Formation Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown were both from
Pitshanger Village in
North Ealing, and first played together in a school show at North Ealing Primary School. Harry McVeigh (from
Shepherd's Bush) joined them two years later, and they began playing under the name Fear of Flying at the age of fifteen. Cave described the band as a "weekend project", and one of many groups which they were involved in while at school. Fear of Flying completed one UK tour as a support act, They released two double A-side vinyl singles on independent record label Young and Lost Club, "Routemaster/Round Three" on 7 August 2006 and "Three's a Crowd/Forget-Me-Nots" on 6 December 2006. Both vinyls were produced by former
Blur and
The Smiths collaborator,
Stephen Street, whom they met through a friend at school. They went on to play the inaugural
Underage Festival in
Victoria Park, England on 10 August 2007. Two weeks prior to the group starting university, they decided that they would take a second gap year, and perform new material which the band felt did not suit their current outfit. Cave stated that "I felt as though I couldn't write about anything personal, so I would make up semi-comical stories that weren't really important to anyone, not even me." with a
MySpace bulletin stating "Fear of Flying is DEAD ... White Lies is alive!", and a new name that reflected their maturity. Cave stated that the band deleted their MySpace account "without any token farewell gigs". McVeigh said that the current musical climate had an effect on the split, stating that "Maybe a few years ago, we would have signed a deal and had a chance to make three albums [...]. In the current climate...we’d have been dropped".
Early releases Playing under the new name, White Lies played their first gig at
Hoxton Square's Bar & Kitchen on 28 February 2008, supporting
Team Waterpolo and
Semifinalists. The band admitted rehearsing for two months for the gig, Receiving airtime on BBC Radio 1,
Zane Lowe named "
Death" his "Hottest Record in the World" on 5 February 2008, despite the song having never been officially released. Radio 1 would go on to feature the band at Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2008, where they headlined the
BBC Introducing stage. On 10 March 2008, White Lies were announced as one of four bands taking part in the first ever
NME New Noise Tour (now the
NME Radar Tour). The tour visited eleven cities in the UK throughout May 2008. The band were first featured in the magazine in the issue dated 22 March 2008, appearing in the "Everyone's Talking About..." section of their
Radar article. Live Editor Hamish MacBain described tracks "Death" and "XX" (later titled "
Unfinished Business") - the only two songs available on the band's MySpace - as "...not too afraid of a little sincerity, not afraid of a little scale". The band released their debut single one month later, a 7-inch vinyl of "Unfinished Business" on 28 April 2008. The limited pressing was released by Chess Club Records, an independent record label co-founded by drummer Jack Brown. To mark the release, the band supported
dEUS in London's
Scala on 16 April 2008, as well as a performance at the 2008
Camden Crawl.
To Lose My Life... (2009) They made their television debut on
Later... with Jools Holland on 30 May 2008, playing "Unfinished Business" and "Death". This marked their final public performance prior to recording their debut album, The album was provisionally titled
To Lose My Life or Lose My Love, with a scheduled release date was set for January 2009. The tour marked the release of "Death" on 22 September 2008, with a further six dates played in the United States in October 2008. The tour included an appearance at the
CMJ Music Festival in New York on 23–24 October, alongside
Jay Reatard,
Amazing Baby and Violens. Following this, the band returned to support
Glasvegas on their fifteen date UK tour in November and December 2008.
NME.com exclusively announced their debut album would be released on 12 January 2009, with shortened title
To Lose My Life.... The band preceded the album with the single release of "To Lose My Life" one week earlier. On 11 November 2008,
NME announced that White Lies would be taking part in the 2009 ShockWaves NME Awards Tour, alongside
Friendly Fires,
Florence and the Machine and headliners Glasvegas. The annual tour, taking place in early 2009, visited seventeen cities in the UK. On 7 February 2009, it was announced in
NME that the entire tour had sold out. On the Manchester tour date, the band dueted with Florence Welch to play "Unfinished Business". The band would later also be announced for
Xfm's Winter Wonderland festival in London, as well as one of four bands playing
NME's Big Gig on 26 February 2009. At the beginning of 2009, the band were featured in numerous polls as "ones to watch" for the coming year. The BBC placed them second in their
Sound of 2009 poll, as well as coming third in the 2009
BRITs Critics' Choice Award, behind Florence and the Machine and
Little Boots. To mark the album release, "From the Stars" appeared as
iTunes's "Single of the Week" on 30 December 2008, two weeks prior to the album's release. In addition, the band played a
Live Lounge session for
Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 show on 14 January 2009, playing "To Lose My Life" as well as a cover of
Kanye West's "
Love Lockdown". The cover was included as a b-side to "
Farewell to the Fairground", released on 23 March 2009. Upon the release of
To Lose My Life, White Lies became the first British act in 2009 to achieve a number one album, and the first album to debut at number one. After charting high in the midweek sales, the album beat off competition from
Lady Gaga,
The Script and
Kings of Leon. In support of the release, the band played on
Channel 4's
Shockwaves Album Chart Show, Last Call with Carson Daly and the
Late Show with David Letterman, the latter being the band's first performance on US television. the band embarked on their own headline world tour, playing sold out dates across Europe, North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. While in North America, the band co-headlined the
NME Presents tour with
Friendly Fires. The bands were supported by
The Soft Pack, with White Lies headlining seven of the fifteen dates, including their first appearance at the
South by Southwest festival. During the tour, the band were forced to play a shortened, six song set at New York's
Bowery Ballroom, due to McVeigh having throat problems. During summer 2009, the band played a number of major UK and overseas music festivals, including
Rock Werchter,
Benicàssim,
Coachella,
Isle of Wight,
Lollapalooza,
Oxegen, Radio 1's Big Weekend, Reading and Leeds,
Roskilde and
T in the Park. "
Death" was re-released on 29 June 2009. To mark the release, live performances from a selection of the band's festival appearances were broadcast online through the band's web player, titled "The Summer of Death". In September 2009, White Lies performed as a support act for
Coldplay, including a date at Wembley Stadium, where the band performed in front of a half full stadium. The band played as the first support act and was greatly received.
