One of the most influential figures in the blossoming relationship between psychedelic art and electronic music, Android Jones is a name many music lovers are well aware of. For over a decade now as an independent artist, Android has been refining his talents in a way that makes his work instantly recognizable from the crowd. His work is truly without a comparison.
In addition to his impressive portfolio of artwork, Jones is responsible for some of the most mind-bending visual projection displays in music. Most notably working in tandem with Tipper (and this past year with the Grateful Dead), Android adds an element to the live show that stimulates the senses like nothing you’ve ever seen.
Recently, we had the chance to pick his brain and dive into a bunch of different topics regarding his art and live show. Take a look below and read up on his beginnings with Bassnectar, his working dynamic with Tipper, the massive Red Rocks show this past May and more.
When did the idea of real-time visual shows enter your mind? When then did the idea of merging it with live music come about?
“I had just quit my job in San Francisco in 2006. I came to grips that I kind of totally failed at running an international art hosting business with all my friends from college, and once I accepted that I had to move on. I basically needed a bus ticket, and my good friend Lorin (Bassnectar) called me up and wanted me to go on a bus tour with him for his Underground Communication tour. It was by far the best choice I had at the time and I was really left with no other option, being unemployed.
In order for me to go on the tour though, I needed a purpose. I always needed to be making art or doing something. If I was going to go on tour for a couple months, I needed to do something meaningful. Even at that time, from the DJ’s I’d seen, there was usually a projector or a piece of fabric behind them…some kind of visual element. I’ve been doing workshops in the past where I was making pieces of art in front of large audiences in an instructional format, so I figured why not do that. I could make a piece of art live and project it on a screen behind Lorin while he was DJ’ing. He really honestly couldn’t care less what I was doing, he just wanted me to come on the bus.
There were some shows where there were 20-30 people. The first night I went home and got really nervous about it. It was very intimidating at first, I just had this big piece of plastic and was way off to the left of the DJ. So Lorin’s playing his music and I’m controlling the screen in back of him. The attention would be on him, and then people would look at me and think “what the hell is this guy doing?” But then there were some people that started to notice the movements of my hand to the tempo and seeing the changes on this big projected piece of fabric. Once people started to see what was going on, I could get a sense of “Oh, ok. He has some kind of small purpose being on the stage right now. That’s acceptable.”
And that was it. I was totally hooked. I’m not much of a dancer, I just needed something to do. I loved hanging out with my friends and I wanted something to occupy my time that was creative…to feed that undying hunger of the creative process. Bassnectar’s Underground Communication tour was where it all started for me on stage.”
Could you ever envision yourself sharing the stage again with Lorin like when it all started?
“Oh, yeah I could. On the Underground Communication tour, that’s where I really got my feet wet. Back then in 2006 and 2007, the current, it’s hard for me to really describe what it felt like to be at shows back then. With Lorin, Random Rab, Glitch Mob and Beats Antique, we were all just buddies. We were all just hanging out with each other all the time. The vibrancy of the creative current in that particular moment was so electric, it was so on fire. Everybody was pushing deep and doing things they’ve never done before. It was a really beautiful time to be reckless and experimental…to really grow alongside your friends.
I adore Lorin, he’s a man I have a lot of deep respect and appreciation for. I would be surprised if our creative streams don’t end up crossing paths again before we’re done.”
“Embrace”
Can you describe your dynamic with Tipper at a live show? How do you stay on the same page when everything is unscripted?
“I think that’s part of the zen of having the responsibility that comes with being in control of this big giant rectangle at these events. Everything that I do is all unscripted and spontaneous, there’s no premade clips. I rarely ever know what kind of music he’s going to play, but I can do my work to a wide variety of different types of music and tempos. I’m the most on point when I have surrendered to the moment and to the experience, and as much lose myself to the music as much as possible.
I have this metaphor where it’s kind of like surfing. It’s up and down but there’s these places where the energies all kind of line up at the same time. You can’t even remember what you did a second ago, but you’re so close to the edge of how things are happening. Obviously the more familiar I become with Tipper’s music, the more second nature it all becomes. It’s tricky, because it seems once I start to think I can anticipate something, he throws us all for a loop. I just really need to be in the moment and be of service to the music.
Tipper is really different than everyone else. At the Red Rocks show, I wasn’t a VJ or a live visual artist. I like to think I was more like Tipper’s 4th dimensional sound hologram into a 2-dimensional visual translator for that gig. I was just trying to give a visual form to the languages that he was communicating and bringing forth to everybody. In a way, it’s how I dance to Tipper’s music. There’s such a care and excellence, a mastery of understanding how to create a sound that inspires unique and novel movements of the human body. I’m doing the same thing that people are doing on the dance-floor, except it’s on a big screen with thousands of little pixels.
