If you’ve found yourself at a Pretty Lights show, that means you’ve witnessed firsthand the lighting wizardry provided by Greg Ellis. Appropriately nicknamed Lazershark, Ellis and Derek Vincent Smith have been combining forces to create one of the most unique experiences in electronic music. When mind-blowing music meets an equally as mind-blowing lighting display, the result is…well, just another Pretty Lights set.
We had the chance to speak with Lazershark and dive into a bunch of topics ranging from Telluride, to Basslights, to his ascent within the industry and much more. Whether you’re diehard PLF or just recently got introduced to the world of Pretty Lights, take a look below and get familiar with the man behind one of the most captivating live shows in the game.
In a past interview you said that you’re completely self-taught in light design, can you explain the process of getting yourself to where you’re at today?
“Basically, Phil Salvaggio, our production manager/sound guy/overall crew leader, him and I grew up together in upstate NY. He’s actually an amazing guitar player and was in a band…your normal high school band. I’d go to all the shows to support my friend. It got to the point where he got the idea and said, “you come to all the shows, why don’t you do something and learn how to do lights?” At this point, we’re talking the epitome of a college bar band, with anywhere from 20 people to a few hundred coming to a show. In the very beginning it was literally just lights on switches. I had this little rack thing with 8 switches and we would run an extension cord…I’d just be turning them on and off.
I ended up dropping out of college after a year and decided to take it really seriously, as seriously as a 19 year-old kid can take it. I started to do the lights more regularly at local bars for shows, and my all-time favorite band as far as local bands go was a group called Psychadelic Breakfast. They actually offered me a job, and that’s when it really went from a kid doing it for his friends, to a legitimate thing. Granted I wasn’t making any money, but I was hooked. I started touring with them and shortly thereafter, one of the guys in the band knew some people at a historic local venue called Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut. So they kind of got me in the door there, and before I knew it I was working with legendary bands like Les Claypool and Tony Levin…everything was really starting to fall into place. Toad’s Place is where everything really started to fall together for me.
Pretty much the minute I moved to Connecticut in 2005, even though I knew I wasn’t going to be making any money, I knew this was something I was going to chase after with everything that I had. There was no turning back for me at that point.”
Would you attribute the uniqueness of your work to the fact that you weren’t professionally trained? Could it be you didn’t have any preconceived boundaries or ideas already put into your head?
“That’s definitely a big part of it. I’d say another big part for me is my influences. It’s very common knowledge that I’m a giant fan of Phish and I definitely credit their Light Designer, Chris Kuroda as my primary influence. But in the same accord, I’m not a big fan of jam bands in general, and I’m not necessarily a big fan of using jam band lighting techniques in general. I very much love that style, but I also grew up loving Radiohead and that style of rock music, which uses a more theatrical/intense way to use lighting to your advantage.
In the jam band scene, the lighting is very psychedelic, very amorphic. It’ll take you on a journey. Over time though, it occurred to me that nobody is doing a hybrid of these two styles. It was always one or the other, so why can’t I do both? Throughout the years my style is always being refined, but I try to keep a middle ground between the two worlds. Muse is another one of my favorite live shows, and their production in my mind is bar none above everybody else’s in terms of technique and impact. That’s a really important concept to me. Impact is hugely important.”
With so many shows now being heavily reliant on video displays, what would you say are some of the biggest pros to having one centered around lights/lasers?
“We’ve never had a show I feel consistently based on one aspect ever since we abandoned the “city-skape” pillar design from 2011-12. That was the last time we had a show specifically designed on a video concept. What people might not realize, is for the past two years we haven’t actually had a show design. We haven’t been on tour since 2013. So every show that we’ve done since the Analog Future Tour has been these one-off designs that we’ve thrown together, and that’s it. There’s no framework going into a show for us, it’s all starting from scratch. Of course there’s things that carry over from show to show such as lazers/lights etc., but we try to take every situation as a blank slate and build it from there with new concepts and designs.”
Speaking of new concepts, that analog T.V. set-up in Telluride on stage with Derek is probably my favorite one I’ve seen yet.
