We are so feeling LIGHTHEADED
Cynthia Rittenbach and Stephen Stec founded LIGHTHEADED on the Jersey Shore in 2017, aligning with a rotating crew of drummers, guitarists and backup vocalists. After releasing their debut EP and debut album the following year, they have already embarked on some big tours and played some prestigious janglefests—even playing alongside legends like Heavenly, The Softies, and The Ladybug Transistor. Next up is Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!, out in late June on Slumberland in the U.S. and the UK’s Skep Wax label. It was recorded on the right coast with Gary Olson and the best coast with Alicia Vanden Heuvel, with Fred Thomas adding some reverb from the country’s midsection. The songs contain all the swoons and la-la-las of all great pop and feature guest spots from Starcleaner Reunion and Trinket. We caught up with them about their new album, favorite records and summer plans!
Interview by Jen Sbragia / Images courtesy of Lightheaded
Chickfactor: Please introduce yourselves, and tell us what instruments you play.
I’m Cynthia, I play bass and the xylophone. And sing.
I’m Stephen, I play guitar.
Tell us about the new songs!
Cynthia: we recorded them with only the best. We had a huge group of all of our friends and some of our biggest idols to help record and produce. Recorded it on both coasts in New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Some songs with Gary Ladybug, others with Alicia Aislers. Crash Landing of the Clod stands out, all the heartbreak ones always do. Same Drop really, too. It’s sort of an endearing little tune that makes me think visually of umbrellas and binoculars.
Stephen: they’re all newer stuff for us, too. Pretty short songs. Everything pretty much written in 2023/2024 during a sort of wilderness period. Most songs are about falling in and out of love, besides the super obvious one. I think overall, this batch of songs are a little more direct than we’ve been in the past. Maybe we were just going through a phase? We also had a really good group of pals hanging out with us to track on both coasts. Jo and Adam from Starcleaner Reunion added a ton on this album, as did Sara and Madison on quite a few tracks. I hear them so much on the songs they played on, it makes me quite happy.
What is your songwriting process like? Is it collaborative or do you each come to the table with fully formed pieces?
Cynthia: I think most songs are very much a combination of our ideas melted together. Some start with my musical melodies… other times some chords, or a rhythm I like. Other times, just Stephen’s lyrics can be inspiring. But either way, I do really enjoy adding the finishing touches. That part of the process always stands out as one of the most fulfilling. I had a lot of fun on this record doing things we never really did before, like bird sounds and xylophones.
Stephen: yeah, for every song, it’s a total collaboration. There’s never been a single Lightheaded song where we both don’t contribute a lot of ideas to whoever started the initial thought. Like, even if Cynthia writes a whole song, I’ll still write the lyrics for everything, which are very important to the direction of a track. And if I write a whole song, Cynthia will still completely influence the sound by writing the rhythm parts and adding melodies. That openness is really important and freeing to what we are.
What are some of your influences that might surprise people to learn?
Cynthia: I’ve been really into ’90s rave lately.
Stephen: She’s been playing a lot of Method Man and Wu Tang.
Cynthia: Oh yeah, Wu Tang. Shout out Wu Tang. Also, I started following a new playlist. It’s called ‘Best Gregorian Chants’…
Stephen: I myself rip off a lot of Arthur Rimbaud and Tupac.
Are you inspired by non musical things, like art or fashion…?
Cynthia: learning about how computers work has been influencing the world around me. Life is all about systems. It’s made me try to look at things more efficiently. It’s sort of given me a fresh view on my process of creativity.
Stephen: hm, maybe some old video games with 8 bit graphics and memorable soundtracks, I’d say WWE Wrestling, surrealist poetry too, but mainly for me, it’s my students. They are very inspirational in a lot of different ways. The things they do, the comings and goings of their life that they share. Sometimes I’ll even grab a lyric from something they say, or that I’ll say to them. It happened once with ‘Crash Landing of the Clod,’ when I experienced a sixteen year old very loudly trying to have ‘a one on one conversation in a quiet room’. I was like “you have to stop, it’s silent reading,” lolol!
Where would you like to tour or play that you haven’t been yet?
Cynthia: Japan and Germany.
Stephen: Das uber cool, Cindy. Yeah, for us, it was always really France and Japan, but we are crossing France off the list in July. Wee wee! Pretty exciting stuff! Uhm, so that leaves Japan for me, then, I think… New Zealand…?!
Tell us about your day jobs.
Cynthia: I am a computer science major right now. Looking forward to an internship.
Stephen: I am a teacher. I love the kids and summers, but the profession has its tribulations. It’s changed a lot. I might leave one day. I keep a list of jobs I think I’d be good at if I didn’t teach English. My top 3 right now are an ambulance driver, meteor hunter, or taste tester. I guess I’m open to job offers.
If you could have a time machine, what long-defunct bands would you go see?
Cynthia: John Lennon or John Legend.
Stephen: The 3 Stooges.
What’s next for Lightheaded?
Cynthia: I’ve recently gotten a Fostex tape machine, Tascam mixer, and Pro VLA II compressor that I’m looking forward to tracking our next record with in upstate New York with my friends. It feels like one of the most promising lineups yet, to play with Gavin and Madison… hopefully Jacki more, too. We are going to make something special.
Stephen: For the meantime, we have an EP coming out on a great green vinyl for Slumberland/Skep Wax called Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! on June 27, 2025. Featuring hot new indie pop trax about binoculars, magic carpets, Amelia Fletcher, and a whole lot more you can shake your tambourine to. The b-side of the vinyl will have our debut EP, its first vinyl release. We’re going to play a fun album release show with our buddies Jeanines, Love/Burns, and The Frenchmen, before heading out to Paris and the UK to tour the album for two weeks. We are particularly excited to play July 19th at the Lexington in London with HEAVENLY and to close out the Glas-Goes Pop Festival with an after party at Stephen Pastels record shop. But truly, tell us what’s next for Lightheaded. Drop us a line wherever you can find us!
Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! is out June 27. The first pressing LP is on minty green vinyl. The cassette version only includes songs 1-5; the rest are on the Good Good Great! tape.
BUY: Slumberland Records is releasing it in the U.S.
BUY: Skep Wax Records is releasing it in the UK.
LISTEN to the first single here.
Records Cynthia Cannot Live Without
Margo Guryan ‘Take A Picture’
Masculin Feminin soundtrack
The Pastels ‘Truckload of Trouble’
The Smiths ‘Strangeways Here We Come’
Dusty Springfield ‘Dusty’
The Particles ‘1980s Bubblegum’
Kraftwerk ‘Computer World’
Belle and Sebastian ‘The Life Pursuit’
Grimes ‘Visions’
Lush ‘Split’
Records Stephen Cannot Live Without
Felt ‘Strange Idol Patterns and Other Short Stories’
The Monkees ‘Greatest Hits’
Beat Happening ‘S/T’
The Magnetic Fields ‘69 Love Songs’
Jonathan Richman ‘I, Jonathan’
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart ‘S/T’
Masculin Feminin soundtrack
The Byrds ‘Younger Than Yesterday’
Rocketship ‘A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness’
The Feelies ‘The Good Earth’
