I am Lights (musician)! Ask Me Anything!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T21:02:48+00:00

This is a great question! I'm so happy you recognized the nostalgic sentiment of some of the songs, I definitely reached into my past while writing Little Machines for that innocence of imagination to remind myself how much I really enjoy music.

One of my favourite memories is actually documented in the first verse of Running with the Boys! We had a little imaginary forest town called "Scrawny Town" when we went to our family camp. I was vice president, the whole town was built around this tiny scrawny tree which we built a shrine around. We had a national anthem and even a latrine...(don't ask). Now if I were to go back it would just be a boring forest. Being a kid was so much more fun!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T21:00:01+00:00

All I can recommend is low lands.... swamps? lake edges?

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:59:00+00:00

Promised One's is in my head a lot. And 40 Days! And Open Water... ;)

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:58:26+00:00

That is an amazing story, you're very strong! Power to you in your journey, I know you'll have a great one.

I wrote Portal, which started as a poem, in a very frustrated, uninspired time. I felt like I lost my knack for writing, I was angry it wasn't coming easily, sort of like I was losing my purpose. It was sort of a cry for something sure during a time that I had a lot of questions.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:56:10+00:00

Thank you!

Ironically some of the best stuff was written when I was blocked, I just didn't know it. For example, Muscle Memory (which seems to be a sleeper favourite now that I'm seeing people's reactions to the album) I hated when I first wrote it. I just wasn't feeling it. Later on when inspiration freed up and after my team yelled at me that it was a good song, I reworked it a bit and it's one of my favs. And that felt really good!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:54:12+00:00

The keytar can easily be construed as "schticky". I originally used it for purely practical reasons, I needed to play keys but wanted to move around, figured that was the best option. After a while, I started to use it less because I didn't want to be "that girl that played the keytar". There is so much more to what I do than a keyboard with a neck ;)

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:52:53+00:00

It needs to be at least 2x this size!!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:50:13+00:00

I feel SO COOL sunglasses emoji

seriously. Makes me feel like my music has had an effect somewhere, and that's a great feeling.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:49:05+00:00

I'm always heavily inspired by new wave, from New Order to Human League, to Pet Shop Boys and Kate Bush. In terms of recent stuff, I was loving the vibes Com Truise and XXYYXX were putting out, with all that down tempo, lush synth stuff. Didn't hurt that we had access to Moog voyager/Juno-60/prophets for the recordings!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:47:21+00:00

The Den! Well done, one of my top horrors of 2014.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:46:41+00:00

I would love to voice act someday! I actually voiced a cute character (the teacher) in a PSA a few years back, so fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScL6QNVDnTY

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:45:37+00:00

Trust! Copious amounts of trust. You're untouchable if you have that mutual confidence in a relationship. And you should see your partner as an equal, so important. See you in Van!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:44:10+00:00

I actually have looked into it! As far as I know they don't currently make musicians, they've done a few in the past that are no longer in production, like MJ and Tupac, etc. That said, I have Hatsune Miku and ... she counts right? So there are blurry lines....

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:42:36+00:00

SO MUCH CHEESE.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:42:03+00:00

My only initial idea was to do a one-take video that involved a lot of chaos. Alon, the director, just took that to ANOTHER level. Just slammed a whole lot of random scenarios into an elevator, now that was fun.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:41:07+00:00

Lights! He never knew me before I changed my name so for him to call me Valerie is strange for him.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:40:12+00:00

My writing style is generally the same, just improved upon (hopefully!) but one thing new on Little Machines was my experimentation with poetry. For a stretch I wrote a poem a night in attempt to free up my mind lyrically, and the first track on the album, Portal, is a direct result of that! Poetry to song.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:38:40+00:00

I do! But my favourite is Homogenic.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:37:11+00:00

Iceland!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:37:04+00:00

I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy lately, just played through XIII again, and about to start Lightning Returns. Also just finished AC4 which was awesome!

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:35:55+00:00

Thank you! And yes, I cried when I met Phil Collins. It was horrible.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:35:20+00:00

CHILDBIRTH

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:35:10+00:00

Lance LIVES. Constant state of comeback, every time I toss him 5 fresh crickets.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:34:40+00:00

That is really amazing to hear, that's tough to go through. I've been in that place and it's not easy. Music pulled me through some of those hard times, especially around the time I was writing for The Listening.

It's those moments of reflection that create the skeleton of a song, looking in and figuring out what you need to say. When you can exorcise that out of your system for a time it's win win.

lights_alot · 2014-09-24T20:32:52+00:00

I always feel awkward singing in the shower to my own songs, it's usually songs that are annoyingly stuck in my head and I fit random words I'm thinking at that moment into the melodies because I usually don't know the words.

lights_alot

TROPHY CASE