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When looking for adjectives to describe The Dears there’s only one that really does the band justice — indomitable. Since their inception in Montreal almost fifteen years ago vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Murray Lightburn and keyboardist/backing vocalist Natalia Yanchuk, with assistance from a seemingly ever changing cast of supporting musicians, have carved out an enviable, yet hard won, niche in the Canadian alternative rock-pop landscape. Static’s Chris Berkley recently spoke to Murray about their new bluesy opus Missiles‘ recent Australian release, the game of musical chairs with The Dears’ other musicians, the trials and tribulations of being the group’s de-facto leader and finding inspiration in the unlikeliest of situations.

Hi Murray how are you doing?

I’m doing great thanks.

You’re at home at the moment with your feet up perhaps?

Yeah I’m just doing some renovations in my studio in the basement of my house.

Are you expanding the studio or just tweaking a few things?

A little bit of both. When we started making Gang of Losers we worked in the house but we didn’t have a lot of time to set it up so we did some kind of makeshift work. Pretty sketchy stuff but now that I have a bit more time to do it right I’ve gone a lot deeper than anticipated. One thing led to another and the next thing I know I’m tearing this out or building this or building that… (to someone in the background: “Watch your finger!”).

So you’re knee-deep in drywall at the moment are you Murray?

Actually, quite literally, yes! (laughs)

Well apart from making the studio to make the records in, it’s nice that Missiles has finally got a release in Australia. I mean it has sort of been a slow-burning release schedule for this record: it came out in the states last year and for a while you guys were shopping it around in America after you finished recording it, right?

Yeah, I mean The Dears are once again at a crossroads and we’re just trying to move to the next… checkpoint? (laughs) And I think that basically Missiles was the train that is carrying us over to the next checkpoint.

There’s always a story with each Dears record isn’t there? I mean was the making of Missiles fraught to get over that line?

Actually making Missiles was pretty easy, it wasn’t hard at all. Gang of Losers wasn’t hard to make either. I think the hardest record to make to date was probably No Cities Left. That was an extremely difficult record to create.

But if that’s my gauge then looking back I guess y’know Missiles was hard to make, but I wouldn’t know it because my pain threshold is so high. (laughs)

Well you did shed some members along the way though. Was that something hard to deal with when you’re trying to make a record or did you work out that you didn’t need people to make an album?

You always need people to make an album. You just need the right people, and unfortunately at that time when we were making Missiles The Dears weren’t stocked with the right people, at that time. So there was a bit of changeover before, during and after the making of that album and it really sent myself and Natalia on quite the emotional tailspin, but we forged on and we’re still forging on and I think if we’ve learnt anything it’s just how utterly unstoppable the force of The Dears is.

You’re sounding very diplomatic about it but is it sort of a thing where the people that were in the band…?

…what do you wanna know? Do you want the dirt? What? Ask away.

I’m just kind of interested to know. Were these people not on the same page as you musically or are you a hard taskmaster Murray?

I think the thing is that for a while… it’s tough trying to maintain a democracy and yet have a leader, and for a long time -– in fact the entire history of The Dears -– I’ve reluctantly been leader and have only led when clearly no-one is leading anything (chuckles) . So it’s a difficult position to be in because you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

Somehow the blame game will always be played in a way where the leader gets the losing hand, and I mean it sucks but what do you do? I mean I didn’t sign up for any of this shit. I just write songs and try to work with people to facilitate those songs and get them out to people to hear them. And ultimately when I get out on stage and see people singing along to every song, then my work here is done. But unfortunately there is so much more involved, and so much in between that creation of songs and that sea of people in front of you singing those words and knowing that song. From the industry side, to the inter-relationships in the band — egos — to recording and the physical part of it, getting in a van… there’s just roadblock after roadblock and you have to put the pedal to the metal and bust through every single one of them.

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