THE DEARS and LIONESS at the Mod Club (722 College), today (Thursday, April 30), 7 pm. $20. 416-870-8000.
It’s a well-known fact that during the recording of the Dears’ latest album, Missiles (Maple), most of the band quit, leaving frontman Murray Lightburn and keyboardist Natalia Yanchak to steer the ship alone. Less known is the fact that these circumstances caused Lightburn to unravel.
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“I was prescribed various medications to help deal with the stuff that was going on, stuff that brought on psychosomatic shit,” Lightburn says over the phone from Montreal. “It was a very, very difficult time.”
In a therapeutic attempt to figure out what went wrong, Lightburn began filming webisodes, short online documentaries featuring revealing interviews with some of the former players in the moody Montreal rock band’s 14-year history. In one scene, ex-guitarist Robert E. Benvie repeatedly calls Lightburn an “asshole” and says, “Pick and grin and do as you’re told. That’s what it’s like to be in the Dears.”
“I think there’s a certain level of comedy in that. Maybe he really believes it, but I think there are others who might not see it the same way,” laughs Lightburn before lavishing a string of superlatives on his old friend.
“When we used to tour together in the Dears, whenever I’d get all wound up, he’d be like, ‘Fuck, man, you gotta rise above. You gotta rise above.’ It’s something that’s stuck with me to this day. I always try to rise above.”
He succeeded on Missiles, a melancholic opus saturated with hopeful sadness. It’s beautifully layered, sweeping and focused – surprising considering that during the sessions Lightburn was armed with more hard drives than band members.
Fast-forward to today and he’s feeling optimistic thanks to a new cast of touring players (including Benvie), songs percolating toward a fifth album and an upcoming North American tour that “caps off this incredibly awkward transitional time in our career.”
Comically, each webisode (available at thedears.org) begins with a quote from Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.
“Kirk is one of those classic leader-type characters,” says Lightburn, who’s apprehensive about the upcoming remake. “He’s a captain of a ship, and his ship and crew are very important to him. They come before everything else. The parallel between his ship and the Dears is fitting.”
Lightburn calls Yanchak – who’s also the mother of Neptune, their three-year-old daughter – the Mr. Scott of the operation. “She’s down in the engine room keeping it running. She’s the inspiration that keeps the Dears going. [During the recording] she basically forced me to grow a pair and move forward. That’s what we did.”
Interview Clips
On Montreal’s music scene:
On keyboardist Natalia Yanchak’s increased singing duties on Missiles:
On his motivation behind making the *webisodes, The Gospel According To The Dears:
Video Clip
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