Heather Baron-Gracie

Heather Baron-Gracie grew up in Preston, Lancashire.[1] Around the time she started secondary school, Baron-Gracie experienced a debilitating back injury: "I didn’t have an accident. It just happened," she told the Evening Standard in 2018.[2] "I was complaining for ages that my back was in pain but people just thought I was just growing. I was doing sports with a broken back for ages."[2] The injury – which was severe enough that Baron-Gracie required spinal fusion surgery – very nearly paralysed her, and it forced her to miss an entire year of school.[2] It was during her recovery that Baron-Gracie got deeply invested in music: "I was always into [music] ... But when that happened, I was staying in my house and wrote music loads. And ever since that, this is what I want to do."[3]

Baron-Gracie attended the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), where she met and befriended future Pale Waves drummer, Ciara Doran.[4]

Originally called "Creek", Pale Waves was founded by Baron-Gracie and Doran in 2014.[5] The band later expanded to include Hugo Silvani and Charlie Wood.[6] Pale Waves is signed to the independent label Dirty Hit and has released an EP, All the Things I Never Said (2018), and two albums, My Mind Makes Noises (2018) and Who Am I? (2021).[7]

Much of the music Heather Baron-Gracie has written has been inspired by musicians from the 1980s, including The Cure, Prince, and Madonna.[8] When discussing Pale Waves's second album Who Am I?, Baron-Gracie further cited Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Courtney Love, Liz Phair, Michelle Branch, The Chicks, and Kacey Musgraves as inspiration.[9][10] In terms of specific albums, Baron-Gracie has also cited The Cure's Disintegration (1989), Lucy Rose's Like I Used To (2012), and Daughter's If You Leave (2013) as inspiring both her and Pale Waves's musical style.[11]

Baron-Gracie is known for playing Vox Phantoms. She received her first of these guitars as a birthday present from Matty Healy of the 1975. However, due to the guitar's size, Baron-Gracie struggled to play it during live shows, telling Magnet magazine: "It sounded amazing, it played amazing, but it was a 12-string, and it was difficult to play live. I’m a tiny person and this guitar was just as big as me. It kept falling down." Jaime Oborne, the head of the record label Dirty Hit, subsequently reached out to a guitar enthusiast that he knew. This individual built Baron-Gracie a custom black Vox Phantom six-string that she could use during live performances.[12]

Baron-Gracie is known for her visual aesthetic and fashion sense, which has often been described as "gothic".[13][14][15][16] In an interview with the Evening Standard, Baron-Gracie explained: "I've always been into dark fashion, the gothic side of things and vampires ... I like funeral clothes more than summer clothes. It comes from feeling like an outsider."[17] The "juxtaposition between Pale Waves’ pop-friendly sound and Baron-Gracie's goth image" has engendered critical discussion, with Owen Tanner of the Milwaukee Record describing her look as "Taylor Swift going as Beetlejuice for Halloween."[18] Likewise, Jessie Atkinson of Gigwise called Baron-Gracie's look "Avril Lavigne Gothicism".[19] Baron-Gracie's aesthetic has often led many to assume she performs in a metal, metalcore, or screamo band; the reveal that the artist writes pop music has occasionally resulted in accusations of "goth-baiting, but Baron-Gracie rebuffs these criticisms, emphasizing in an interview with Magnet, "If I want to look like a moody vampire, let me!"[20] In an interview with DIY magazine, Baron-Gracie noted that some push-back to her style has come from mothers of Pale Waves fans: "I've seen young girls on the internet show their mums pictures of me, and their mums have told them: 'Never do you makeup like that'!"[21]