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LOCKIMARA
Only Sun, Only Moon (Play Dead)
Add date: 7.28.2026
Release date: 7.24.2026
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Only Sun, Only Moon, the sophomore album by Lockimara, draws from multiple years of upheaval, loss, and an international move for project mastermind Nicholas Gay. It finds the New York-by-way-of-Toronto artist feeling unstable yet determined, and working through the deep sense of fear, risk, and uncertainty that comes with change. Across these nine songs, Gay balances conflicting feelings of impatience and resignation, and the different kinds of emotions that emerge from leaning into both. In blending acoustic delicateness, experimental textures, and dance-forward electronics, Lockimara transforms influence into ingenuity to create a uniquely genre-less collection, making Only Sun, Only Moon a body of work that feels at once familiar, bold, and intensely personal.
In 2024, Gay left a job in social work in Vancouver and moved to Toronto in order to reunite with his past band members from university, looking to revive Lockimara’s live presence after years of only writing and recording. The move forced him to finally commit fully to a career in music, and resulted in his 2025 debut album, A Vision Again. The striking 14-song collection was an ode to Gay’s longing to join the pantheon of his influences, which range from early obsessions like Elliott Smith, the Postal Service, and My Bloody Valentine–who compelled him to teach himself guitar and piano as a teenager, chasing their ability to make melancholy feel like relief–to later inspirations that include A.G. Cook, Spirit of the Beehive, and Imogen Heap.
A year later, he found himself moving again, this time to New York to pursue a master’s degree in music production, all as a long-term relationship came to an end. Amidst this migration and tumult, and using his continual commitment to music as a north star, Gay began to adopt new perspectives on life. The confidence and flexibility of his early twenties had been slowly fading, and he felt a deeper sense of humility and respect for his changing environments and communities. Only Sun, Only Moon emerged out of these feelings: fear, anger, desperation, and awe all felt closer than ever before, and he was compelled to explore that musically. Gay wrote and produced the album in its entirety, and performs nearly all the instrumentation himself. Through the process, he also discovered a new creative side of himself in songs such as album opener “Tastes Like” as well as “Lose Her,” leaning into a dancey, electronic pop sound that was hinted at in his prior release, but never fully realized.
An ambitious melding of genres, “Tastes Like” is a topographic map to the varied sonic terrain of Only Sun, Only Moon–where every melody carries a familiar imprint but as a whole feels fresh and bold. Fuzz-driven bass guides the listener into a sample-heavy, glitchy environment, where the hooks are the only constant amid instruments continually traded out for even greater depths. A song about change, it is weighted by a palpable sense of surrender as Gay recognizes his own personal faults amidst failed relationships and insecurity.
He sorts through the end of a long-term relationship on The Weakerthans-meets-Rogue Wave track “Every Day.” The verses reflect the conflicted feelings of being let down by someone you love, while also knowing they’re going through something of their own; the choruses in turn represent a kind of healing–imagining an alternate reality where instead they _did_ pull through for you. All in all, the song expresses a wonder and joy in being in love despite tension–its strange, almost uncanny sound the result of Gay reversing basically every melody he wrote, and then half-timing it.
“December” is the painful processing of a relationship’s final goodbye, the decision’s weight contrasted by the tempo’s poppyness and the nakedness of the song’s piano-lead refrain. With its glitch-heavy production, buzzing bass, candid lyrics, and intimate range of dynamics, the song is the full sonic culmination of everything Gay has been working on since A Vision Again.
The album’s title–and its two titular tracks–reflect a central paradox and dualism found across the songs. Gay wanted to explore the polarity within emotional, musical, and lyrical spectrums, and then tie each end together to make something cohesive, yet contrasting–whether it be through an A side/B side song structure, or between organic and digital, intimate and grand sounds. “Only Sun,” an urgent and emotional track about powerlessness and acceptance that plays out over a series of scenes, alludes to the distortion and maximalism heard throughout the album, while “Only Moon” leans into the tenderness and emotional complexity of Gay’s songwriting as he explores feelings of fear around multiple moves and unfamiliar environments.
With Only Sun, Only Moon, Lockimara further expands his sonic palette, finding his stride in fresh textures and increasingly unique production. After losing his footing due to relationship, job, and home changes, Gay transmuted his wide range of feelings into art that details an effort to find a sense of stability, and rediscover his voice in the process. The music and production on Only Sun, Only Moon work in tandem to conjure emotions and imagery that feel like a dream–vivid and surreal at the same time.
