Lightmares Release Fifth Full Length Album, Dear Life
Sudbury’s Lightmares are back with their fifth full-length album, Dear Life, and it’s everything you can expect from the garage power rock trio. Dear Life is 12 tracks of high energy packed with slick licks and sing-a-long hooks. Singles “Black Balloon” and “Stick It (No Hard Feelings)” were teased in 2022 and 2023 and appear on this album along with their latest single, “Satisfied Either Way”.
Since 2007, Lightmares have been consistently delivering high-quality rock and roll to Canadian fans and touring album after album. If you’ve been in the Ontario scene long enough, you’ve likely caught a performance or two. In April they’ll be heading down south from the rocky plains of Sudbury for a few release shows in the greater Toronto area.
Dear Life was recorded and mixed by Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio (even farther north) in Sault Saint Marie, ON. The album was mastered by Alan Douches and produced by Bill Priddle.
Dear Life is available on a solid cotton candy pink cassette tape courtesy of Tarantula Tapes.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Lightmares are a three-piece rock n’ roll band from Sudbury, Ontario. Jamie Millard is on guitar and lead vocals, Nicholas Millard is on bass and Zack Tymchuk is on drums. We have been writing, recording, and performing together since we were in elementary school – so the better part of twenty years now.
Tell us a bit about your recent release.
Our new record is called ‘Dear Life’, and is our eighth official release. It was produced by Bill Priddle (co-founder of Treble Charger and former contributor to Broken Social Scene) and recorded and mixed by Dustin Goodall, who also owns the studio we worked in – Unsalted Audio in Sault Ste. Marie, ON. This was the first time we worked with a producer, in a fairly professional recording environment. Our first couple of releases were done in local studios, and our third was in a friend’s basement in Moncton, NB, but we’ve recorded most of our output ourselves in our garage/jam space/makeshift studio. As fun as that can be, it was really exciting and refreshing to collaborate this time around. In addition to being really fun guys, Bill and Dustin both have a great ear for composition and are total gearheads. That allowed us access to all kinds of new sounds and ideas that we would have either overlooked or simply not had access to had we decided to once again record ourselves. The process was thorough, but never tedious, and resulted in what we think is easily our most accomplished work to date.
How do you typically go about the songwriting process? Do you have a specific method or
creative routine that you follow?
Generally speaking, Jamie will come up with the basic chord structure, melody and lyrics, and the rest is left up to open collaboration between the three of us. We’ll just tinker with the song until we’re satisfied. Sometimes that takes an afternoon, and sometimes it can take years. There are exceptions across the board, but regardless, we are very much equal to the sum of our parts.
Looking ahead, what are your plans for supporting this new release? Are there any upcoming tours, music videos, or additional content that fans can look forward to in connection with this project?
We’ve got at least one more single planned for this record, we’re still putting ideas together for a video. We’ve got a couple of shows planned for the end of April (‘It’s Alright Ma’ Records in Hamilton on the 27th, and the Bovine in Toronto on the 29th) and will continue to book throughout the spring and summer, anywhere that will have us.
Looking back on your musical career, is there a particular moment or accomplishment that you consider a turning point or a highlight?
We’ve been together a long time, so there are a lot of ways we could answer this, but honestly, this new record really feels to us like our greatest artistic accomplishment to date. Its creation was a real labor of love for everybody involved, and we’re really excited to finally share it.
Last but not least, it’s time to pay it forward, what upcoming band or artist would you
recommend your fans check out?
Two bands out of North Bay – Spillover and Tall Pork. Spillover recently released a record independently and Tall Pork just released an EP through Tarantula. Show them some love!