Lights sensation is happening at The Note in West Chester, Pa. on April 19. A light show, people might think, but actually, Lights Poxleitner is an electro-pop music enthusiast, bringing her passion of life to the stage.
In 2008 when she hit the music scene, Lights was playing and programming her own instruments and sang her own lyrics. In the pop music culture, autonomy is a rarity that is often admired; she signed a publishing deal at 16 and has since left her home in Ontario to tour with her collaborative “family” of musicians.
Since her self-titled debut EP in 2008, Lights has expanded collaborations on a new experimental album, “Siberia,” which has an electro-rock sound, listeners can make of it what they will.
Joining forces with rising rapper Shad and the attire of Holy F**k, she has fashioned her own outfit of sound. In “Siberia,” Lights intended to go heavier and grittier than her first album, letting people in on the art and just going with it.
Lights learned much of what she knows about music from her father. With a faith-filled manager having taken her under his wing, Lights had the valor to fly and find her place in the industry to make a sound all her own. With a snug group of supporters and a developing online fan base, Lights is able to share her music with people all around the world, not just a specific audience.
“When you get to do what you love and make a living out of it, it feels really great,” Lights explained. “Personally, I don’t think my music goes into a genre. I live in my own music; people like to put music beside each other and compare, but ultimately the point of it is to change the way you feel.”
With fantasy art and video game influences, Lights hopes to base an album off the art of Clive Barker, novelist and illustrator of Abarat tales and game card designs. In her music video “Banner,” filmed in the deserts of Los Angeles and in an old abandoned compound, they are living vicariously through characters of fiction with the idea that one person has something everyone else wants. And at the end of the day, that is love, symbolized by a white banner.
In the lyrics of “Siberia,” she says, “there you’ll be to take me inside. We’ll find ways to fill the empty, far from all the hysteria.” Lights describes this hysteria as the frantic happenings of life that everyone experiences in a different nature. Everyone has his or her own chaos, and she is clearly recognizing and embracing it.
Music is an empowering apparatus, and with the powerful sound behind the name, Lights is bringing her sound to The Note on Market Street in West Chester. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 19.
Elizabeth Knode is a student at West Chester University. She can be reached at EK755213@wcupa.edu.