About this artist
Britain’s Pale Blue Eyes create a beguiling mixture of rhythmic post-punk and sophisticated pop with touchpoints that range from Krautrock to melodic synth pop. From their home base in Totnes, Devon, the trio employed a D.I.Y. approach, collaborating widely within their local creative community and building their own analog studio to record their 2022 debut album, Souvenirs. The dynamic and inward-looking This House appeared the following year.
Led by husband-and-wife team Matt and Lucy Board, the band also includes bassist Aubrey Simpson, whom the couple met through Sea Change, a small but highly regarded annual music festival in their hometown. Recording out of an analog home-built studio in Matt’s mother’s house, the trio completed their debut single in 2020, then engaged the town’s bustling creative business scene to help put it out. As a result, Pale Blue Eyes’ 2021 7″ single “Motionless/Chelsea” was sponsored by a local independent brewery (which also brewed a Pale Blue Ale), a company that helps build mushroom farms, and a forward-thinking funeral home with ties to the KLF. This type of collaboration and community engagement is part of what makes the band’s approach unique.
The group had already completed their first album and begun working on another by the time they joined Full Time Hobby’s roster in 2022. Combining motorik grooves and big choruses, Pale Blue Eyes’ full-length debut, Souvenirs, was released in September of that year. The band tackled themes of loss and closure on 2023′s life-affirming This House, which paired vulnerable lyrics with upbeat melodies and hip-shaking beats. ~ Timothy Monger