In 2003, The Dears released their extraordinary second album No Cities Left in their native Canada. The record was put out the following year in the US and UK, with Bella Union the label in the latter. The epic album has now received a ‘Definitive 20th Anniversary Edition’ release which sees it appear on double white vinyl with new artwork. The band’s Murray Lightburn took time out of his Montreal day to chat with God Is In The TV’s Andy Page about the album and a bit more besides.
GIITTV: Will the new 20th anniversary issue of No Cities Left be available here in the UK, or is it a US and Canada release?
ML: Yes it’s out everywhere – I have the list here including Rough Trade, Resident, Norman Records and some more in the EU. So yeah, they’ve got it in a few shops out there which is which has been a problem in the past, for the past like I don’t know, like 10 or 15 years. We just did a new distribution deal for our records Worldwide, so we’re seeing it play out with this release. This is the first release that we’re doing with them and we recently regained control of our entire catalogue, which is pretty rare for a band of our age. Usually you sign your name in blood and you give up your first born for a record contract! But we were lucky enough to be able to get some of our rights back and I think there’s just one record in one territory that expires this summer.
Are you thinking of doing a box set or something along those lines?
I mean, there’s definitely some reissuing talks – there’s some records that were never really available. There’s some records that were never printed on vinyl. There’s some records that are completely out of print everywhere. So just thinking of reprinting, you know, another edition just to have on the shelves. It always surprises me, you know, when you reprint a record that you know, you still manage to sell them. You know this is, I think the third or fourth time we’ve printed No Cities Left and it still sells. It’s a funny thing that always surprises me because when you know when we released our very, very, very, very, very first album in 1999 on our own, you know our first CD, I didn’t know what to expect. I just thought, you know, if we sold like 100 of them, it would be cool.
You know, because I was quite green at the time about the music biz and record sales and all that kind of those metrics you know and and so it’s, it’s fascinating to me that you could have a record that is, you know you know, 20 years old and print a few more and people will will buy it some. A lot of them for the first time ever, you know. I feel very lucky in that respect.
I think that people particularly love No Cities Left, it’s an incredible album. They might be buying a copy for friends to introduce someone else to it?
Yeah, I mean, however, whatever the circumstances, I don’t know. You know how it goes, but you know, we’re grateful for it. It’s a gift for us, and I hope for the people who are still enjoying it and are just enjoying it for the first time. I mean, every time I listen to it, I’m shocked at like what it was, what we made. I don’t want to go as far as calling it lightning in a bottle, but as far as around here, internally it it’ll be the closest thing that we’ll ever get to lightning in a bottle is making that record. And it’s informed by so many circumstances of the time, you know, a lot of it was written in the wake of 9/11. I remember when we were demoing, we were recording demos at the time in our in this basement studio that we had. And we had like a 16 track recorder and we were just, you know, doing it ourselves in this basement and I remember we were scheduled to go in to record demos for ‘The Second Part’and ‘Never Destroy Us’ and we’d been working on those songs. So we were getting ready to go in and like, just try out, you know, some ideas on the on the recorder and the first call I get is from one of the guys in the band. He was like, are you watching the news right now? Like what? What’s going on? You know, it’s like a plane just flew into the World Trade Center in New York. It’s like what? That’s not real, you know, and I turn on the TV and the next plane flies right in, as soon as I turn into TV. And it was such a surreal thing to experience in real time on television, you know, at that time and it just didn’t feel real at all. Everybody was really freaking scared, even up here in Canada, you know, I mean, I think people all over the world were pretty scared about what was gonna happen next. And so a lot of that anxiety was is felt on this record, you know.
Does it seem like 20 years ago that you recorded No Cities Left?
The last 20 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Really, it doesn’t feel like it’s a lot of time has passed. It feels like time is moving too quickly and I think I think that’s really more telling of what I feel I still have left to give, but also who and what I’m surrounded by makes me feel like like every day and every moment is precious. And it’s not to sound cheesy, but it just feels to me that like I never want this to end, you know, and it just feels like it’s just slipping away so fast, you know? I’m in my 50s now, and I’m going right through Snipers’ Alley, as we say!
There are a lot of people playing on the record – was it a comfortable record to make or was it quite difficult?
It’s hard to say it depends on what aspect you’re talking about, like from a writing point perspective, it was very inspired. The writing was very inspired, inspired, it came not…I wouldn’t say it came easily, but the ideas were just flowing so that the only challenge there was just grabbing everything that was there that was coming out. It was just like a like a like a faucet. Like, just like, just just pouring out. And so there was no shortage; the problem was, you know controlling it. You know, we were very lucky; we hadn’t got a real record deal at the time. We didn’t have a publishing deal at the time. So when we licensed songs to film and television that paid for the making of that record. And, you know, we were in the studio for quite a while and and we paid for it all ourselves with no help. You know just from the money that we made from being out in the world.
Are you still pleased with it, when you listen to it now, the production and so on?
Even now, whenever I have to check out the test pressings or like, go through it again, and I have to sit and listen to it from front to back. You know, I don’t normally do that, like, ever. Ever.
Like I never listen to a stitch of any Dears records unless I absolutely have to. I just can’t. I just can’t! I’ll listen to it to make sure everything’s buttoned down and it’s ready to go into production.
But once that happens and it’s approved and it’s gone to master and it’s mastered and it’s finished and it’s ready to go out to production, I will never listen to it again. It just goes on the shelf like all the other ones!
I’ve been playing your later records a lot recently, like Times Infinity Volumes One and Two, and (latest album from 2020) Lovers Rock. They seem more designed for vinyl (i.e. as they are much shorter), whileNo Cities Left seemed more for the CD age?
Yeah. I mean, there’s a difference between the CD era and then like the reality of the vinyl era, you know, like. Making double vinyl is fucking expensive! Let’s just admit that right now, and so that really does inform what we do moving forward, which is why we made Times Infinity Volume One and Two and spaced it out by two years – because we had written another No Cities Left in that length, but went through it all and then decided, OK, well, why don’t we just, like bite size this Part One and Part Two, which I would see us doing that again.
I just need to say to you, with it being this time of year, that I absolutely loved your Christmas single, that was quite a surprise! (‘Christmas Love’ came out as a standalone single in 2020)
Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. You know, let me tell you, there’s another one that has been written but has not been recorded yet, just because you have got to get them into production in the summer and.the time passes and I we never get it in the calendar to record. It also feels weird recording a Christmas song in the summer! And so the time has passed, so we’re going to have to try again next year.
It is funny to think that virtually every Christmas song you listen to would have been recorded in July or something like that!
It’s really hard to think about Christmas in the summer, but I may maybe I’ll just do it this Christmas and release it next year. I think that could be fun too, just ’cause we are gonna be together soon, so I might just add it to the slate.
When do you anticipate the next album being out?
Really, I think it’s entirely possible that you’ll hear new music from the band by the spring. The goal is by springtime we’ll hear a new a new track, a brand new track, and we’ll go from there to see what happens from there.
And might you visit the UK again? I know you’re doing the date in London in December, but do you think you might be back?
Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. We’ll always make an effort to come back to to England and and play shows, maybe head back to Leeds. I love Leeds and I mean, I love touring England.
I really do, I just love it. I love everything about it! It’s easier for us to get on a plane and come to England than it is to go into the States. Honestly, it’s so much more complicated. Any excuse for me to come over and get a Cornish pasty!
