs or even a band name followed, until they had unwittingly created an album's worth of material right before lockdown hit.
The pandemic, while devastating for live music, became an unexpected catalyst. Their first single "went nuts on Bandcamp," offering what Lucy calls "a beacon" during difficult times. Three albums later, their approach to songwriting continues to evolve deliberately. Matt collects phrases, experiences, and observations in notebooks that later become songs, while the band consciously experiments with different creative approaches to avoid falling into patterns.
What makes Pale Blue Eyes special is their ego-free collaboration. Where many bands falter when "someone thinks that they're it," this trio thrives on their differences. Lucy and Matt bonded over shared loves like Broken Social Scene, while Aubrey brings entirely different influences from disco, soul, and jazz backgrounds. This fusion creates their distinctive dream pop sound that blends shoegaze and synth elements into something uniquely captivating.
Listen in as we explore how three friends from Sheffield crafted one of the UK's most exciting musical projects, and discover why their latest album "New Place" feels like their most honest work yet. Are you ready to discover your new favorite band?
How long is now a question? What's in front of me? The time it takes to see for what it really is. Am I leaping in the past?
colleyc:So welcome back everyone to another episode of the podcast Reaching across the pond again. So many amazing UK artists that I've had the privilege of talking with and them coming and sharing their story Today no exception. Privilege of talking with them, them coming and sharing their story today, no exception. Uh, pale blue eyes, um, out of Sheffield, the UK, out of, uh, united Kingdom, and they're coming in. Uh, this is a great alternative dream pop. Uh, I throw shoegaze synth pop in there as well. Just the beautiful arrangement of of sounds and vocals. Um, sure to satisfy any weekend listener. You know you've got some time on your hands. You want to kick back on the couch, have a beer, coffee and listen to this record. Uh, it will do some special stuff for you. So thanks, guys. I have a Matt and Lucy here from hill blue eyes. Um, I really, uh, I've been looking forward to this chat.
Pale Blue Eyes:How are you? I really I've been looking forward to this chat. How you guys doing today, right? Yeah, we've just literally come back from the UK UK leg of our tour, so I just had a nap in front of the football actually before we came on.
colleyc:That's the best sports, kind of in the background a little snoozy.
Pale Blue Eyes:it always sends me off like I'm like right, I've got to stay up and watch this football match or whatever it is, and it just sends me.
colleyc:It brings you to a better place? Maybe so, matt. How did that go? How did the reception go on the road? How did things go? What was your reception? Give us a little describer of all of that.
Pale Blue Eyes:We had so much fun and I think we're very like. We're just like we're missing the guys already. I just made a round of teas for everyone and there's only two of us left in the house, so one of those like we're very, very lucky to be on the road with our best mates and that like runs throughout the whole camp and we had an amazing team around us. The gigs were really fun, visited some places that we'd been before, finished up in the Islington Assembly Hall in London, which was like our biggest UK kind of venue to date. So that was a really amazing way to finish off the tour. But yeah, it was. It's been a lovely couple of weeks. We did a made a veil session right at the beginning on six music for Riley and co, so we started there and then in London. So yeah, it's been an amazing couple of weeks. Wow, wow.
colleyc:And Lucy, do you have any fun stories you can tell us about? That time on tour of weird situations, a funny story um a chance encounter, uh, did anything out of the ordinary happen other than just all the fun?
Pale Blue Eyes:let me think. I mean we nearly missed one of the gigs because the traffic was so bad, but that was less funny and more stressful.
Pale Blue Eyes:Your sister's birthday, yeah it was my sister's.
Pale Blue Eyes:It was the night before my sister's birthday, brizinton, so we had a good posse at the last, at the last show, drinking prosciutto backstage, so that was quite a finish off on a high, I don't know really. It's, it's been just consistently fun all the way through and I think uh, I can't really think of any funny stories I mean we're literally entertained 24 7 by our bass player aubrey.
colleyc:He's absolutely hilarious and like has so much energy that like when we come home and he goes home, it just seems so quiet it's always good to have one of those in the band, a one of those members that just kind of, yeah, free play and, uh, prologue, monologue, a lot of the time, yeah, like we definitely take advantage of the uh, the fun opportunities.
