| Interview: exclusive 'SIBERIA' one-on-one with LIGHTS! |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | |||
| Saturday, 26 November 2011 15:14 | |||
Canadian synth-pop artist LIGHTS gave Coup De Main a call from her home in Toronto recently, while she was powering up for the release of her new album 'SIBERIA'... CDM: Your new album 'Siberia' will be your first official release in New Zealand, am I right in assuming that's pretty exciting for you? LIGHTS: That's insanely exciting! I feel like it's been years in the making and I'm always like: "When am I going to be in Australia and New Zealand, when are we coming? When are we going to be over?" So finally [the album] it gets to come down to you, it's really like a dream come true for me. CDM: Can we hope that one day you'll maybe visit us? LIGHTS: Yes! You know what? I've heard rumours that I'm coming over next year... and I'm hoping that they're true! I'm always trying to get over there, so I'm hoping that it'll be 2012. I'm so ready! I'll be over there soon!!  CDM: Congrats on the new album by the way, every time I listen to it I love it more and more... LIGHTS: No way! Thank you so much - it's kind of bizarre, it's this weird grower, it's really developed with time. CDM: How does the new album differ from your debut? LIGHTS: They actually have some major differences, one of them being was that I did make things a little heavier this time around. I've always gravitated naturally towards a little bit of a heavier thing, having been in punk bands and metal bands before I ever got into pop. I was also getting really influenced by some darker, heavier electro stuff, like Crystal Castles. And I was listening to some dub-step elements, so I thought this was going to be the natural progression, taking my soft melodies and my soft voice and marrying it with something a little heavier. So I brought in Holy Fuck and we wrote a couple of songs together and Shad was rapping on it. It's totally a step in a darker direction, but there's still these pop songs underneath it all, which made me feel okay about going a little darker - and ironically, the first record was a sadder record. It's ended up sounding happier, whilst this one is a little darker, it's actually a really happy record. CDM: How did the collaboration with Holy Fuck come about? LIGHTS: We were actually playing at Reeding and Leeds [Festivals] in the UK last Summer and we were all on the same stage as them. I knew they were an electronic band, I had heard of them and [then] I checked them out and they were awesome - kind of like this glitchy live electro stuff, which seemed like the opposite of electro, it was all live! It was cool, but it wasn't like [I was thinking] at that point: "Oh yeah, I'm going to make a record with them." And after me telling my manager - who I've been working with for almost ten years now - that I really wanted to go a little darker with the new record, he was like: "Why not try something with Holy Fuck?" And I thought: "Alright, let's do it." I had no idea how it was going to work out, but it was exactly what needed to happen at some point. It's so funny how what you least expect to be perfect, kind of works out. CDM: 'Day One' is a really fitting outro to the album… LIGHTS: Thank you so much! Yeah that was kind of bizarre, because I didn't have to include it on the record because the record was already pretty long. It was actually the last nine minutes of my first jam session with Holy Fuck, so it's completely live, exactly as you're hearing it. We just recorded it live off the floor - which is kind of like how I was saying before, the opposite of the way which music is normally created, which is usually very structured and midi - but this is just all live and trashy .WAV files. When I listened to the track the next day and picked out some parts for another song - and at this point it was Winter in Toronto - we looked at each other and it was like: "Wow, this is cool, I'd like this song on the record." And the .WAV file was just named 'Day One', because that was our first day working together - and that's how it ended up being called 'Day One'. CDM: What was going through your mind when you wrote 'Where The Fence Is Low'? LIGHTS: 'Where The Fence Is Low' is interesting because I felt like I was cheating when I was writing it, because it's completely about a dream. I had this recurring dream during the process of making the record - I was on this cliff and basically exactly what I'm saying in the verses is what I see in the dream, and I kept having this dream over and over again, so I thought this was really cool and scary. It was a really scary dream but it was strangely safe. So I ended up writing about this dream scenario and then when the record was done - almost pretty much when the song was done - I ended up not having the dream again. It must have been because of the record process, it was scary all this new territory, but I felt safe like it what I was meant to do. So ironically this dream is about the process of making my record and I wrote this song about this dream that was like this weird inception-album-dream-thing, that ended up becoming one of my favourite songs on my record. CDM: In 'Everybody Breaks A Glass' you sing: "However much you've got on your plate / you're as good as you reciprocate." Is that sort of like your life-philosophy? LIGHTS: I always insert these lyrics that kind of drop down on me, these little tidbits of wisdom and I actually don't know where they come from, but they fall into places of song and I look back on them and am like: "Wow, I could really learn from this." My lyrics really come from somewhere else, I'm telling you, but that lyric really fell into place. "However much you've got on your plate / you're as good as you reciprocate..." - like whatever you put in, you're going to get out of it, regardless of what your situation is, that's just how it goes and that's sort of what the song catches on. We're all in different scenarios, we all make mistakes, we all break stuff, but we're not perfect, we couldn't [be] - it doesn't matter what you build.  