If you were cool in the ’90s, you listened to grunge and bands from the second coming of punk. If you weren’t quite as cool, you listened to “alternative rock” including Third Eye Blind, Sister Hazel and the Wallflowers. And then if you weren’t cool at all–like, really stuck on your parents’ favorite songs–you listened to Top 40 radio. But for Valerie Poxleitner, better known as LIGHTS, Top 40 radio was the primer that jump-started her career in music. Now 22 years old and on this summer’s Warped Tour, Lights has listened to and played music from a wide array of genres, all of which have influenced the synth-heavy tunes she whittles out in her bedroom today. –Chris French


If you were to make a mixtape from your childhood, which bands would be included?

Believe it or not, I was really into a band called DC Talk. Plus, you’re going to laugh, but I was so into Céline Dion, and, like, Barbra Streisand and this band called Jars Of Clay, who are awesome. So it [would be] kind of a mixed bag. I was raised as a missionary kid; I was overseas in the Philippines and all I had to listen to was whatever the Christian music was that my parents had in the house and then whatever else crossed over mainstream on Philippine radio, which was like the major pop stuff, like Michael Jackson, Céline Dion, you know, all the stuff that was huge at the time.

So do you have one or two favorite songs by any of those artists?

Oh yeah. Céline Dion’s “The Power Of Love,” I knew every word–every word–to, and I would sit there and practice. And that was probably how I got my voice feet on, you know, like, really started to learn how to stand because of people like Céline Dion.

You said your parents were missionaries while you were growing up. Was traveling so much at a young age hard on you?

I think quite the opposite. I was really conditioned to be used to traveling and always not being settled and, you know, making friends and leaving friends. And it really actually prepared me for life on the road, being a musician now: I get uncomfortable if I’m in one place too long, and I’m okay with being friends with someone at a distance and not always having to have them there with me. So it was kind of like, at an early age, tour boot camp. [Laughs.]

You experimented with a boatload of different genres throughout high school–pop-punk, metal, melodramatic acoustic. Were the genres you listened to during that time as eclectic as the bands you played in?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. It all moved with the times. When I started off in high school, probably my favorite bands were, like, Blindside and Underoath. I was really into Cradle Of Filth for a while. What else? Silverchair were a big influence during that time, [and] I listened to Tool a lot while I was in the metal band. Then all the Warped Tour influences started coming through. I went to Warped Tour for the first time when I was 14, and kept going back every year. I was actually a big fan of Silverstein [then].

You’ve said that one of your primary influences is Björk. Do you remember a specific moment–maybe going to one of her concerts or listening to one of her CDs–that really had a big impact on you musically?

I first really, really started getting into Bjork with her record Vespertine. I was mesmerized by the cover; and then I started listening to it and there are all these quirky sounds around her music. There were still really great songs underneath, but she’s using all these textures and everything that’s just hard to get your ears off of. And then I ended up going to her lyrics, and the way that she puts everything, approaching it from different angles that I wouldn’t have previously thought to write that way. So that was my first attraction with her, and as I learned more about her, she’s so unlimited and she has no bounds. And obviously she’s a woman who clearly knows what she wants, and that was really inspiring to me.

How about any non-Björk musical moments?

Probably getting into Cyndi Lauper years ago. I kind of grew up as an insecure kid, and she wasn’t traditionally the most beautiful girl ever or had the most attractive voice, but there was something so cold about Cyndi Lauper. And her songs are amazing; they’re quirky and melodic. So I just started grasping on to Cyndi Lauper, because I felt like I could be like that one day. Even to this day Cyndi Lauper’s huge for me. Also, Phil Collins is a big influence for me as far as song writing goes. “In The Air Tonight”: I heard that on the radio for the first time and that song blew my mind. Ever since then I always envisioned that snare sound–it’s this massive, reverb snare–and I’m like, “I’m going to use that in one of my songs some day.” So you’re going to hear that snare sound in my new record all over the place. [Laughs.] ALT

Lights Wouldn’t Exist Without

DC Talk: “They’re probably the first band I owned every CD of and listened to for the longest time. They essentially taught me how to write in so many different genres. You know, they started out as this little rap band and then they went to, like, pop-punk, and then they went to rock and then super-pop radio. So that was my first experience with crossing genres and still being the same artist.”

Björk: “She’s a woman who does it entirely for herself and has her own world and her own sound–nobody can touch Björk. She sings with the most honesty and creativity that I’ve ever heard.”

Supertramp: “Honestly, my Dad grew up a Supertramp fan, as well, so it’s always been in the house, always been in the background. Their songs are so brilliant and fun and well-structured, but yet creative and cool.”