Pale Blue Eyes:and it is like, since we did that really long european tour like, um, the driving, like driving two, three hours now just seems like you're going to the local shops because we were doing quite long drives around europe and like this was so we've yeah, I think we've just like we kind of know uk touring now so we know when we can let our hair down a bit and we did like a really fun adventure on this one. But I think just playing the music is and playing the show is the big thing for us. So and everything you know, because we're such good mates, everything is just like one big party.
colleyc:Do you find that as the tour goes on, the songs change a little bit, new flavors are brought in, or or do you try to maintain them as as they are?
Pale Blue Eyes:I think it doesn't actually happen. I think often that people often say about how they wish that you could record an album, tour it for a year and then record it again, because it's like you when you record it's, it's a really good way of sort of imprinting things and like lock things in. So then you go into playing it live with a certain kind of I don't know. There's like a deep kind of knowing of the songs. You know them so well that it's just you don't even think when you're playing them. Um, but then in playing them live, like you say, they just naturally evolve and I think then by the end like just little subtleties creep in, like things that I do when I'm drumming, that I just start accenting certain things, or like me and all just do something together. That will just become a thing we do every night and then at the end of it you think, god, I wish we could record it again like that, but it just takes on a new version of it.
colleyc:I suppose right, yeah, I mean the saturation too is, as you mentioned, of just putting a record out. I mean you hear every little detail and everything. So, um, focused on that, it must be. Um, is it hard to to to unshackle yourself from, from the master, from the, the originals? Um, like is, is that a task to do or is it come, like you were mentioning, lucy, that you find little moments to add things in?
Pale Blue Eyes:We rehearsed them quite a lot before. We rehearsed the whole album and generally we'll feel them out in the room and if there's a song that doesn't kind of translate live, we just won't, we won't really play it. So I think at the moment these are the ones that like fell under our fingers or felt the most kind of natural. A couple of them took a little bit more work to recreate. Live like the dreamer was one that we really we had to work on the feel of that quite heavily for it to translate and that comes down to like the right guitar tones and the arrangement live.
Pale Blue Eyes:But I mean, you know, when we're recording, sometimes there can be like 10 or 11 guitar takes that we make into a mix and they're just like panned or they come in and out different tones, different kind of dynamics. So then it's about pinpointing like which two guitar parts we would take and how they interact. So certainly that was like a trickier one, but we've, the more we play it, the more it beds in and we decided to play quite a lot of new ones on this tour. Um, like we've done over 50 percent of new material and then the rest from the first two records. So the first like couple of nights I didn't like usually I would kind of worry, but they felt quite naturally bedded in from day one. And then they, they just get a little bit tighter and you stop thinking about your part and more about the performance at that point.
colleyc:But um, it's definitely been a bit of rehearsal time like invested in how much matt, do you do of rehearsal, like before you head out on tour, to kind of like, all right, you're gonna do this, I'll do this, okay, and like how, how many days do you spend doing that?
Pale Blue Eyes:like quite a lot because lewis, um the the fourth member live player, um lewis kellett, who joined probably about a year ago now, um live shows. We do the. So generally what would happen is he would come over and lucy, me and lewis would go through the multi-tracks and work out exactly like what guitar parts we should take and what, because he plays organ and synthesizer as well, and we would arrange that like in advance. And then Orbs come in and we'll do like fairly consistent and regular rehearsals in the lead up. So, yeah, we do put a lot of time into that because it's loads of fun as well. Like we just enjoy that part of it.
colleyc:I I see too, like with so many guitars too, like you're having to, like you can't have 20 guitarists up on stage, right, it's just I mean I'd love that.
Pale Blue Eyes:But right, you know, we can't afford a bigger van.
colleyc:So you'd have to get like a u-haul, or you know, passenger van or some bus or something. Um and lucy, tell me how it all started. Like, how did the pale blue eyes come to be what? What's your origin story? If you could share that with us?
