Lights, the delightful Canadian singer / songwriter / producer born Valerie Anne Poxleitner, known for her synth pop and emotional lyrics stopped by our offices recently to chat it up for Setlist Insider.
Straight outta Timmins, Ontario, Lights found success starting with her debut album, The Listening, which went to #4 in Canada and charted in the Billboard 100 in the States. In 2009 she was blessed with a coveted Juno Award for New Artist of the Year.
Over the years, she’s matured from a MySpacey electro-pop darling into a genre-busting force who can easily blend alternative pop, R&B, and acoustic elements.
A literal artist, Lights is also a graphic novelist who has often combined her albums with original comic books, as seen and heard with 2017's Skin & Earth.
Over the years she's collaborated with the likes of Travis Barker, deadmau5, and Bring Me the Horizon. She performs about 40 shows a year and is currently on tour supporting her new album, A6, which she says reflects her 16 years in the music biz.
Here's some of the highlights of Lights digging through a few of her milestone setlists.
2009: Covering Phil Collins at The Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
The first full, filled-out setlist.
That was actually the night I met Josh Dun, and we became homies after that, and that was before Twenty One Pilots popped off.
This is cool to look back on these setlists.
"I Want It That Way," Backstreet Boys cover. Love that I did that.
I think I ended my set with "Drive," and then came out and did "In The Air Tonight," the Phil Collins cover as an encore.
I do love Phil Collins. He was a huge inspiration to me and I covered him a lot, specifically that song in 2010.
I met Phil Collins and I had all this stuff planned to say and I approached him and just cried. I just bawled.
And he's just like, "okay," and took a photo. I have a photo of me crying and meeting Phil Collins and now I have this total understanding of like, the feeling of being overwhelmed -- the intimacy of the music.
I felt like I knew him so well through it and he didn't know me at all. Now it happens to me when fans come up to me in a meet-and-greet sometimes, and I completely understand.
Every time someone's like, "I don't know what's happening to me," I just go, "don't worry. I did it to Phil Collins, we're good."
Count on hearing "Siberia"
My most-played song is "Siberia." It is part of my current set.
I was able to change it a little bit to fit the sort of soundscapes of the new album. It gave it a little bit of a dark wave.
We've added intros, we've changed outros. That's a very flexible song, and everybody sings along with it.
Don't get your hopes up for "Frame and Focus"
I think there's only one of my songs I've never played and I believe it's "Frame and Focus."
I don't think I've ever played that song. Somebody brought that up to me the other day, like, "have you ever played that?"
And I was like, "I don't even remember it."
The origin story of "Romance Is"
"Romance Is" was a song I wrote when I was 18. It's probably one of the oldest songs of mine that exists.
I actually wrote it with a girlfriend years ago and we're drinking vodka in my room like bunch of teenagers and just pouring our hearts out.
I used to be so emo when I wrote this song that I actually had the title as "Ro Mace," because it's like romance is like mace and makes you cry. Changed the title from that, though, because I think I could do better than that.
Check out the whole Setlist Insider episode where teaches us how long tarantulas live, if those are real crickets in the background of her acoustic EP, and what her most-performed cover is.
Lights will be playing several provinces of Canada this summer and fall. Go to her website to get tix to her upcoming gigs in Halifax, Stampede, and at the Kaslo Jazz Fest.
Lights remaining tour dates of 2025
Jun 29 – Halifax Music Fest, Downtown Halifax NS
Jul 5 – Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Bell Park, Greater Sudbury ON
Jul 6 – Calgary Stampede Grandstand, Calgary AB
Jul 26 – Empire Square Live (Empire Rock Fest), Belleville ON
Aug 2 – Kaslo Jazz Festival, Kaslo BC
Sep 20 – Fallsview Casino Resort, Niagara Falls ON