“Funny story about that, those T.V.s…I’m not sure if they came out of the Broncos Stadium or from the Pepsi Center. They were old monitors that were used in the AV area of one of the local big sports arenas. They were going to be thrown away, and last year our production company had them sitting in the corner and I asked, “What are you guys doing with all these T.V.’s?” I said let’s not throw them away. We have a warehouse, let’s stash them over there and see what happens. They just sat there for months.
I knew when I took them that Derek was going to love these, they totally match his aesthetic. Earlier this year, Dave, our lead video mastermind, actually had the exact same idea. We never once had spoke about it. He’s the one who put the work in to make it happen…to coordinate each of the analog T.V.’s to be in sync on stage. I couldn’t tell you how they did it, but they executed this concept and made it happen beautifully.
I was so happy with the way it turned out. Honestly, I’m pushing very hard to hopefully see that become the new PL concept in 2016.”
Telluride was something I’ll never forget. What was it like for you all?
“Let me just come right out and say that for everybody involved, whether it was the crew, the band, all the fans I’ve talked to…it was hands down the coolest, most successful thing we’ve ever done. We all left Telluride knowing something really special just took place.
Telluride was an experience where for the very first time, I felt like everyone knew they could do more. Kras (Eric Krasno) has only done a handful of shows with us, but for the first time I felt like he can walk in there and think “Yeah, let’s try this”, or feel like he had the freedom to break off into an impromptu riff. Eric Bloom, I’m constantly blown away by him. His ability to always embrace the joy in it all, his energy is infectious and it shows on stage.
We went into Telluride knowing it was going to be something great, but it far surpassed any of our wildest expectations. I gotta shout out our amazing fans for being so great, so respectful of the property, of the town. There’s been nothing but amazing, amazing things said about our fans and the weekend there. For all of that to happen really put a smile on our faces. There’s more to music than just going to shows or going to festivals, there’s a community aspect to it. Not every show should change your life, but when those shows do happen, you know you’re on the right track.”
Any idea if it will be happening again next year?
“I pray every day that Telluride can happen again next year. Hopefully it happens, maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll be the year after that, or the year after that. As it stands today though, Telluride was a once in a lifetime experience.”
How does a PL Band set compare to a PL DJ set from your point of view? Same/different?
“I have to be a little bit more deliberate in the band sets. Only because there’s so many more people to take care of. You know, to make sure they’re lit well, or to make sure they look cool. I try to use different tricks, like how can I silhouette six or seven different people on stage? How do I silhouette just one guy?
It’s all about moments with the band. They’re going to play a song, and they’re going to play the song how it should be played. But there’s always going to be moments where you’re like “Man, they’ve never done that before!” Those moments may only last for ten seconds, but those are the moments where you’ll walk away from the show and turn to your friend to say “Wow, that was really fucking cool.” That’s the beauty of improvisational music.
When it’s just Derek on stage there’s a more natural feel for me, just because we’ve been doing it for so long. I don’t think as much, it more comes easier. But when you have seven different people on stage and anyone can take a left turn at any time, you really need to stay on your toes. People ask me all the time if I have a preference, and I absolutely don’t. I love both the DJ set and band set, the end result is always the same.”
You’ve said before that as a LD you prefer arenas over outdoor venues or festivals, why is that?
“It’s a controlled environment. When you’re outside you never know what you’re going to get. It could be a beautiful day, it could be really cold, it could be hot as hell, it could be really windy, it could rain, or it could snow. You just never know what you’re going to get. Obviously there are some exceptions. Venues like Telluride or The Gorge up in Washington…I would play there every day of the year if I could.
But just as a general blanket statement, indoor venues are more pleasing for an LD. On an energy level, for me anyway, there’s something to be said about when the energy of the crowd is just trapped inside this structure. I think back to the early days when we used to do clubs and 1,000 person venues. You just cannot match the energy when you gather in rooms like that. People packed inside like sardines and loving every second of it.”
We were at Camp Bisco this past summer to see PL’s performance in the tent. You’ve covered outdoor venues and indoor venues, what about outdoor tents? Is that any different?