Pale Blue Eyes:um, it's quite. It is sort of funny in a way because we, me and matt have always played music together in different projects and matt's had various projects over the years and then I kind of joined a previous band as the drummer and, um, at the end there was a sort of there was a sort of period of time where one project had finished and I suppose out of that grew like Pale Blue Eyes. But we were down at Startpoint with our friend, I think. Well, our friend Chris had a studio down at Startpoint in Devon and we went down there to do some demoing of some new track ideas. I think we'd got some PRS funding so we could afford to do a few days in a studio, like mix rates kind of thing. And we said to Aubrey we kind of knew Aubrey from Totnes as like a photographer because he'd been taking pictures at Sea Change Festival which we'd been playing at and working at. So anyway, he came down to start point with us to kind of take photos of that.
Pale Blue Eyes:Um, the, the guy who was meant to come down to play bass for the session, actually just overslept and was ringing us going. I'm so sorry, I'm still in london, so I'll be like four or five hours and we were like, okay, well, that's kind of like half the day gone. So just sort of said, look, I think you've kind of missed the day, so we'll be. Well, I've started learning bass recently like I'll have a go at like just putting some root notes in or whatever. And he literally had never heard the stuff before and just joined in with I don't know maybe six tracks we were demoing and just immediately was like absolutely nailing it and playing it perfectly. And we would, me and Matt were just a bit like, hey, hang on a sec. So then we started rehearsing together and we actually, ironically, were rehearsing without any gigs, but any plan we made we didn't have like a band name.
Pale Blue Eyes:None of those songs that we demoed in in that start point session ever really came to light. That was just like a wall in um and we rehearsed for like six months all these different tunes and like started demoing and tracking stuff without really any idea what we were doing.
Pale Blue Eyes:Like there were no gigs or anything, there was no plan. But then in just doing that I think well, me and matt sort of eventually had found ourselves where we were in a position where we kind of had an album's worth of stuff, but Aubrey was at uni then, so I think quite a lot of the sort of writing and producing was us, but Aubrey was just well up for getting in a rehearsal room and playing all this live. So we started doing that. And then I think we only had a handful of gigs before lockdown and COVID happened.
Pale Blue Eyes:So actually in a weird way we were quite and so it was a very new project and we we had no material online. We had no we've done maybe like six gigs or something. And then it was just this weird phenomenon phenomena over lockdown where we put a single out and I remember it going nuts on Bandcamp. We did a limited seven inch and we just everyone just ordered it straight away because, I don't know, because it was lockdown, people were getting a lot of joy out of right into records at home and I remember that was kind of a really exciting contrast to the fact that Covid was a nightmare and our personal situation wasn't that easy at that time, but we had this little beacon of pale blue eyes, the light at the end of the tunnel a bit.
colleyc:Yeah, that's cool. And do you guys write collaboratively or like, how do pale blue eyes approach songwriting? What's your process in that, like, do you get a line in your head first, or is it a series of lyrics, or is it a combo of each? Can you walk us through a little bit of how does a song come to be in Pale Blue Eyes?
Pale Blue Eyes:It could be any one of those things that you've just described, but usually the wet work, because I'm writing all the time and I'm kind of noting things down in books, or if there's a particular experience, lived experience or a thing that I see, or or like a series of words that sound all right, I'll put, I'll note it all down and just kind of like keep it somewhere. I generally approach it whenever I've got like a free few days, because it always takes me a day to kind of like get my head into it and to find some kind of like way in or or a flow. And then I will, I'll just generate as many ideas as I possibly can all the time and then bring them to Lucy and Aubrey and then Lucy kind of hacks away at it and produces it a bit and works on structure, and we're not like that precious at the early stage, other than like if it feels good instinctively, then we'll continue working with it. But if there's like out of 10 songs that I write, often there'll be one or two that will carry forward. Um, so my way is always just to not dwell on it, like write a song, write an idea, if there's a kind of like concept and feel around it. Then that kind of is enough as a start, as a starting point, and then, like the lyrics can develop over months and you know, right up until I'm doing the final lead vocal, I could be rewriting lyrics and words and rearranging things.
