A CONVERSATION WITH... THE PALE WHITE
Two brothers and a chef walk into a green room… But all three spent years cooking up their sophomore album, The Big Sad.
Picture by Vedant Bodas
“It makes you think, what would bands like Nirvana do if they got past their infancy? If they got past the stage of not experimenting with new sounds? It does make you wonder… It’s a shame that not many bands get to make it to that point. But we did.”
Now no one’s shaming the bands that didn’t get a chance to get to their second album or next tour, but what The Pale White’s Adam Hope (lead vocals/guitar) is reflecting on is how grateful they all are to make it to this point and how they want to keep going.
Even though they’ve written a third album already, Adam and his brother Jack (drummer) took some time before their latest London headline to talk about their second album: The Big Sad.
More on where the third member, Dave Barrow (bass), was later.
“I know pandemic is almost like a swear word now, and it’s like no one talks about the pandemic anymore. But we did release our first album during the pandemic; that’s the reality. That whole period pulled you back a bit,” Adam said.
“It made bands realise either they really did or didn’t want to do it anymore. All you can do is press reset and still believe in yourself and crack on. I’m really proud that we’ve gotten to this stage, you know?” Jack added.
This is not a band that will give up easily, and the British music scene is all the better for that. Newcastle has heard of them since 2016, and the passing years have been kind to the band as their fame and talent have only grown. Even with the departure of one of the original members, Tom Booth, The Pale White has ridden the waves of uncertainty to craft another album that everyone needs to hear right now.
The Big Sad is a beacon of hope and light for the future. While their debut album, Infinite Pleasure, was more like Queens of the Stone Age, this latest record goes beyond what’s expected of ‘rock’ and turns towards sounds of melancholy, darkness, and happiness. It bottled up the feeling of looking back on something that’s a happy memory, and feeling sad.
As typical with releases, there’s been time between writing the album and it taking over people’s playlists this month. But the time away from writing it has given the songs a new meaning to the band.
“You can look back at a song and realise that it’s only beginning to make sense now. Now we get to hear what people have to say about the album. It’s nice because we all have our own versions of events when it comes to the meaning of the songs. I like when people have their own connections to the songs or have a completely different experience with the lyrics,” Adam said. “When we see people connecting to our music live, it’s incredible. If it wasn’t for music, I would have so much to prove with no vehicle to do it.”
The big happy accident of The Big Sad was that the album was meant to drop before the tour. But because Adam lost his voice during the recording sessions, they had to push back the album. The tour was already locked in, so every night of tour was an exclusive preview of the album for fans.
The band acknowledges how hard extra costs like gig tickets can be to justify in today’s cost of living crisis, so they shared some of their favourite songs off The Big Sad to let everyone else into the exclusivity.
Solidarity.
Songs like ‘Final Exit’, ‘Lost In The Moment’, and ‘The Big Sad’ all get to show off unique points in the album’s journey, but are also songs that the band feels like they got to experiment the most with their influences and sound. “As a band, we have many faces and sides. I’m proud to be that sort of band. Over the years, we were trying to check certain boxes of what a rock band should sound like. We still take from those times, though. We want to show our influences and go beyond what a lot of other bands are doing at the moment,” Adam said.
‘Final Exit’ is one the brothers (and band) are very proud of, with Jack calling it Adam’s best work off the album. “Think about hypothetically losing everything you love more than life itself. How you might feel about life then, would it be worth it? It’s hypothetical, so it’s nice to appreciate what you have when you have it,” Adam said.
While there’s big love for The Big Sad, Adam and Jack hold their first releases in such high regard on and off stage, too. Like ‘Medicine’ and ‘Infinite Pleasure’, which show where the journey started. “When bands are like ‘I want to live in a big house, drive a fast car, shit like that’ as their end goals, I just think we have to make our own sort of ambitions. Things that go beyond that. That was the idea of ‘Infinite Pleasure’ after all, where the list of what’s next can go on forever. If you set your bar all the way up there, you’re never gonna be happy. You've got to have little victories,” Adam continued.
“We’re different people than when we first started. But the long road from then to now makes what we have now just taste a little bit sweeter. You know, we don’t have a millionaire behind us, the major label, anything like that. We’re just a working-class band; everything that we’ve ever done has been worked for. That’s something to be proud of,” Adam said.
Picture by Vedant Bodas
Picture by Vedant Bodas
Funnily enough, where they started didn’t really start with the name. It started with a song. The Pale White comes from the lights that people claim to see before they die. Potentially gruesome, but it actually ties back to the band’s roots, as Adam explained. “At the time of coming up with the band name, we had a song called ‘Pale’ which has the chorus that goes ‘Tell me when the sun goes in’ and that’s really the main reason. It all made sense. I found it really intriguing, because no one can confirm what really happens after we die.”
Heavy lyrics, heavy meaning behind the band, but these are also three friends (and two brothers) who have nothing but the sweetest things to say about each other.
“This is the perfect opportunity to talk shit about Dave because he’s not here,” Adam quipped. “But, no, Dave should be a comedian. He’s the funniest guy you’ve ever met. It’s a shame he’s not here right now. Sometimes he can be his own worst enemy, like as soon as you acknowledge that he’s funny, he shuts down.”
“At the same time, he’s probably the best bassist I’ve ever watched or played with, beyond our dad. He’s an all-rounder, really just amazing at everything he does,” Jack added.
“The reason why he’s not here is because Dave’s doing his pizza review series. He’s an incredible pizza chef, and he’s travelled the world to try different pizzas. He went to Connecticut, New Haven, which apparently has the best pizza in the world. But that’s why the reviews are harsh: he knows what he’s talking about. He’s not trying to shut down any businesses!” Adam said.
When the brothers have a chance to talk about each other, the truth comes out. “Jack is uncontrollable, in a good way. It really comes across when he’s on the kit. Unpredictable’s the better word,” Adam smiled.
“I’d describe you as clever, really clever. He’s controlling in a nice way, and it reminds me of when we were younger and you could see videos of us jamming and arguing. I’m like a fetus on the floor, and he’s saying, ‘let’s do it again. ’ Micromanaging when he was 7. It’s better now,” Jack joked.
Dave might be the comedian of the band, but the Hope brothers have their own comedy skills down pat. So to honour that, here’s a joke that could be up to Dave’s standards.
Two brothers and a chef walk into a green room…
Alright, there’s no punchline, but there’s a damn good bass line.