LEAGUE OF LIGHTS
Irresistible art-pop project from Threshold’s keyboard player and his vocalist wife.
THE BRITISH ART-POP/prog lite duo League Of Lights are back with a third album that was conceived largely during lockdown. The husband and wife team of keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Richard and singer Farrah West set out to cheer up their fans, and consequently themselves, via Dreamers Don’t Come Down.
“The album was mostly written and recorded during those months of ups and downs,” comments Farrah West. “It’s sometimes annoying but I have this habit of maintaining hope, which never dwindles, even when things look really awful. So it would be great if somebody listening got the sense that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it’s a really, really long one.”
The album’s birth certainly proved therapeutic for the Wests.
“The first lockdown was a blur of writing, recording and walking for an hour a day,” affirms Farrah, “and we have something now that we’re massively proud of to show for that time.”
Spookily, one of its best selections, Twenty Twenty One, was written before the pandemic, back in 2019. “It seemed to be so prophetic given the circumstances that we felt we couldn’t wait to put it out there on the album,” Farrah explains.
Dreamers… offers some interesting songs. Modern Living, for instance, rails at the impact of social media upon real friendships.
“That was the first song that we recorded for the album,” she nods. “And yes you’re right, it does a bit!
Weirdly [due to quarantine] more of life is moving online than ever before, but at the end of the day, I think after the last year we do know who our real friends are.”
The track The Collector will surely resonate with Prog
readers.“In terms of them being collectors? We hope it does,” Farrah says with a laugh.“It’s actually about the non-physical things that we choose to collect, like insults or compliments, and how that affects us down the road.”
League Of Lights inhabit the difficult, grey area that lies in between ethereal pop and electronic-based progressive rock.
“We’ve definitely picked up some open-minded prog fans, for sure,” Farrah believes. “Some pop fans found us via YouTube and Spotify, too.”
According to Richard West, who has served as the keyboardist of Threshold since 1992, some followers of that band are gradually coming on board.
“Although we’re very different stylistically, Threshold songs like Colophon, The Hours and The Man Who Saw Through Time all started out as League songs, and some of our new League songs such as Twenty Twenty One, Ghosts, Persephone could equally have become Threshold tracks.”
And talking of Threshold, Richard is happy to reveal that work is underway on a long-overdue successor to 2017’s 11th studio record, Legends
Of The Shires.
“We started writing last year and it’s coming along very well,” he confides. “Most of the songs are now written so hopefully the recording will begin soon. I don’t know whether it’ll be out late this year or early in 2022, but it’s definitely on the way.”
“THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, EVEN IF IT’S A REALLY, REALLY LONG ONE.”