Pale Blue Eyes:So it's very, in that sense, it's like pretty organic and over time a few songs just fall out, like now and again on this record I've wrote, like when we were surrounded by boxes moving out of, uh, our family home and the only thing like bit of a cliche, but the only thing that was left was the acoustic guitar and I just like picked up and looked out the window and wrote that song, um, that was really easy. It just kind of happened um, and then other songs on this record I've. I've written like a kind of happened, um, and then other songs on this record. I've I've written like a structure of a song and then we've brought into the studio and there's a band performed it live, um, sang like a guide vocal and then re-sung the vocal at the end and then there's some that are more like when I think of half light from the album.
Pale Blue Eyes:That started off as one thing. It started off as a very kind of indie rock sounding track and I remember just having a bit of an epiphany where I was like, hang on, I could pull all this stuff out and put loads of synths in and it kind of turned it on its head and we added this whole like two or three minutes at the end where it was just a synth like mash out more of like a construction thing where we kind of built that, whereas scrolling and rituals were like we all, like matt says, we all got together for a few days over summer and actually did recorded those with tom and lewis, so there's actually a couple of extra players adding different kind of new flavours.
Pale Blue Eyes:But I think this album is the first time where we did experiment a bit more with different ways in of writing, because I remember before we had our studio space up and running, me and Matt set up two setups. We had a setup in our spare room and then a setup in our bedroom. For me that was like synths and a sound card and then yours was more like microphone guitars and we tried really hard to see if we could do it flip it on its head and if I could come up with any like chord progressions that matt then put lyrics to, and I think I did loads of stuff that didn't come to anything, but I think there's like one track on there, yeah. So I think through that process of saying let's try another way in, because, like, we've done three albums where matt's written like in that way and then we've produced it and and then we'll send stuff to aubrey remotely because it was locked down.
Pale Blue Eyes:I think this time around it was really fun to have we've got. So we've written that album, the latest album, in like three or four different kind of ways, if you see what I mean. So I think it's been. I find that we've found a few different gears, hopefully just because we've tried a few different ways, and obviously we'll continue to try and do that as well.
Pale Blue Eyes:It kind of keeps it creative and interesting for us. We also had Tom, a friend of ours, tom sharkett, who's a producer, um composer, writer, performer. He came in and did some some stuff as well. So it was it was really nice to have other people in the room because obviously the way we made over lockdown was was us just um walking up to the studio in the morning and it was like amazingly creative time, even though it was a difficult time where we we made it just really just the two of us initially, so to to branch out and do it in this way. I think we want to explore that more for the for the next record yeah, yeah, interesting.
colleyc:Yeah, I was gonna ask too, like, have you found that over over the record's, that process is getting easier and is it changing? Is it influencing, um, how you go about songwriting, like, are you coming up? Are you getting closer to, I guess, like a I I don't like saying formula, but it's kind of like a structure that we, like you know, like we've, we've, we've, you know chiseled this out in this kind of style really works, of how we go through our process. Have you come more to that and, if so, has that changed the sound of your records over over the three records that you put out?
Pale Blue Eyes:I definitely feel there's like a default process that I can go to, but there's like a writing everyday thing and then it's kind of like working out how, what, what would make that song the best song it could be whether it would be like band playing in room or it depends in the context of the song and like what, what suited to. But, um, I definitely feel like, um, one thing that we do is like take the pressure off now a little bit, because we uh, it will happen when it happens and a little natural break from writing over the last like couple of months and I'm definitely feeling like inspired to want to do it again.
