The Dark, Sapphic Love Story Behind Pale Waves' 'She's My Religion'
The Dark, Sapphic Love Story Behind Pale Waves' 'She's My Religion'
Pale Waves vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie talks to PRIDE about the making of their latest track.
"There's not a lot of videos that are for gay women and that represent the LGBTQ+ community," Heather Baron-Gracie, frontman for English pop-rock group Pale Waves, tells PRIDE. "For young girls especially, it's going to be a video that helps them a lot and be there for them."
She's reflecting on the just-released music video for Pale Waves' new song, "She's My Religion," a grungy embracing of the person you love, even the heavier, twisted bits.
"I believe that to love someone entirely is the purest love that you can achieve. It's loving someone for every bad day, every sort of mood they go through. I didn't just want to talk about the simple side of love or the easy side of love."
That brutal honesty is the point, flaying open the parts of a relationship not often talked about and loving them anyway. Singing about women loving women in such a candid way is important to the 25-year-old. "There's not a lot of songs that do it in an appealing way," Baron-Gracie reflects. "It's either experimental or playful. I just think it affects [gay women] and it knocks us back, especially when straight women do it."
The new music video marks "the first time you really see me intimate with someone," adding that "it's really personal and it's kinda scary." It's also the first time the band has used pronouns in their songs at all.
"It's a huge thing for me and it's a huge thing for Pale Waves."
"She's My Religion" is the second single off their upcoming sophomore album Who Am I?
"The album lyrically is a lot more unapologetic," Baron-Gracie says, describing it as "'90s, 2000s era, very alternative, Stripped back, raw and vulnerable." And she's more than ready to share this vulnerable side of herself now. "I've had that time period to really develop as a person and to find what I truly want to speak about, what I want to represent and stand for."
Since the release of Pale Waves' debut album, Baron-Gracie says she's spent time "becoming happier with who I am and embracing that a lot more. I wasn't ready to put a message out into the world that I wasn't fully comfortable with. I needed that time and process to sort of find myself and fall in love with parts I previously didn't like."
"Now I'm really proud about it and I want to be vocal about it to the world."
Watch the new music video for "She's My Religion" below.
