The Dears Quiet Death and Loud Rebirth

11/24/08 4:38pm

by Erik Missio (CHARTattack)

Hope After Destruction

On "Disclaimer," the lead track from the Dears' darkly brilliant new Missiles album, Murray Lightburn sings, "I've come back from almost dead... and I've got to avenge everyone."

It's the resurrection no one knew was necessary.

Montreal's critically acclaimed rock romanticists were on the verge of ruin last year. Four of the band members left, leaving only founding figure Lightburn and keyboardist/ back-up vocalist, Natalia Yanchak.

Once word got out, the usual opinionated pundits in the blogosphere and on hipster message boards weren't necessarily shocked. After all, not only had the band undergone reshuffling in the past, but it also seemed a safe assumption that it ain't easy being part of a constantly touring force infamous for its emotion-exhausting, demon-exorcising performances.

Chaos, stress, frustration, drama and swirling rumours… What better time for The Dears to make a new album?

"The actual physical making of the record began last year when I started to think the band was in complete meltdown," Lightburn says. "But at the same time, there was something else going on in my life of a personal nature that was in parallel to what was happening with The Dears. If this album's about something, it's about this personal thing, rather than what went down with the band."

But what did go down with the band? No specific line in the sand, explains Yanchak.

"There wasn't one huge event where everybody decided to go. It kind of crumbled in stages. By the time we started recording this album, two had already left. At that point, we had been dealing with a year's worth of stressful in-band tensions. I liken it to being in a long relationship where you realize you're no longer in love."

At the same time, though, the long, loving relationship with the music would always continue. The band's existence was never in doubt.

"I wasn't worried about the future," Yanchak continues. "When we were playing shows and band relationships were falling apart, it still never felt like The Dears would be over."

Lightburn agrees.

"Look, at the end of the day, the petty things that break up a band — and they were petty, even though at the time they felt huge — are never as important in the grand scheme of things as the music," he says.

And in the case of The Dears, the music is always grand, with soaring guitars, ominously catchy synths and lyrics of love, loss and redemption (but not necessarily in that order). Lightburn doesn't write these songs — he channels them.

"Sometimes it just comes into your brain like a fucking supernova," he says. "Everything — the drums, the guitar, the strings.

"And you don't know how to get it from your brain on to a stupid piece of plastic.
All I can do is try to translate what happened, communicate an explosion of music in my brain and in my soul.

"This record," he says, emphatically, "is 100 per cent fearless."

It's an assertion which is hard to argue. From album opener "Disclaimer" (Lightburn's dad guests on sax) to mid-album showstopper "Lights Off" (ex-Dear Patrick Krief delivers what Yanchak calls a "face-melting" guitar solo) to the grand finale, an 11-minute elegy named "Saviour," this isn't a flinching album.

That last track, based around a vocal demo take recorded a few minutes after the lyrics were written, features the Every Kid Choir (a joint project of Montreal City Mission and St. James United Church) singing, "I'll make it right." For some bands, this might feel a little too melodramatic, orchestrated or gimmicky. But as Lightburn's croon cracks and the organ swells, the performance feels 100 per cent real.

"'Saviour' was the first song we worked on," explains Lightburn. "I was alone in the studio and there had been a little bit of drama. That first day was sucky, but some beautiful shit happened. Achieving that backward snare in that song made everything perfect. The song's about the fear of death. It's a 21st century funeral march."

For now, the band remain focused on rebirth rather than death. Expectations are high for the new album, although Yanchak's staying level-headed.

"We're on our fourth album," she says. "We know it's not going to blow up Vampire Weekend-style. At the same time, being a bit established is completely liberating."

Still, playing with some less-than-established bandmates has to be liberating in its own way. It's like starting fresh. With the departure of Valérie Jodoin-Keaton, Martin Pelland, George Donoso and Krief (the latter two formed Black Diamond Bay), The Dears needed to quickly recruit five new members. They're now touring with these recruits, who are all stalwarts of the Montreal scene.

"When we started rehearsing older songs like ‘Lost In The Plot,' it was strange because Murray and I played them thousands of times and now there are all these people who never thought they'd ever need to learn them," Yanchak says. "Honestly, at first, we sounded like a really, really bad Dears cover band. It was terrifying, but it also made us laugh.

"But the new songs? Since everyone started at the beginning with them, it's like we own them together. There'll be a fierceness to them. And some of these songs? Some of these songs will destroy people."

bonus sidebar
New Kids On The Block

As The Dears evolve from sextet to septet, it's helpful to know who the
incoming players are. Of course, if you're a fan of Canadian indie rock
(especially of the Montreal persuasion), there's a good chance you're at least passingly familiar with these musicians...

Jason Kent — guitar, vocals and keys (Jason Kent
& The Crystal Lake)

Lisa Smith — bass and keys (Pony Up)

Laura Wills — keys and vocals (Pony Up)

Yann Geoffroy — drums and keys (Kill The Lights)

Christopher McCarron — guitar (Land Of Talk)

The following feature is taken from the October 2008 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.