The Dears

Led by the husband-wife team of vocalist/guitarist Murray A. Lightburn and keyboardist Natalia Yanchak, The Dears were an integral part of the wildly inventive early-2000s Montreal indie-rock scene. Lightburn formed The Dears in 1995 with several other musicians; lineup changes ensued and Yanchak joined in 1998. Inspired by pop dramatists like The Smiths and Blur, the group started playing out in earnest in 2000, the same year they debuted with the scrappy full-length End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story. The Dears found a larger international audience with 2003’s No Cities Left, which featured “Lost in the Plot”, a single that paired orchestral grandeur with Morrissey’s swooning vibe. The 2006 album Gang of Losers continued to nod to melodramatic British acts—notably on the meditative, piano-dominated “You and I Are a Gang of Losers”—while throwing in moments of louder guitars. Subsequent albums have found The Dears exploring funk rock, soul and synth-pop, especially on 2015’s Times Infinity, Vol. One and 2017's Times Infinity, Vol. Two, and returning to a pop-oriented realm in 2022 on Return to Lovers Rock. Lightburn also maintains a solo career and released Once Upon A Time in Montréal in 2023.