Lockimara Drops His Guard on “December” — and It’s the Best Thing He’s Done

Nicholas Gay has spent most of his life as Lockimara veiling his emotions in stories and fiction. “December,” the lead single from his forthcoming sophomore album Only Sun, Only Moon, is the exception. He wrote it in November, during a difficult goodbye with someone he loved, and decided the moment deserved honesty rather than metaphor. The result — buzzing bass, driving drums, a piano-led refrain, and an infectious melody wrapped around genuinely stark heartbreak — is the most vulnerable thing he’s made. He directed the video himself.

Only Sun, Only Moon arrives July 24 on Play Dead, built from years of upheaval: leaving social work in Vancouver, moving to Toronto to revive Lockimara’s live presence, then moving again to New York for a master’s in music production as a long-term relationship ended. Gay wrote and produced the entire album himself, playing nearly all the instruments. The record blends acoustic delicacy, glitchy experimental textures, and dance-forward electronics into something genuinely genre-less — familiar in pieces, fresh as a whole.

The reference points run from Elliott Smith, the Postal Service, and My Bloody Valentine — the records that made him teach himself guitar and piano as a teenager — through to A.G. Cook, Spirit of the Beehive, and Imogen Heap. Nine songs that explore the polarity between sun and moon, organic and digital, intimate and grand. Pre-order it below.

Pre-order Only Sun, Only Moon ↗

1“Tastes Life”

2“Every Day”

3“December”

4“Only Moon”

5“Lose Her”

6“Only Sun”

7“Stress”

8“Heart Beat”

9“Kissing You”