There’s been so many gigs when I don’t even see Tipper before or after the show. It seems that once the lights go down he teleports in, he does his thing, then once everyone starts to pick up the shattered pieces of their mind after the show ends, he evaporates back into another point in time and space. I don’t spend too much time looking behind the curtain because I don’t want to know. He’s a magical, mysterious person.
If I’m lucky I’ll remember to ask his amazing manager if he’s going to start slow or fast, and end slow or fast. I like to know that. How something begins and how something ends is crucially important to the entire experience. If I can get that much out of it, I’m certainly excited.”
From your perspective as a visual artist, how does an Uptempo, Downtempo, and Ambient Tipper set differ? Especially in regards to preparation and execution
“Each one represents a completely different psychological state change. With uptempo, there’s obviously a higher intensity and it’s much more oriented towards the physical touch sensation of everyone dancing. You got all this kinetic movement. With uptempo there’s these moments of escalation and explosion and release, so there’s these recurring rhythms that happen. Because of that, I’m going to lean and push more towards the dynamic range of visuals that I do. I use more explosions and high intensity work…brighter, a lot more contrast. It’s much more visceral, I get my heart to reach that kind of a beat to immerse myself.
Downtempo, instead of escalation it’s much more exploration. You don’t know where the beat’s going to go. There’s more of a journey element to it. What I love about the downtempo is I have more time to build and react to what’s going on. So visually, I feel I can offer much more of a building, weaving display compared to uptempo. Even sometimes there can be a subjective narrative, because there’s so much room to operate. A lot of times when I’m making visuals, I’m thinking about sculpting the negative space around the music, not going over the music itself. Kind of being the ying to the yang. In downtempo you have the room to do that, and there’s also plenty of room and opportunity to dance.
With ambient, the patron kind of hands over the driving wheel and lies down. It’s a way deeper, longer journey. Your heartbeat is maybe even going slower than it was when you were standing up. It’s a much more cerebral experience, you sort of have the opportunity to dance with your own imagination. Because there’s not a lot of physical touch, your audio and visual senses are slightly heightened.”
“Wanderer Awake”
Psychedelic art seems to be finding a home with electronic music…Alex and Allyson Grey have been having great success with their COSM events. Johnathan Singer of course has been enjoying similar success. Can you speak on this seemingly match made in heaven between psychedelic art and today’s music?
“It’s pretty awesome, to say the least. What the Greys and Singer have been doing paves the way and the more of us that do it, the more people understand how special it is. As life forms we’ve been evolving and developing eyes and ears for hundreds of millions of years, and it’s great that they’ve evolved to this exact point right now where they can fully appreciate the overwhelming impact of psychedelic art and psychedelic music together.
Art is more of a need, not a want. There’s a need for people to have this kind of a sensory stimulation, and these events are some of the most disorienting and stimulation experiences we can conjure up. We’re more responding to the need that people have for this kind of experience in their life. I think it’s due to the fact that a lot of people get so much out of these events. They find a deeper type of meaning that reminds me of what I was experiencing as a teenager.”
What would you say is the most difficult aspect of your job that most fans wouldn’t know about? Conversely, what would you say is your favorite?
“Sometimes the most difficult part of the job, whether it’s visuals up on stage or art in my studio, is going so deep and vulnerable in the things that I’m trying to express. It’s like constantly sharing and taking the most intimate aspects of myself and putting it into a rectangle, then sharing it with an unknown audience of people. There’s a real challenge to that. It’s very hard for me sometimes to fully receive and let in the appreciation that fans might give me for my work.
Every human has their own degree of vulnerability, or insecurities about things. For me, there’s this part deep down inside that is always concerned that the audience is going to “discover me” for who I am. It seems the more admirers I would have, the more I would be suspicious as to why they would really like me. It truly almost seems too good to be reality. As an artist, most of my pieces I end up abandoning because I’m not satisfied with it. All the biggest gigs I’ve ever done, whether it’s Red Rocks, the Opera House, or the UN…until the projector goes live and my art is actually on the wall, I’m waiting for The Guy to pull me back by the collar and say, “We got ya! You almost got away with it this time but we got you right in time. You do not deserve to do this. You know it and I know it.” It’s the fear that this whole beautiful house of cards is going to fall down on you. So that’s hard I guess.