Pale Blue Eyes:But I think it's just ways, even if it's not like you're re. You're not reinventing the wheel, but you're just finding like a unique way for yourself to come back into it. I think that's probably as exciting as like knowing my default method, because I could probably um, I could probably write another record like that again, but but I don't want to. So if I've got that in the back of my mind at least, even if it comes out like it, like I want to try something different every time, I at least do my bit.
colleyc:Sure and Matt, how do you push yourself to do that? Like, how do you, you know, because I mean, I wrote songs too in the past and you do get a kind of a structure or kind of a style, and I too in in the past and you do get a kind of a structure or kind of a style, and I remember when I'm like, okay, I'm doing this style too much, I want to try to and I would try weird things, you know, like just playing around with with you know, sound files or or outside soundscape stuff like that, just to kind of get inspired. How do you go about, like, you know how your other songs have sounded, how do you go about seeing if you can tweak them a little bit or approach them in a different way? Or what's your process with?
Pale Blue Eyes:that that kind of thinking, like what you're saying, is how I'd approach it.
Pale Blue Eyes:Like maybe found sound might even start, so it might start the song, but it might end up being like a standard pop structure.
Pale Blue Eyes:I think it's just like, not like trick, tricking your mind into doing something different, but just like at least if you, if you kind of approach like. So, for instance, I don't really play the piano very well, so my target will be to learn the piano and write a song on an organ piano, rather than just going to the guitar or starting with just the voice and like layering up vocals. And then I think the collaborative process is exciting as well, because I'll give it to loose and then it will end up being a different thing and then we'll bring it to the room and it will be a different thing again. So I think the bit that I enjoy the most is like if I write a core song, then dynamically and structurally it could change by the time. It's like performed together, because then it's different personalities as well, and I think this is why pb works, because there are really interesting dynamic personalities within the group right, right.
colleyc:and lucy, when do when do you know? Matt is on to a song like how do you, how do you receive it? And and know that, okay, this has legs to it. Like, what does it need to have in it that sparks? Yeah, this is a pale blue eyes song. Thanks, matt, let's play with it now.
Pale Blue Eyes:Yeah, let's go. I try really hard to just trust my gut with that.
Pale Blue Eyes:And I think through years and years and years of working together and years and years of listening to so much music. And I think that's the thing is you assimilate, don't you? Constantly? Every time you hear something that you go hang on. What is it about this track that I love?
Pale Blue Eyes:Each time it's like, as a musician, I think you're kind of filing everything and going I love that guitar tone on that Durruti column track or I love that ML book record and you're constantly filing those like tones and sounds.
Pale Blue Eyes:And then I think, and then you kind of pull all of that into what you're trying to do.
Pale Blue Eyes:And I think if I have that for me it's like if I listen to a demo Matt's done and I have that same reaction as I do to any track, then I kind of know that I like it and I'm onto something, even if it's just me that likes it.
Pale Blue Eyes:Right, I think you have to trust that mentality in a way of, of what something is drawing you to it. And then, especially if we bring it to aubrey and the same thing happens again, where and this time was particularly good for that I thought, on the latest record we all landed on the same ones as our favorites, which was a really interesting sign where we all met in this place musically, because Aubrey's got totally different taste to us as well. So it's quite interesting because me and Matt really bonded over music like very early on in our relationship. I remember seeing his he had like a wall in his bedroom of CDs and I just used to be like oh my God, broken social scene, sea power, slow down, and we kind of bonded over all of those same things that we had in common, whereas Aubrey comes from like a disco, soul, r&b, jazz background. So it's like really interesting when it all crosses over.
colleyc:Yeah, absolutely. I love that. It sounds too like your band is really you're in flow right now, like you all understand what each member brings and when you come together, it just, it's magical, you know, it just starts to happen, like understanding one another.
