Lights and Her Journey to Unexpected Pop Stardom
Lights – (R) by Lindsey Blane 2022 (L) by Matt Barnes 2022
Somewhere in an Oregon Walmart parking lot sits a woman on a bus. Exhausted, but content, she has no idea where she is or even what city she’ll be in next. What she does know is she loves why she’s on that bus in that parking lot.
In good spirits, Lights is in the thick of yet another tour after over a decade of writing, producing, and performing music - music that’s evolved and matured as she has. Her newest project, PEP, is the culmination of all the work that came before it, an experiment with self-talk and self-discovery. She’s taken this show on the road and I’m confident she’s never going to be stopped.
In an exclusive interview with Amplify Her Voice, Lights opens up about her journey into pop music, how she sees change happening in the music industry, and what exactly “pep” means to her.
What is the origin story of Lights?
I’m the daughter of one very musical person and one very-not-musical person, but raised in a creative space, that’s for sure. I think my passion started when my dad played acoustic guitar at night and I found it so peaceful. I realized that there is power in music, that it made me feel better when I was stressed, calm when I wanted to sleep. That’s when I knew I wanted to create it. I started actually playing music at 11 and the journey between then and now is vast.
You’ve been at this for a long time and your sound has evolved so much. How have you seen your music grow and change?
I’ve gained so much perspective over the last five albums - both in my musical ability and from where I fit in the greater space among artists. When I started, I was a huge fan of metal and screamo, so my first album, “The Listening,” was a lo-fi, alt-pop project that pulled in elements from those heavier genres. I wanted to help bring emo into the mainstream and I thought we needed an emo girl that was gonna play heavy music on the radio, but I immediately became a pop artist. So my second album, “Siberia,” encompasses my fight against pop. At the time I didn’t want to be known as “pop,” so I put some dubstep and bass into my sound and made a really crazy record. Since then, every record I’ve made has been a response to the one before - creating a cumulative experience.
That journey kept going with “Little Machines,” which was a sort of new wave synth sound that inspired me in the previous years. I used that album to show off my artistic side. This is also when I began to accept and understand my position in pop music, a transition that’s very evident in the subsequent "Skin and Earth.”
So where does PEP fit into your album journey?
PEP is the answer to all of it. If you listen, there are Easter eggs throughout the whole album. It’s the story of how I may have come into the pop genre, but I’m not blowing bubbles and fitting into one box. I think a lot of people see a pop artist as one thing, but the experience is so much more multifaceted than what you perceive at first.
I wanted a belligerent, alt-rock, pop version of what Lights is. This is a no-fucks-given record that also shows me navigating myself through a pep talk at a time when I needed it most. I’ve come to learn that we believe everything we tell ourselves, so if you tell yourself you hate yourself, you’re going to believe it. If you look in the mirror and tell yourself you’re a boss, that then becomes the truth. That is what this album is: the dichotomy of this peppy uplifting music on the backdrop of “everything around me sucks.” I don’t love myself all the time and the world is, in fact, crumbling around us - so here’s a record for that if you need it!
What an album - the diversity across the tracks is incredible. Which song makes you the happiest?
“Okay Okay," 100%. We started the show with “Okay Okay” once and it popped off. It now pops off every time. It makes me feel really good - especially since I was trying to take the sound back to an alt-indie-pop vibe, so I’m glad it goes over as well as it does.
Which track hits you with the most intense emotions?
“Beside Myself,” for sure. I couldn’t cut that track without crying. The song is about losing a loved one and the first time we played it live I had to navigate performing it through crying. It’s a meaningful song for sure.
Which song was the hardest to record?
None of them were hard, but the most complex track was “Salt and Vinegar.” It’s a mish-mash of multiple songs I was writing in my head for a few years. None of the songs were working on their own, and one day I realized I could just put them all together. I had to change tempos and keys, so it was weird, but it was also the best.
You have quite a few collaborators on the album. How did these collaborations come to be?
Honestly, most of the collabs I do are with friends that I end up pulling into a room with me. For example, Elohim was a friend already and I ended up doing two writing trips with her for this album. She is such a virtuoso on instruments, so it was so natural. We lay on the ground, drinking sake, and laughing. The song that came out of our partnership, “Real Thing,” was a true combination of both of our styles, it was beautiful.
Then there was Kiesza which was a one-session deal. We went into a studio that did not have a producer and I said, “Now is my chance,” so I produced a song for both of us! It was such a fun vibe, Kiesza is so theatrical, so that made our song so interesting! It was a perfect mix of both of our distinct sounds.
Although we are seeing changes, the music industry is still overwhelmingly male-dominated. What advice do you have for women working hard to make it out there?
There is literally so much room for you. Not even just that - there’s room and there’s a demand. The ratio is so far off and people know that, so there are people actively trying to hire women. Mixing, mastering, producing, engineering, on stage, off stage - there is so much space for us. My team on the road is always at least an equitable split because I try to bring on men and women. And that’s the point, right? It’s not like we’re trying to overpower men, we just want to be equal - that’s all we’ve ever fucking wanted.
What does the future of Lights look like?
Oh, I have a plan… I just can’t tell you about it yet! What I can say is that I’m branching out into different aspects of my talent and abilities and genres - just like I always have. I can see the next record already and I know what my next tour will look like. It’s all planned! But right now, my eyes are focused on PEP.
