Pillow Queens

By the close of the 2010s, Ireland's Pillow Queens were packing Dublin venues after refining their atmospheric yet forceful indie rock approach and introspective songwriting ahead of cutting their first full-length, the 2020 album In Waiting. Its successor, the more inward-facing Leave the Light On, appeared in 2022.

The quartet formed in Dublin in 2016, with singer/guitarist/bassists Pamela Connolly and Sarah Corcoran joined by lead guitarist Cathy McGuinness and drummer Rachel Lyons. Their short debut EP, Calm Girls, also from 2016, earned them a deal with Bristol-based Specialist Subject Records. Airplay for the 2018 single "Favorite" on BBC Radio 1 and Irish stations led to two successful U.K. tours, support slots with Idles, Pussy Riot, and Future Islands, and sold-out local dates. The track later appeared on their second EP, State of the State, released in June 2020. Three months after that, In Waiting arrived on Stargazer and Pillow Queens Records, produced by Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers, SOAK). The band made their U.S. television debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden in January 2021 and signed with Royal Mountain Records that September. Their second album, the McLaughlin-produced Leave the Light On, followed on the label in April 2022.