We’d all like to live in a pleasant self-deception from time to time. And it's even better when we can get someone else to do the heavy lifting. That's the philosophy behind “Lie to Me,” on which Ontario alt-popper Punch the Camel revisits a relationship he now knows was just a mirage—but one that still beckons him just the same.
“What if I called you and said that I wanted you again?” he wonders. “Is it hopeless, or would you just try to break my heart again?” Hmmm … sounds like a bit of a no-win scenario either way the coin falls. But only if one insists on living in reality, which may not be an absolute deal-breaker here:
“I liked it better when you lie to me,” he admits.
Emotional ambivalence is no foreign concept to Dylan Tykolis, the gifted singer-songwriter-instrumentalist who is Punch the Camel. His music thrives on lyrical and stylistic friction, following an overarching goal to craft melodic sing-alongs from sentiments with darker undertones. There's no better example than “Lie to Me,” which weds propulsive and upbeat (almost rollicking) music to fatalistic romantic lyrics in way that hasn’t been done this effectively since the ’90s heyday of anthemic defeatism. (Think Sponge and Duncan Sheik in a blender, with a bit of Puddle of Mudd to the vocal.)
And it’s road-tested, too. “Lie to Me” is the spotlight track from the debut Punch the Camel album, all seven songs of which were honed carefully at open mics over the course of five years. Tykolis had a repertoire of about 40 originals to choose from when he began recording, ensuring that only the absolute cream of the crop would get laid down before being sent off to Montreal for Glenn Robinson to mix (and finally to Los Angeles to be mastered by the great Howie Weinberg).
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And if that sounds like a painstaking process, well, Tykolis has had to learn a thing or two about perseverance. His personal history includes a crippling opioid addiction, a lengthy stay in rehab and the concurrent collapse of supposedly loving relationship. In the process, he's relocated from his hometown of Fort Erie to Montreal to Niagara Falls to Toronto and now back home again. Through it all, he’s kept learning and growing, refining his unique take on the world and the musical skills that enable him to share it with such a … well, punch.
Expect plenty more in 2025, as he continues to write, record and release world-class material that uses the sweetest pop to carry the bitter sting of truth. No lies detected.
