Canadian singer-songwriter Lights offered up some words of wisdom before taking the stage at Richmond’s annual World Festival Friday night.
“Find confidence, even if it’s fake,” said the two time Juno winner.
“If you fake confidence it becomes real -- eventually.”
The Richmond News caught up with Lights while she was taking it easy in her Richmond hotel room with four-year-old daughter Rocket before the show.
Tonight is her first time performing in the city, but Lights has been a regular at the Richmond Night market.
“We used to come here all the time … Me and my friends would get together and go get food, buy junk,” she laughed.
Lights has been writing songs since she was a kid, and has always had a riveting voice. Born in Timmins, Ont., the alt-pop sensation has built up a passionate fanbase over the course of her four-album career.
Earlier songs such as 2008’s “Drive My Soul” were ubiquitous on Toronto-area radio stations, where she lived at the time. Now, Lights weaves narratives through fantastical worlds in her latest singles such as “Giants.”
She describes her growth as an artist and a person as a transformation from something like “insecure nerd girl” to gritty musician and “sexually empowered nerd woman.”
Along with singing and song writing, Lights has written and illustrated a comic book series featuring main character Enaia—an alter-ego of sorts. It coincided with the release of her fourth album Skin & Earth, in September 2017.
She thinks what’s allowed her to become “creatively fulfilled” was gaining confidence and accepting herself.
Lights moved to Toronto at 18 to pursue her music career, but before that, she was a high school student here in the Lower Mainland. By her own admission, school was on the backburner because she was already focusing on music. But she says here is where she first got comfortable with live performance.
“I became embedded in the ‘scene’ in Langley,” she laughted. “There was a good emo scene in Langley.”
After nearly a decade in Canada’s most populous city, she came back to settle in Mission, B.C. when she had her daughter.
“There’s wildlife, tons of fresh air, hikes and nature like you couldn’t imagine,” she said. “When you’re in the city every night doing a show, you want to retreat to some peace and quiet.”
“It keeps my heart and brain and mind full.”
It seems she’s a true B.C. girl at heart.It seems she’s a true B.C. girl at heart.