Photo Credit: Artemis Dara
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Spotify
Tidal
TikTok
YouTube
Only Sun, Only Moon, the sophomore album by Lockimara, draws from multiple years of upheaval, loss, and an international move for project mastermind Nicholas Gay. It finds the New York-by-way-of-Toronto artist feeling unstable yet determined, and working through the deep sense of fear, risk, and uncertainty that comes with change. Across these nine songs, Gay balances conflicting feelings of impatience and resignation, and the different kinds of emotions that emerge from leaning into both. In blending acoustic delicateness, experimental textures, and dance-forward electronics, Lockimara transforms influence into ingenuity to create a uniquely genre-less collection, making Only Sun, Only Moon a body of work that feels at once familiar, bold, and intensely personal.
In 2024, Gay left a job in social work in Vancouver and moved to Toronto in order to reunite with his past band members from university, looking to revive Lockimara’s live presence after years of only writing and recording. The move forced him to finally commit fully to a career in music, and resulted in his 2025 debut album, A Vision Again. The striking 14-song collection was an ode to Gay’s longing to join the pantheon of his influences, which range from early obsessions like Elliott Smith, the Postal Service, and My Bloody Valentine–who compelled him to teach himself guitar and piano as a teenager, chasing their ability to make melancholy feel like relief–to later inspirations that include A.G. Cook, Spirit of the Beehive, and Imogen Heap.
A year later, he found himself moving again, this time to New York to pursue a master’s degree in music production, all as a long-term relationship came to an end. Amidst this migration and tumult, and using his continual commitment to music as a north star, Gay began to adopt new perspectives on life. The confidence and flexibility of his early twenties had been slowly fading, and he felt a deeper sense of humility and respect for his changing environments and communities. Only Sun, Only Moon emerged out of these feelings: fear, anger, desperation, and awe all felt closer than ever before, and he was compelled to explore that musically. Gay wrote and produced the album in its entirety, and performs nearly all the instrumentation himself. Through the process, he also discovered a new creative side of himself in songs such as album opener “Tastes Like” as well as “Lose Her,” leaning into a dancey, electronic pop sound that was hinted at in his prior release, but never fully realized.
An ambitious melding of genres, “Tastes Like” is a topographic map to the varied sonic terrain of Only Sun, Only Moon–where every melody carries a familiar imprint but as a whole feels fresh and bold. Fuzz-driven bass guides the listener into a sample-heavy, glitchy environment, where the hooks are the only constant amid instruments continually traded out for even greater depths. A song about change, it is weighted by a palpable sense of surrender as Gay recognizes his own personal faults amidst failed relationships and insecurity.
He sorts through the end of a long-term relationship on The Weakerthans-meets-Rogue Wave track “Every Day.” The verses reflect the conflicted feelings of being let down by someone you love, while also knowing they’re going through something of their own; the choruses in turn represent a kind of healing–imagining an alternate reality where instead they _did_ pull through for you. All in all, the song expresses a wonder and joy in being in love despite tension–its strange, almost uncanny sound the result of Gay reversing basically every melody he wrote, and then half-timing it.
“December” is the painful processing of a relationship’s final goodbye, the decision’s weight contrasted by the tempo’s poppyness and the nakedness of the song’s piano-lead refrain. With its glitch-heavy production, buzzing bass, candid lyrics, and intimate range of dynamics, the song is the full sonic culmination of everything Gay has been working on since A Vision Again.
The album’s title–and its two titular tracks–reflect a central paradox and dualism found across the songs. Gay wanted to explore the polarity within emotional, musical, and lyrical spectrums, and then tie each end together to make something cohesive, yet contrasting–whether it be through an A side/B side song structure, or between organic and digital, intimate and grand sounds. “Only Sun,” an urgent and emotional track about powerlessness and acceptance that plays out over a series of scenes, alludes to the distortion and maximalism heard throughout the album, while “Only Moon” leans into the tenderness and emotional complexity of Gay’s songwriting as he explores feelings of fear around multiple moves and unfamiliar environments.
With Only Sun, Only Moon, Lockimara further expands his sonic palette, finding his stride in fresh textures and increasingly unique production. After losing his footing due to relationship, job, and home changes, Gay transmuted his wide range of feelings into art that details an effort to find a sense of stability, and rediscover his voice in the process. The music and production on Only Sun, Only Moon work in tandem to conjure emotions and imagery that feel like a dream–vivid and surreal at the same time.
Photo Credit: Artemis Dara