Pale Blue Eyes:It does feel like that and I think also, I think through again. As you get older and you have more experiences and stuff, I think you realise things that you don't take for granted and like we know that we're lucky to have met these people and we know that we're lucky that we all bring a different bit to it, and I think bands can kind of implode and go wrong when someone thinks that they're it. And I like the fact that everyone brings something different and no one's got the ego of being like. This is my thing, this is how I wrote it.
colleyc:This is how it gets played. Like, I totally hear you on that and I mean I've talked to many bands and that tends to be the contentious when one person is trying to be the band's me, you know, rather than a collective of different experiences coming together. Very interesting. This has been really fascinating, guys. And I have one last question to kind of wrap things up here how have you felt the reception has been of the latest release that you guys put out, new Place? How do you find the reaction has been with all that work and all of the? You know? I mean it's no small task to put a record out. You've done it three times. How have you found this one's been received?
Pale Blue Eyes:Like it's basically a privilege to be able to play music anyway. So the fact people can support us and it's well enough received that we could potentially make another record is basically like we're living the dream. So I can only say thanks to everyone that's come to our gigs and bought our records and that chats to us at the merch table afterwards, because it is like it's basically our social, social life as well, our job and we and if we weren't in a band, we'd be going to watch you know gigs. So yeah, we're really pleased and I we'd be going to watch you know gigs. So, yeah, we're really pleased and I think we've been as honest as we possibly can be on this record and we've put it out on our own label. So it's been like a bit more graft in terms of like getting that side of things done, but, yeah, feeling really pleased and like, yeah, the tour has been really fun.
colleyc:So yeah, and the rest of the 2025, 2025,. What could your fans, or future fans, what can they expect out of Peel Blue Eyes?
Pale Blue Eyes:So we've got a few more little releases coming out which will be announced soon, like a limited single and some stuff which I can't completely announce now until it goes out, but a few little bits and bobs. And then we're doing another European megatator opening for the midnight around some unbelievable venues around europe, which will be an amazing experience. So, yeah, we've got that. And then a few uk festivals which will be announced. So yeah, just um, leading up to that, busy you're getting busy, you're gonna get busy not crazy busy, it's a nice nice
Pale Blue Eyes:where we couldn't quite catch up with ourselves because we just felt like we were continuously in in our little bilingue, driving to gig after gig after gig, and I think we had to do that, we had to say yes to everything in tour loads and gig loads. But but this year feels a bit more of a I mean other than what Matt's labelled as the mega tour. In September, October, that is going to be a mega tour. That's like 20 dates. I think it's similar in scale to the slow dive tour.
Pale Blue Eyes:We're actually going out, I think, about a week or to do our own headline shows, and then we join up with the support leg in helsinki. So we, so we start in poland and work across from poland to helsinki, and what am I? 22 dates from there.
colleyc:So um, just think of all the great stories and and songs that yeah purple out of that. I mean, what an experience I. I, I totally see like I see you guys as as as having the, the, the moxie to get out there and do it and I really just sending all the best to you guys. Excellent record. Um, I, I wish I could see you guys on tour. Maybe eventually down the road you'll make your way over to North America.
Pale Blue Eyes:I'll be waiting.
colleyc:I'll be waiting, but an excellent record, just such a, from start to finish, just it flows so nicely and it's just, it's powerful, and I really really have been enjoying it. I thank you guys again, too, for joining me today. It's been really nice to chat with you guys. I love talking about your process and how songs come together and bands evolve, and, um, you've really, um, enlightened us on a lot of things about pale blue eyes, so thank you for that.
colleyc:Well, thanks for having us having us great time. All the best, good luck on your tours in 2025 and when your next next record comes out, we'll be sure to uh to have you back on.
Pale Blue Eyes:We'll talk about it well, thank you, thanks, very much thanks. Some kind of sign Words don't work here. The language marks the only to say Chris, I'm rooted to the spot An effect. It has brings out everything. I'm not the path. Your words are visible, are real. The past the present collide. The past the present collide. Can I let go? Can I let go? Can I let go? Past the present collide, past the present collide. Can I let go? Can I let go? Guitar solo. Thank you, it's the sound of the show.
Pale Blue Eyes:The past, the present, the life, the past, the present, the life Cannot let go. Cannot let go. The past, the present, the life, the past. Past the present can lie, past the present can lie. Can I let go? Can I let go? We'll be right back, thank you.
