Pale Seas

Originally a bedroom-based dream pop project from Southampton, U.K. songwriter Jacob Scott that began under the name Netherlands, the endeavor had assumed the Pale Seas moniker by early 2012 and promptly grew into a full band with Graham Poole handling guitar and Matthew Bishop on bass. Observers of those initial performances and critics of the debut single, March 2012’s “Something or Nothing,” detected traces of Elliott Smith alongside Beach House, noting how Scott’s songwriting at the time merged introspective melancholy with an ear for accessible melodies. The same release aligned with the group’s inaugural national headline tour, after which they opened for Stornoway, the War on Drugs, and Beach Fossils.

Ahead of September 2012’s double A-side “My Own Mind/Bodies,” they brought in Bees linchpin Paul Butler, who offered studio time at his Isle of Wight facility. Drummer William Hilliard joined shortly afterward, and the expanded lineup prepared the 2014 EP Places to Haunt.