Lightning Dust wrote their first songs for Christmas presents. Leah Pritchard meets member Josh Wells.

Aside from Nat King Cole or Santa Claus himself, there are very few people who it is more appropriate to interview at Christmas than Lightning Dust's Josh Wells. Consisting of Wells and fellow Black Mountain member Amber Webber, this is a band who realised their potential outside Vancouver's classic rock revivalists when they recorded a six-song EP together to give to family and friends as Christmas presents. Their second album, Infinite Light, evokes the wintry nostalgia we so often crave during the holiday season, without the contrived feeling of faux-religious sentiment.

"I usually can't stand Christmas music. If you can bring a new sentiment to the holiday season, whatever it is – Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa – then that's cool."

Wells has been touring for close to fourteen years - ever since he was old enough to leave home - and Lightning Dust have just finished a tour of the US and Canada with fellow folk musicians The Cave Singers.

"We get along really well, this was a really smooth tour for us. We had time to eat some good regional food and go gambling. Go to some swimming holes and hot springs."

Joining the band on tour were Amber's sister Ashley on bass and harmonies and Ryan Peters of Ladyhawk on drums and guitar. "Our first album was comprised mostly of songs that could be performed as a duo. We got a little bit more ambitious and it seemed like it was a good thing to orchestrate them. We started with the foundation and then built just to where we thought it was enough for the song."

Wells is no stranger to performing with other musicians, being a member of the Black Mountain Army, which comprises a huge number of musicians, artists and friends in Vancouver. "We're very isolated from the rest of Canada. We wanted to celebrate all the people around us who have been doing such great work for years and years and years and this was our little way of paying tribute to them. Canada's a large country geographically so there's a lot of separation between the cities. Broken Social Scene have their own thing going in Toronto, they seem like cool people."

With their latest album, the band has been receiving a lot more attention as an important project in its own right, instead of just an offshoot of this collective. "There are people coming out who aren't fans of Black Mountain and who discovered us first. It's kinda cool that way." Amongst these fans is former Sleater-Kinney guitarist and NPR music blogger, Carrie Brownstein, who recently filmed an interview with the band which only saw the light as part of an elaborate apology video. "She came to our show in New York and she had an idea for an interview and it... well, it didn't really work out. We definitely have no regrets! The editing is great, the video is hilarious."