by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Montreal's chamber rockers the Dears have long shown a knack for vivid expressions of angst, drama and desolation, albeit in the singular. All the Four Horsemen shit coming to a head these days - "endless war," epidemic illness, what have you - begs the same in a broader perspective, and in its own indirect way, the band's latest disc No Cities Left meets the challenge. The Mirror pestered alpha Dear Murray Lightburn for some illuminating observations.

Mirror: The last Dears recording, the Summer of Protest EP, saw your focus shift from the very personal to the political - political in the truest sense, that of a plural vision rather than a singular one. It was still marked by the Dears' signature, only writ large. Your new album No Cities Left has songs that fall into either camp, and many that may be interpreted both ways. Moreover, the previous pluralizing has brought a greater sense of context and purpose to even the more personal songs. What do you think?

Murray Lightburn: I worry sometimes about the inevitability of some viewing the message of the Dears as political. The danger is that if any particular message becomes too popular and then organized, it would become religious, which would put the Dears in some kind of messianic position. I strongly doubt that it is the Dears' intention. The personal context in our work is - and perhaps always has been, though unwittingly - a metaphor for a much bigger picture. We, meaning everyone, get wrapped up in the huge production known as Life on the Earth and wind up losing sight of what is really happening. A darkness rules our planet that is more profound than anything we see on the 6 o'clock news or read in Time magazine. An eternal light brings hope that one will never find in a church or some cable evangelical TV show. It's a constant battle, really, between good and evil - in the world and in the universe, within ourselves and within our, er, collective soul.

Look for the love

M: I understand your wish to avoid the explicitly political - an artist who places their ideology too far before aesthetics runs the risk of sinking into corny propaganda. I guess my feeling is that good intentions, misguided or not, don't justify bad art. Or do they?

ML: As an artist, it's not necessarily my duty to be politically active. Whatever comes to and out of me is motivated by things even I will never truly understand. And whatever happens after that will undoubtedly be twisted every which way, especially by the media. Like right now, I'm trying to explain what the fuck happened with this No Cities Left or Protest thing. I don't really know, so that's all I can do - try to explain what I mean. I shouldn't even have to. It's ridiculous. At any rate, it's up to me as an artist to humble myself enough to ignore all this crap when making the art and simply jam it out. Whether or not it's good or bad is a matter of opinion but at least it'll be fucking true.

M: Another aspect of the Dears' oeuvre is an increasing sense of spirituality - not to be confused with religion, though I'm aware of your religious background. I'm a bit torn on this, because used wisely, the spiritual can guide us all to a safer, kinder place. At the same time, it's pretty much the root of the conflict fucking up so much of the world.

ML: I disagree so very strongly, my brother. It almost sounds as if love has some kind of evil twin, which it doesn't. There are many who may have started out trying to get all spiritual and just wound up Animal Farm-ing it into some ridiculous conflict. The primary function of this prison called Earth is to fuck us up. It's up to us to find love. Within ourselves and others. Without love we can never be free. The question is, is one ever to be free in this world? Who knows. So, let's just forget about that for now and, in the wise words of Afrika Bambaattaa, "Let your soooooooul lead the way."

At Club Soda on Saturday, May 31, 9pm, $14

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