LIGHTS is a newlywed, tattooed, World of Warcraft-playing, cat-loving musician, singer, and songwriter who hails from Timmins, Ontario, in Canada! She’s winning over Canadians and Americans a like with her original synth-pop style of music and the dedication and appreciation she has for her fans.
After hitting the music scene in 2006 with her first song “February Air,” LIGHTS started getting even deeper into the music business and began appearing as a guest vocalist in songs from bands like Ten Second Epic and the post-hardcore Canadian group Silverstein. After releasing a few EP albums and her first studio album “The Listening,” she dropped her second studio album called “Siberia.” October 4th, 2011 was a great day for her American fans – “Siberia” was finally available. “Siberia” even reached number 47 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100! This new album showed a side of LIGHTS that no one had ever seen before. She had gone from an “underground” musician to an almost mainstream artist with her new mature and appealing sound.
LIGHTS’ music is different than most music – it’s a cool mixture of personal and creative lyrics, a bit of synth, piano, and a few different types of guitars. Her music isn’t the only thing that makes her awesome; she’s a phenomenal performer. Her sound and personal aura along with creative lighting schemes make LIGHTS concerts the best concerts I’ve ever been to. She really puts her heart and soul into the songs she is performing. She hypes up the crowd even more by engaging them in the music, and by saving an amazing song for the encore (which she never fails to sing). Whether it’s new music or old music, LIGHTS puts on shows that everyone loves and looks forward to! [Pagebreak]
One of the reasons I love LIGHTS is because she always makes time for her fans – whether it’s before or after a concert. At the concert she held last year in Baltimore at the Sonar Club (only a few minutes away from campus) she came out after the concert to meet with all of her fans, regardless of the 30-degree weather and long line of people. I also went to the concert in D.C. on the 18th of November. Getting there 6 hours early (not even close to some of the most dedicated fans who arrived more than 10 hours early) was definitely worth it when LIGHTS came out to meet the 15 of us that were in line. After all of the picture taking and autograph-signing, time was spent just chatting. It was awesome to see how she had developed personal relationships with her most dedicated fans – those who call themselves “LIGHTS’ Army.”
LIGHTS is my favorite musician for a ton reasons – her music is original, lyrics are creative, concerts are amazing, and she cares very deeply for her fans and the support they provide. You can never go wrong with a LIGHTS song! One thing that makes them so great is that they encompass a wide range of emotions – so everyone can relate. Each LIGHTS song is different (a quality that I think some of the more popular artists today lack) – some are upbeat, some are slow, some are a little dubstep-y, and some are more auto-tuned than others, and it’s these qualities that make for a stellar album!
If you’ve never heard of the great and talented LIGHTS, I definitely recommend checking out her music! If I were to give some suggestions on where to start, it would probably be to check out one my favorite songs by her, (in no specific order) “Banner,” “River,” “Drive My Soul,” or “Peace Sign.”
All Photos by Isabella Paniagua-Novak
Sources:
http://artists.letssingit.com/…