Ritual (2011) In an interview with the BBC's
Newsbeat programme, McVeigh stated that due to the nature of the band's songwriting techniques clashing with their difficult touring schedules, there will be no new White Lies material until 2010. Despite this, McVeigh has mentioned that the ambitious recording of "Nothing to Give" and "The Price of Love" (from
To Lose My Life...) act as a taster of the different sound to come on their sophomore release. the track had previously only been released on the (now deleted) vinyl release of "To Lose My Life". During the same month, the band supported Kings of Leon's tour of the United States, and
Coldplay's tour of the United Kingdom. As well as this, the band played their own headline tour across Europe during October—November 2009, including some of their biggest shows to date in the UK. A number of the tour dates were later cancelled, due to McVeigh falling ill during their concert in
Munich, Germany. Having fully recovered in time for the beginning of their UK dates, the tour continued as normal, with cancelled dates being rescheduled for February 2010. On 13 February 2010, White Lies became the first high-profile artist to perform at the FAC251
music venue in
Manchester. The band played there again on 14 February, with tickets for the second show made available exclusively through the band's website. The performances were the band's only scheduled headline performances of 2010. Both concerts sold out in a matter of minutes, with 38,000 people applying for the 400 tickets available. In August 2010 the band played the
4Music stage at
V Festival; also featuring the likes of
Paloma Faith,
The Temper Trap and
David Guetta, the stage was lauded as a major success for the festival. In November 2010, White Lies confirmed that their second album,
Ritual, had been completed and would be released on 17 January 2011. Produced by
Alan Moulder, the album's first single "
Bigger than Us" was released on 3 January 2011. An eleven date tour of the United Kingdom was also announced for February 2011.
Big TV (2013) In an interview with NME in January 2013, bassist Charles Cave revealed that the band's third album was intended to be released in late summer, with one of the tracks promoting the record being called "Getting Even". On 4 June 2013 it was revealed that the album, which was produced by
Ed Buller and recorded earlier that year, would be titled
Big TV. Also, the track list for the album was published and "Getting Even" was released as a free download. The first official single from the album, "
There Goes Our Love Again", was released on 5 August 2013, with the album being released in the UK and Europe a week later, on 12 August 2013 through
Fiction Records. It was released on 20 August 2013 in the US (through
Harvest Records), and in Canada (
Universal Music). On 23/25 July 2013, White Lies played 3 intimate shows at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen in London, celebrating the 5 year anniversary of the band's first ever gig at the same venue. They played tracks from
Big TV and some of their earlier songs in front of 300 fans each night. During their Summer/Fall 2013 tour, the band was scheduled to play more than thirty concerts in Europe and North America. In August 2013 they made their Main Stage debut at
Reading and Leeds Festivals. On 6 November 2013, the band released a limited edition EP to celebrate their tour, called
Small TV. The five-track EP, released on Fiction Records, was limited to 1000 copies and featured covers of tracks by
Lana Del Rey and
Prince in addition to new versions of their own music.
Friends (2016) The band released its fourth album,
Friends, on 7 October 2016, after first being reported on in 2015. In December 2015 the band signed to
Infectious Music.
Five (2019) On 17 September 2018, the band announced that their new album
Five would be released on 1 February 2019 by
PIAS Recordings. "
Time to Give", the first single from the album, was released on the same day.
As I Try Not to Fall Apart (2022) On 27 September 2021, the band announced that their sixth album
As I Try Not to Fall Apart would be released on 18 February 2022 by
PIAS Recordings.
Night Light (2025) On 16 July 2025, the band announced that their seventh studio album,
Night Light, is scheduled for release on 7 November 2025 via
PIAS Recordings. The announcement was accompanied by the release of the lead single "In the Middle". ==Musical style and influences==