As far as the good things, it’s the entire collection of good things that keep me doing this. My favorite moments are probably the release of post-climactic stress. When there’s this kind of pause after something huge like Red Rocks, or a huge Burning Man event, or an art gallery…when all the pieces come together and you know you did the absolute best that you could’ve possibly done, and you’re free from any expectations, that’s the best feeling in the world.
Another great feeling is when I meet someone where my art landed exactly where it was supposed to land with them. As an artist, you know there’s an element of smoke and mirrors to it. In my case there could be pixels and shapes and lights and flashing colors. You look behind the curtain of Oz and you see the building blocks. It’s inspiring to know that there was a bit of real magic that came not only through the alchemy of your own efforts, but also the receptivity of their own consciousness. To know that you made a lasting impact on another human being, it’s pretty much as good as it gets.”
You had a massive show this past May at Red Rocks with Tipper, Ott, the Grey’s and Johnathan Singer. What was it like having all these amazing artists present in one location for a night? Can you describe your relationship with them?
“Awesome. One thing I enjoy so much, is how these types of experiences and events can become this mutually beneficial creative magnetism that happens among people. I know we’re so grateful that there’s a desire and there’s an audience that’ll support you flying in and doing this. The creative exchange and mutual appreciation going on between everyone, it was really special. I have a lot of respect for everyone that came together to make that show what it was, and I’m grateful for the way we create more opportunities together. Johnathan Singer is the one that hooked me up with Tipper and the Grateful Dead, and the Grey’s have been an inspiration for a long time. It’s an honor to work with all of them. Singer recently remixed some of my art into his visuals and for the Red Rocks poster, I included some of the Grey’s images.
Again, it could just be me, but I get this feeling where I think to myself “Oh my god. I can’t believe we just tricked everyone into hanging out with us at Red Rocks right now. We’re gonna get caught, it’s too good to be true.”
“Love Is A Riot”
Where are some of the most memorable settings you’ve ever had the opportunity to do your work at?
“The obvious gigs like the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House, the royal family of Abu Dhabi, those are all amazing. But to be honest, the level of stress, anticipation and fear of something going wrong at the time, I wouldn’t say it was the ideal environment for art creation. For me, I really enjoy making art on the back porch of my barn. Just being within nature. I’ve done a lot of sunsets and sunrises, one time I did a painting on a beach in Brazil. Those moments when I can really merge with the natural and organic world around me, those are my favorite. Being in reverence of the natural environment where the only thing I’m concerned about is expanding my boundaries and accepting how big and beautiful the natural world is, that is my ideal setting.”
Any upcoming plans that you want to let us in on?
“It’s plans within plans within plans. We’re going to be making art on a cruise ship. Going out to the Bahamas doing a bunch of art installations…this really outrageous mall on the water. We’ve also got Time and Space Festival in Mexico coming up. I’m really excited to meet the community out there and make art south of the border. I’m really looking forward to that.
2016 is going to be a lot of traveling…to Thailand and working on the next evolution and installment of this fully immersive, mobile 360-degree art planetarium. We’re developing that and will be taking it on tour around a few select planetariums in the US and around the world. That will be our main creative focus, expanding that project as we head into next year. And Boom Festival and Burning Man.”
Last thing before we wrap this up, want to bring to light any talented artists that should be on our radar?
“There’s this one artist that I had the pleasure of sharing at our Museum of Visionary Arts that we had at Burning Man and Symbiosis. Luis Tamani is his name. He’s a South American painter and I met him for the first time in 2014, he’s one of those rare artists through and through. He’s so tapped into the living current of the Mother and the creative spirit. The work that he creates is so meaningful and densely populated with wisdom, knowledge and truth. He’s done such a beautiful job with his discipline and his ability to carry the paint. He’s really got some powerful and moving images that he has created.
He doesn’t speak English, he also doesn’t do a lot of marketing of himself. But if there’s something that I think I’ve gotten to be good at in art, it’s being able to recognize the authenticity in the statement that the artist is making and what kind of energy they are tapping into. Luis, he’s tapped into a deep vain and I’m inspired by what he creates. I really think more people should be aware of his work.”
We want to extend a big thank you to Android Jones and his team for allowing this interview to take place. Be on the lookout for new things coming from Android in the future, and if you’re anywhere near NYC, be sure to catch Tipper + Android Jones at the Playstation Theater on 1/9 to witness the wizardry firsthand. Tickets are still on sale, you can secure your spot here.
Connect with Android Jones:
http://androidjones.com
https://www.facebook.com/AndroidJonesart
https://www.instagram.com/android_jones
Connect with Tipper:
https://www.facebook.com/tippermusic
https://soundcloud.com/tippermusic
https://twitter.com/tippermusic
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