Pale Lights

Brooklyn indie pop band the Pale Lights have an impressive pedigree. Their vocalist/songwriter, Phil Sutton, spent time playing drums with Comet Gain in their early days, moved to Velocette with most of the band, then started the band Kicker, who released some fine records for the Track & Field Organisation in the early 2000s. More recently, he was in the band Soft City and played drums on Cinema Red and Blue's self-titled 2010 record. In the Pale Lights, he's joined on guitar by fellow Cinema Red and Blue member and Crystal Stilts bassist Andy Adler and Knight School's Lisa Goldstein on drums. The group is rounded out by bassist Maria Pace and plays classic indie pop, informed by bands like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and the Bluebells. Their debut EP was recorded by Ladybug Transistor's Gary Olson at his Marlborough Farms studio and featured keyboardist Brooke Watkins helping out on a batch of tender and melodic pop songs. The band also recorded their first full-length with Olson, and had some help from another member of Cinema Red and Blue, Kyle Forester, on keyboards as well as Suzanne Nienaber, formerly of Great Lakes, on vocals. Before There Were Pictures was released in early 2014, and was followed later in the year by a single, "Fourteen Stories Tall"/"Twisting the Knife." The Pale Lights continued playing the occasional show, notably 2015's NYC Popfest, then reconvened at Olson's studio to record a four-song EP, 2016's Séance for Something, where they were joined by Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour, who added some tambourine to one track. The band, of which Nienaber was now an official member, headed to England in mid-2017 to play a show with old mates Comet Gain, then continued on to Norway, where the Pale Lights appeared at the Indiefjord festival. Soon after, their next record came out. The Jean, Bring the Flowers EP, which was again recorded by Olson and featured the same cast of characters, was issued in November of 2017. The band's second album, The Stars Seemed Brighter, was released a month later.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo