Lights From Space

Emerging through what some would call an overwhelmingly flooded indie-folk scene in Seattle, Lights From Space are treading their own path with refreshingly sharp rock-n-roll / pop music. Their unique sound and melodies seamlessly blend influences ranging from more modern day acts like the Strokes and Nirvana with some of the pillars of music including The Beatles, The Kinks, and even Buddy Holly.

The trio originally met while singer/guitarist John Conner was attending art school in Seattle with Deepai Deol, a friend of future members Bill Lor and Phil Catalan. After several years of paying their dues and creating a buzz in the dive bars scattered throughout Seattle, the final three member lineup became Lights From Space in 2010. They released their debut EP “Six Song Set” in the summer of 2011 to great reviews and broad college radio play. “Start the Show”, a track off of the EP was chosen to become the new permanent opening theme song for ARFM radio’s Side Two program in London. And most recently, their debut music video for “She’s the Kind” was selected by MTV-U for their Freshman competition, a showcase for up and coming bands throughout the country..."
- North West Music Scene

Lights from Space - Six Song Set

Don't judge a band by it's cover, or in this case it's name. Don't know what the lads were thinking when they named themselves Lights From Space, but to me it conjured up images of some spacey alt rock or wankerfest in the Silversun Pickups vein. Not what we got here at all. Sure, it's modern rock, but this little six song ditty rocks in the classic Jet, Supagroup, or Mardo vein. Chunky guitar riffs plow us through "She's the Kind." Modern rock rears its head in "RNR" with it's angular, squealing guitar hook, but the boys infuse the whole thing with extra adrenaline and hooks to keep it ever from becoming fey. "Policies" brings on the darkness of a monstrous bass-laden riff. "Hate Your Style," adds a punky tone a la Attack Attack UK, and "Zombie" flat out destroys everything in this well tuned retro-surf garage. All kinds of rock, wrapped up nicely, given a home and (mis)name. But it's all good. Seriously good.

- Racer - The Ripple Effect

Interview with Lights From Space vocalist/guitarist John Conner

Lights From Space are a great unsigned band from Washington State. In the footsteps of The Strokes, The Beatles and The Pixies, Lights From Space are redoing "pop" music their own way. The following interview was conducted with guitarist/vocalist John Conner.

How long have you been together?
We've been playing together since 2006 when we were in a previous band with other members called "Bullfighter". Bill, Phil, and myself have been together as Lights From Space for a little over a year now.

Any other releases besides the "Six Song" ep?
This is our first official album release, although I think we still have some homemade demos floating around somewhere.

What are your influences?
Because of our completely different geographical and cultural backgrounds and just life experiences in general, I would say we have a pretty wide variety of influences. It's that combination of different styles, tastes and eras in music that ultimately guides us from song to song.

From the very beginning we’ve always made it a point to never try to have a specific “sound”. We just try our best to write what we like to think is good music and go wherever it takes us. If a song ends up being punk rock, that’s fine, or if it sounds like music from the 1980’s that’s great too, as long as we think it’s good music. I think that’s all you can do really. If you’re trying too hard to sound a certain way then it’s not spontaneous, sincere, or from your heart and you end up sounding like everyone else except yourself.

Members?
John Conner (guitar/vocals), Bill Lor (drums), and Phil Catalan (bass). It’s funny, every time I see our names in writing, I always think as a band we have to have one of the plainest combination of names,… John, Bill, Phil.

How many shows have you played?
We usually try to average about 2 or 3 shows a month unless we are recording or taking a break, so over the last year as LFS we’ve probably played 30 to 40 in and around the Seattle area.

Any tours?
Now that the album’s out and we have something physical to promote, we are in the beginning stages of setting things up for summer and into the fall. We’ve already been booked for some of the bigger summer festivals like the Bite of Seattle, Taste of Tacoma, and the Georgetown Music Festival. We were invited to perform at the Kansai Music Conference in Japan this September so we’re thinking about building a tour around that, as well as touring the west coast somewhere in there too.

Fondest memory of a tour/show?
One has to be the show in Kirkland where we first met our manager Anthony. We were playing this sports bar in a sort of small strip mall I guess you’d call it. On one side of it was a teriyaki place and on the other side was a Chinese restaurant. When we got there they had nothing for us, no mics, no pa, nothing. At that point we were close to just turning around and heading back to Seattle, but luckily one of the other bands had a pa system and mics with them. After we played, this crazy guy comes out of the crowd to tell us that he digs our music and buys us beer. I didn’t realize at the time he’d end up being our manager and financially backing our record. If it weren’t for that show, I can safely say we wouldn’t be doing this interview with you right now, so yeah, that was a good one.

Worst memory of a tour/show?
One of the worst memories was when we played a place in downtown Seattle called Hanna’s. This was back when we were still Bullfighter. It was a run down sushi restaurant that used to have live music at night. They were closing for good the next day so we were playing their last night of live music.

As a band we had a great show, the place was small but it was really packed. Halfway through the set though, our singer Deepai leaned over to me and said he wasn’t feeling well. After the show, as the night went on he was complaining more and more about not feeling well. The next day he called me from the hospital to tell me he had just been diagnosed with Leukemia. Hands down, one of the worst memories in my life.

What is the next step for the band?
We’re just getting started with promoting the new album and really us as a band, so I imagine we’ll probably just keep trying to get our music out there. We’ve gotten some traction already over in London with Joe Dray, a DJ from ARFM radio, so we’re hoping to get over there sometime as well. Our song “Start the Show” is now the opening theme song for his “Side Two” program, not to bad for a record that was released a few weeks ago. Oh, and we’ll be shooting a video for “She’s the Kind” in the next couple of weeks which we’re pretty excited about.

Aspirations?
We just want to continue to write what we think is good music, evolve as musicians and see where it goes. So far we’ve seemed to avoid being labeled as a cert - Brutal Control Blogspot

Lights From Space are an alt/pop/rock band from the great State of Washington. This six song e.p. is a very nice introduction to the band.

They are from Seattle and have that buzz of 'yore' to them, but they also have a fresh new style and also seem to sprinkle in some 60's pop into the mix.

"She's The Kind" almost sounds surf-rockish. (or like something from a spy movie) The ep as a whole takes me back to the 90's (one of my many quote-unquote "hey days").

But don't let that fool you, I hear many influences...The Beatles, The Strokes, Superdrag, Urge Overkill, even Joy Division...

If you want something fresh and brand new, check out Lights From Space.

Upcoming shows:

June 24 - Taste of Tacoma Festival
July 15 - Bite of Seattle Fest
- Ryan Swope - Brutal Control Blogspot