CDM: What are your favourite lyrics on the new album? LIGHTS: It's hard to say, everything really resonates, everything has come from the heart. Every single lyric I wrote myself, sitting alone in a hotel room, or something. There's a couple, one of them is: "And wipe the mark of sadness from my face / show me that your love will never change." That's from 'Cactus In The Valley'. And another one is from 'Fourth Dimension' and it's: "Bottle rockets and time bombs and warheads / we could go back, or keep on, or be led." And it's just referring to all these things out from my past. "Bottle rockets and time bombs and warheads" - warheads were like these really sour candies that I used to get when I was a little kid and would kill all my taste-buds, and bottle rockets which we made when we were kids, so it's like this nostalgic line that I hold close to me and treasure. CDM: What's the story behind 'Timing Is Everything'? LIGHTS: 'Timing Is Everything' is actually about a person I met, who means a lot to me in my life and has actually inspired a lot of the songs. It's funny how you can look back in life and there are all these 'if's' - if this hadn't happened would I have been here? If I hadn't done this would I have ended up talking to you? It's funny how life is seriously just a bunch of those moments, a bunch of these 'if's' and all of these little 'would's', leading you to a place that we're supposed to be - and it really reminds that timing truly is everything. And that song is just about that, those two different paths that were walking and somehow we ended up in the same place in the same time, literally. CDM: Congratulations on your recent engagement! LIGHTS: Thank you! <laughs> CDM: How did Beau [Bokan of Blessthefall] propose? LIGHTS: He had a fortune cookie made which was really nerdy! CDM: What did you enjoy most about recording guest-vocals for both Bring Me The Horizon and Owl City's latest albums? LIGHTS: It's just cool to do something different and branch out and dabble in different genres. Like with Bring Me The Horizon, especially working with friends, that's maybe the most fun part about it is being able to help friends out and vice versa. Sitting in a studio with Oli [Sykes], or going back and forth with Adam [Young] on his tracks, it's so much more fun than something really structured and put together. If I hadn't known them I maybe wouldn't have done it, but because they are my friends it's so fun and becomes so much more successful, I think. CDM: Having signed at sixteen-years-old to a publishing deal, has that affected your songwriting approach or style of songwriting? LIGHTS: Absolutely! I've been writing forever and kind of just picking up on what I thought the elements of a good pop-song were - this is before I had the publishing deal - the pop-chorus, the rise, the catchy melody, the pre-chorus, all these things, so I had the basic structure to a good song mapped out in my head but it lacked a bit of direction. That's where it's been really important for me to collaborate and co-write with other people and just learn, to let your ideas be better. So I got signed with the songwriting deal when I was sixteen and they were really great - my publishers, who to this day are still my publishers and are like my musical family, my second family - they took me in and taught me what a good song is. They showed me good songs through history and why they are good songs, the imagery, and what you learn from them and what you take away. There were never moments where they would pull a song that was about clubbing or drinking, it was always a bit more meaningful and I always knew that growing up, but they basically showed me the power of good song-writing and just made me that much better and start to exercise the co-writing muscle, which is really hard to do when you've been writing on your own for years. So that's where I first started to put that into place, and then on this new record we brought in collaboration like never before, so it's a muscle that you've just got to work and work towards.  CDM: Do you still play your keytar? LIGHTS: I do, I do! It's great for just being able to move out from behind your keyboard where you're kind of stationed - and be able to walk around a little bit and play. CDM: In your opinion, do you think there has ever been a film that has done a comic book justice? LIGHTS: Let me think... I've never really gotten into the 'Batman' comics, so I'm not one to say, but I loved the original 'Batman' movies - I thought they were incredible and the new ones are amazing as well, those were done really well. I liked the 'Watchmen' [movie], I thought that was done really well [and] it'll be interesting to see some of the new ones that are coming out. Actually, one really great interpretation of a graphic novel series done well is 'The Walking Dead' series, I thought that was done phenomenally and I can't wait for the new season. CDM: If you could be a Sailor Scout, which one would you choose to be? LIGHTS: You know what, I don't know! It's ironic because I never actually watched the show a ton, but I loved and enjoyed the artwork for it. I would just sit there and watch the artwork, especially the intro scenes, and it was so artistically cool. And the animation! I'm such a fan of anime and manga to this day, but I never really like got to know all the characters and everything, so I don't think I'd be able to pick one. It was huge, I was living in the Philippines as a kid and everyone was into 'Sailor Moon'. It was crazy, there was paraphernalia everywhere - so I was just inundated with this really beautiful girl. CDM: What are your favourite games currently? LIGHTS: 'World Of Warcraft' is a top one for sure, I definitely play that one a lot. I'm a big fan of 'Fable' - I've been playing Fable I, II and III. Another good one is called 'Order & Chaos' - like a 'World Of Warcraft' rip-off for iPad, but it's more mobile - that one's really fun. I haven't included any RPG's, so.... 'Final Fantasy XIII' was a really great RPG. Then just in terms of combat, I really like 'Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe'. And maybe 'Mario Kart'. CDM: And what are your five favourite things in the whole wide world? LIGHTS: Oh, that's a vast question! It does change all the time, but I'll probably have to say... cats, the Internet, candy, keyboards and hairspray. CDM: Lastly, something that your fans really want to know is... how do you get your hair so amazing? LIGHTS: <laughs> Well, thank you! It's been a work in progress over the years. I never had good hair growing up - just had the worst nothing hair - and until I started being rough with it, even 'til this day I'm actually pretty rough with it, and ever since I've been like that it's been pretty darn good to me. My hair's actually really thin, but I just throw some hairspray into it and make sure it's been a couple days dirty, and then it goes the direction that you want it, literally!  |
