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Resurrection rock
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“I remember where I was when that song was written,” says Murray Lightburn, discussing “Savior,” the closer on the Dears’ latest record, Missiles. “I was on the phone with my mother in complete meltdown mode, and she was praying ’cause that’s what she does. When I got off the phone, I went down to my basement and finished the song. It was so fitting that we wound up getting these kids to sing on it. It’s completely cheesy, and I know that, but it’s also heavy, depending on how you look at. There’s a very thin line…” The Every Kid Choir will reprise their performance of “Savior” live this weekend when the Dears play the St. James United Church to raise funds for the choir, an endeavour of the church and the Montreal City Mission. It’s hardly their first grandiose move. As any patron of the Dears knows, the music is epic, as is the story behind every album. Missiles, with its impeccable pop melodies and surging riffs, tender interludes and awkward intimacy, is clearly no exception. Prior to and during recording, there was the departure of nearly the entire line-up, save Lightburn and keyboardist/singer/wife Natalia Yanchak, though both drummer George Donoso III and guitarist Patrick Krief play on the record. After the fact, there was the introduction of Pony Up’s Lisa Smith (bass) and Laura Wills (keys), guitarists Christopher McCarron (of Land of Talk) and Jason Kent, and drummer Yann Geoffroy (of Kill the Lights). And, as alluded to in recent interviews, there’s the private medical crisis that largely inspired the album’s lyrics. The evolution of the band is chronicled in a series of Webisodes entitled The Gospel According to the Dears (at thedears.org), made by Lightburn and musician-about-town André Bendahan (a member of Krief’s Black Diamond Bay). The bulk of Dears alumni is interviewed, members from as far back as 2000, when the band released their debut LP, End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story. “In editing this thing, I’ve learned a lot about the Dears, I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’ve learned a lot about perceptions and assumptions and presumptions,” says Lightburn. “The more you put yourself out there, the more you, unfortunately, become aware of yourself, which is really painful. Just yesterday, Laura called me a self-hating rock star, because I hate rock stardom but, she said, nonetheless, stop denying it. It made me laugh out loud, but at the same time, maybe there’s some truth to it. It’s an enjoyable gig, but it’s not enjoyable at all.” Stuck between the art and the business, in a band that, he says, has always been an uneasy combination of democracy and dictatorship, Lightburn has high hopes for this line-up, despite the fact that “some days, it’s just fucking ‘spicy meatball.’” “Watching this new line-up develop is, in my opinion, proof that the Dears is greater than the personnel,” he says, not excluding himself from “personnel.” “The band is sounding incredible, it’s on a course to being up there with the previous line-up, even passing it, if possible. Basically, there’s a spirit that inhabits the Dears, and when you join the band, you walk into a haunted house. I warned everyone that it’s not your everyday, run of the mill band trying to get on the radio, it’s something else. We do all the bullshit, but that’s not what it’s really about.” WITH LITTLE SCREAM AT THE |
