White Lies

From Fear of Flying

Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown, from North Ealing, first played together at a school show at North Ealing Primary School, and Harry McVeigh, from Shepherd's Bush, joined about two years later. As Fear of Flying, formed when they were fifteen, they put out two double A-side singles produced by Stephen Street, "Routemaster/Round Three" (August 7, 2006) and "Three's a Crowd/Forget-Me-Nots" (December 6, 2006); Cave later called it a weekend project. They disbanded in October 2007 and formed White Lies that month with a darker sound. The first gig was at the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on February 28, 2008, and they signed to Fiction days later. The debut single, "Unfinished Business", came out on Chess Club Records on April 28, 2008.

Second in the BBC's Sound of 2009 poll, they released To Lose My Life... in January 2009 and it went to number one in the UK. They played Later... with Jools Holland, appeared on Late Show with David Letterman, toured North America with Friendly Fires including SXSW, played Glastonbury, Coachella and Lollapalooza, and supported Coldplay in September 2009 including at Wembley Stadium. MOJO gave them its Breakthrough award and Q named them best new band. They supported Muse on European stadium dates in 2010.

Ritual (January 17, 2011) was produced by Alan Moulder and Big TV (August 2013) by Ed Buller. Friends (October 7, 2016) came out on Infectious, then Five (February 1, 2019), As I Try Not to Fall Apart (February 18, 2022) and Night Light (November 7, 2025) on PIAS. The line-up has not changed since 2007, with Tommy Bowen touring on keyboards since 2008. Influences cited include Talking Heads, the Cars and the Secret Machines, and critics compared McVeigh's voice to Ian Curtis; McVeigh said the band is more euphoric and uplifting than the Joy Division comparisons suggest.