Like Avril Lavigne, Carly Rae Jepsen and Canada’s Drag Race contestant Jimbo, Lights Poxleitner-Bokan – or Lights, for short – is Canadian excellence.
Haven’t pensively stared out the window of a moving train on a chilly winter day while listening to “Siberia” on loop? Afraid to say it, but you have not fully lived.
The shapeshifting 33-year-old singer-songwriter’s come a long way over the past decade-plus of her career, flexing her versatility across an array of genres, largely weaving between different textures of electronica and acoustic, but always supplying quality in whatever she does next.
As of now, Lights is desperate to get up and dance – and really, aren’t we all? – which is why she’s got a dance remix record in the works, including lead single “Dead End,” which she dropped on Friday (July 10). It’s the first taste of music to come from the remix project, co-crafted alongside tour partner and producer, MYTH. The album will include two more new original tracks, as well as mixes of past Lights fan favorites, like “Up We Go.”
“I’ve been writing and singing toplines on dance tracks for years, but only recently did I begin to dive deeper into that world. It’s been warm and vibrant and accepting, I’ve been loving it,” Lights says of her dance floor foray.
Lights also guested with a set during deadmau5’s cubeV3 tour earlier in 2020, which helped to inspire the remix LP concept.
“I wanted to put a new twist on my music that would make more sense to that kind of show. I thought, man, I’ve been making acoustic versions of my records for years, I might as well make dance versions too; reworking a handful of the songs with my friend MYTH into a fitting live set – like a remixed performance – with live vocals and guitar. This led us to cracking open some new demos I had been working on and fitting them into this release as well.”
The concept of the song “Dead End” is basically, you know, hitting a dead end – in terms of a relationship that just doesn’t pan out, but she keeps on trying again and again, anyway.
“How come I love seeing your name coming up on my phone / Even though I know it’ll only lead us down that road again?” she laments.
The accompanying video for “Dead End” was shot at home with her family and live production crew amid quarantine, with her husband, Blessthefall‘s Beau Bokan, at the helm as director. It’s basically DIY Tron.
Although Lights already made several points with recent collaborations with acts like Felix Cartal and i_o, “Dead End” further makes a case for an even more prolific career for her in the dance scene: her distinct, urgent delivery lends itself well to catharsis at the discotheque, as well as her knack for irresistible earworm hooks. (“Dead end, dead end, dead end, it’s a dead end road…“)
One might even say that her path in the dance world is anything but a dead end. (Sorry.)
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Photo credit: Lindsey Blane / Elektra Music Group
