Canadian pop singer Lights found her passion for making music when she was a child. She has since proven that passion and her ability to create a range of sounds from electronic space, edgy grit, and to nostalgic dance vibes with her first full-length album The Listening, released in 2009 when Lights was 22. With her upcoming album Skin & Earth due this Fall, and following the release of her two singles Giants and Skydiving, her latest style is beginning to unfold. However, music is not the only thing anticipated from Lights. Her creativity has brought to life a comic book series wherein each of the six issues correspond with a song on the album.
With the first issue out, along with the accompanying track Skydiving, credit is well given to Lights. Every page in every comic was written, drawn, and colored by Lights herself with little help. After a year of diligently studying YouTube videos and contacting her favorite comic writers for advice, the go-getter mapped out pages and created color schemes for each character. She used her husband, her three-year-old daughter, and herself as reference when drawing many of the panels.
Skin & Earth is about Enaia (En) Jin, an outcast in a dystopian society trying to find hope when all hope seems lost. In issue 1 we can already get a taste of En’s personality and see where Lights found inspiration for bright red hair. It was stated in a recent interview that all characters share some qualities with Lights, but with the same red hair and tattoo on their wrists, she feels that En is her in another dimension.
Along with the outstanding effort put into this project, Lights included a fun way for people to discover hints leading up to new songs and plots to further interest people in following the story of En. With 20 emails and associated Instagram accounts, she created a unique Instagram map (@skinandearthworld) using separate pictures, many of which lead to different parts of the story. New locations unlock with the release of each issue.
With issue 1 selling out in comic book stores within the first week and Giants reaching over a million streams on Spotify in less than 3 weeks, Lights is on her way to becoming the next radio sensation and many new listeners’ favorite artist.
Lights will be supporting PVRIS on a US tour starting September 22 in Los Angeles, right after the release of the full Skin & Earth album. Fans hope for a headlining tour of her own to be announced soon after.
