Her song “Drive My Soul” peaked at #18 in the Canadian Hot 100 in 2008. Her next single, “February Air”, was released on 9 December 2008 and the video for that song was put on the web on 12 December 2008. In 2009, Lights released her third single to radio called “Ice” with a self-made video released via her MySpace.
Lights won Indie awards in the Favourite Solo Artist and Favourite Single categories during Canadian Music Week in March 2009 at Toronto, Ontario. She won the Best New Artist awards in the Hot AC and CHR categories. All awards were for her debut single Drive My Soul, except the award for Favourite Solo Artist. She won best new artist at the 2009 Juno Awards. Three singles from Lights’ 2009 album “The Listening”, have since been released: “Saviour”, “Ice”, “The Listening” and “Second Go”.
Like father, like…daughter? In Valerie Poxleitner's case, that statement rings true. Home-schooled by her parents, Valerie learned about music from her dad. "My dad is a musician like me—he doesn't know theory, he just knows what sounds good and plays it," says Valerie. From home to the airwaves under the name LIGHTS, Valerie has unleashed her style of happy pop music into the world.
A rare feat, LIGHTS has been embraced by her native country, Canada—and she’s very proud of that. She looks at the United States as an unconquered land where she hopes to build the same success as she has achieved in Canada. As for touring in the U.S., LIGHTS says, "It's awesome! This country's so big with so many people spread across it. I get to meet so many different people and see so many different places, and introduce my music to people who otherwise wouldn't have heard it."
LIGHTS continues, "I love Canada—Toronto is my number one city, but one day I'll probably live here. I love New York and I love LA. New York is like Toronto, only ten times bigger."
It’s not hard to believe that such beautiful, airy vocals belong to LIGHTS. As an architect might pour his soul into his buildings, therefore rendering the buildings an extension of himself, LIGHTS’s music is like a piece of herself in song. Though LIGHTS is petite, she’s easy to recognize in a crowd of people because her confidence and amiability, mixed with her striking features, make her seem larger than life. Whether through her music or through personal conversation, LIGHTS makes people feel comfortable and cheerful.
LIGHTS’s music pulsates with feeling. Her lyrics are often simple but their meanings are thoughtful and powerful. For example, take the song “White” off of her first EP, LIGHTS—the chorus is brief, and one of its key lines is “Turn your shadows white.” The message is clear: transform the negative in life into the positive, a theme that is a driving force throughout the EP.
Besides music, LIGHTS is enamored with comics and superheroes. LIGHTS created her own comic series, which she writes and illustrates herself; she put herself into a comic-strip-style environment—complete with a rocket ship on the moon—in her “Drive My Soul” and “February Air” music videos; and, she also loves superheroes so much that she got a couple of ‘em eternally inked in her flesh.
“My back piece is Wonder Woman fighting Giganta,” explains LIGHTS. “I love it because Wonder Woman looks tiny compared to Giganta’s big hand, but she’s still winning. No matter how small you are you can still be unstoppable.”
LIGHTS possesses some of the same qualities that her favorite superheroes exhibit. In the face of the world, LIGHTS may be small, but she, too, is unstoppable. Her music is taking her across the continent—and soon, surely the globe. Listen to LIGHTS at www.myspace.com/lightsnoise or visit www.iamlights.com.