“Oh yeah, absolutely. That venue specifically, there’s actually a couple more of those in the Northeast. I believe the same designer designed the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. We’ve played there a couple of times and I love it. Bank of America Pavilion is one of my favorite venues in the country. Something about the circus tent-y vibe, basically it’s an outdoor venue that has an indoor venue feel. You have all that enclosure and there’s so much surface area to play with, you can really paint a picture. In an arena there’s so many different surfaces to keep in mind, not all of your ideas can translate. But to me, a tent like that is just one huge canvas.
Camp Bisco I had a blast, such a cool tent. Bank of America Pavilion, those style venues are so much fun to work.”
Basslights is a big topic right now and has been a rite of passage for PL and Bassnectar fans since its beginning. How challenging is it to set up your rig when Bassnectar’s is essentially the polar opposite?
“In years past we’ve tried a couple different approaches. I know one year we split the rig in half. Bassnectar likes to have his stuff very close to him, so he likes to have a very shallow stage. We are the exact opposite. I want my stuff to be as deep and to have as much space to develop as possible. So one year his stuff was in front of ours, and when it was our turn to come on, his rig would rise up into the roof and our rig was waiting behind it. That worked very well from a conceptual level, but it wasn’t the most cost efficient. Putting up two completely different light and visual shows is not cheap.
More recently though, we’ve started to share and compromise. I remember last year we shared everything except for lasers. They also had something that was uniquely theirs…but the overall video/lighting aspect was completely shared. It’s a challenge; we’re getting better at it.
In the beginning, it was my least favorite thing in the world to deal with. For instance using the first year as an example, we were much different entities then. We had much more to prove individually, to make a name for ourselves. I don’t want to say we were hard headed, but we were so much more interested in our respective shows. As the years have gone on I think that we are both in a much more comfortable place, established place, where now we can go into these situations and understand that it doesn’t have to look exactly like a Pretty Lights show. It doesn’t have to look exactly like a Bassnectar show. It just has to look good.”
Do you have a favorite track to work over?
“I do. This question used to stump me all the time and I would get frustrated because I didn’t have a true answer. So I went back and watched some old videos, and “Understand Me Now”, just something about that song. It moves me in such a way where I love to listen to it but I also love to do the lights to that song.
Happy party-time lights are the easiest thing to do, but to try and match a deep, dark vibe…I get the most satisfaction out of that. Sometimes I’ll take a chance during a show and think, “Man, that looked like shit.” But then sometimes it’ll all work perfectly. When it all comes together it’s so gratifying.
When we played that song at Red Rocks in 2014 with the symphony, that’s one of those moments I’ll take with me for the rest of my life. It was so impactful, it was one of those moments I’ll never forget. Any time Derek plays “Understand Me Now” pay attention, because I’m gonna do some really awesome lights to it.”
If you could go back in time 6 years to when you first moved out to Colorado to pursue all of this, what piece of information would you give to yourself?
“Learn to ski so that your girlfriend doesn’t get mad at you.
In all seriousness though, just take it one day at a time. We all had so much to prove. When I first started working with Derek, we were playing shows for 500 people. There was so much effort put into all this in the beginning, almost to a detriment. It became really stressful, and not to say that it wasn’t fun, because it was a lot of fun back then. But if I were to tell myself anything it would just be take it one day at a time, don’t worry about anything.”
Anything you’d like to say before we wrap it up? Any ideas or projects that you can let us in on?
“There are a lot of ideas being thrown around for 2016. Which ones stick to the wall? Only time will tell. I can tell you that there are some really interesting plans for our New Years show in Vegas. I can’t get into specifics, but I can say that our fan’s voices have been heard. I can’t elaborate much on that, other than to come and experience it firsthand to see what we do.
I’d like to bring attention to Dave Najarian specifically. He’s my right hand man in all of this visual mayhem that we put on. Dave’s been responsible for a lot of the set designs in the past and has been involved in content creating since the beginning. He doesn’t get nearly enough credit and I feel all our fans should know his name. They should definitely come and say hi to him when they say hi to me. I couldn’t do it without him.”
We want to give a huge thank you to Greg Ellis and Pretty Lights Music for allowing this interview to happen. If you’re one of the lucky few who will be at the Halloween show, we’re jealous. For the rest of us though, Basslights can’t come soon enough. Hope to see you there!
(photo credits: Krystle Blackburn & Eric Bloom)
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