Andy managed to put a few questions to Toronto-based elctro-princess Lights before her show in Brighton last week. Here’s what she had to say…
Let’s get some background on Lights. You’ve been making music since an early age – do you remember when you first started writing?
I grew up in a very music-centred family so it was around the house all the time. I used to live in the Philippines, I grew up there – it was a scary place in a lot of respects and I’d have a hard time falling asleep. My Dad would be downstairs playing his acoustic guitar and the sound would drift into my room and that’s how I’d fall asleep every night. If something has that much power to naturally make you feel that everything is going to be OK, you gravitate towards it. When I was eleven my Dad bought me a guitar and I started to play a few chords, at thirteen I bought this little 8-track. I think I’m fortunate enough to have started at an early age to get moderately good at what I do! I have way more to go and I have to get a lot better but I I’m still young so have a bit of time to work on it.
Growing up you moved around a lot from Canada the Philippines to Jamaica. How much did that affect your writing?
I wouldn’t say the music of those cultures inspired my music directly, but more the experiences I had travelling around and what I learned from them. Firstly there’s the fact that I grew up moving around a lot so it set me up for touring perfectly – not being able to maintain long distance relationships, living out of a suitcase and all those parts of the cause – I’ve gotten pretty good at it now!
Despite your electro-pop sound we understand you’re in your metal and hardcore as well. You’ve covered an Architects’ song for starters…
Oh man, I love the Architects and they’re local right?! I do like my metal. Initially I started listening to a lot of music my Dad listened to like The Beatles and Eric Clapton – all the good song-writers. That put a good foundation of song-writing into my head and taught me what a good melody was. After that I went in a lot of directions. I started to gravitate towards metal and punk – the first band I was ever in was a metal band – I played guitar. I was in a pop-punk covers band for a while – I went through an angsty period where I just wrote hate songs as well! I listened to a lot of different kinds of music when I was growing up and I think it all contributes to what I write now.
So can we expect a Lights-fronted hardcore band somewhere down the line?
Maybe! (laughs) Maybe a side-project or something – we could call it ‘Hating Life’. No, we’d call it ‘Awesome’.
Tell me how you came to adopt the name ‘Lights’. I understand it’s now your legal name as well…
It comes from my last name – Poxleitner. It became a nickname after a while – Poxleitner is a bit of a mouthful to say! When I made my Myspace page, that’s what I put up – it felt natural, it felt right. About a year later I made the legal change – It’s one of those things you do like getting a tattoo – it’s a permanent change that takes a bit of effort and a bit of pain, but once you get through it, it’s awesome!
(Lights’ manager gives us the last question signal)
OK Finally – Have you got a release date for your new album ‘The Listening’ in the UK? Details are very vague!
Not a release day yet, but it’s coming out in May – definitely May! I want it to be out right now, but I’m happy to come back in May so I will be back around then…probably! It’ll be like a year anniversary since I played the Great Escape down here in Brighton so I will have to come try and play here again!