Interview with Pretty Lights: Analog Future, ‘Color Map’ Remixes, and More

Derek Vincent Smith, better known by the iconic music-turned-movement known as Pretty Lights, has had a year like none other. July marked the release of his album, ‘A Color Map of the Sun’, arguably Smith’s most complete and involved work to date. The album was extremely unique, with Smith going against the grain of his normal style of producing by developing over 60 LPs from scratch- bringing together his own musicians and vocalists from around the world- and then cutting up, distorting and rearranging his own creations to craft 16 timeless masterpieces. Instead of taking a break after the album’s release, Smith has been working relentlessly, now taking his live show to a level unforeseen. He has put together the Analog Future Band, a group of six musicians including Smith that plays a unique fusion of electronica and “hip-hop soul” unparalleled in today’s live music culture. During this monumental time in Smith’s career, WRR member Jay Laiche had the honor of sitting down and talking with Smith about the various changes happening in his life right now.
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To start it off, how has the Analog Future been and what does this tour mean to you?

“The name came way after the fact. We had already put the tour together with building everything and conceptualizing it and preparing before I dubbed it that name, but it kind of just popped in my head one day and I decided I wanted to call it that because it expressed well what I’ve been trying to embody with this most recent record, and now this tour. So everything that I did to create the record- which I’ve got into depth about in a lot of places, even making a documentary about- I tried to do something very similar on a live stage. It’s pretty crazy to think about. I don’t think people really bring full analog studios on stage in the DJ booth, and then I do a toss up of everything like being an audio engineer, along with playing bass and samples and triggering clips in Ableton Live- all that, and then conducting the band, while also basically sculpting all the tones. So for example, I can make sure the drum kit sounds wicked. We try to create this sound using old-school gear that so it sounds like a breakbeat that gets sampled off a record. It makes it be created in a way to record ourselves on stage, and it’s like album-quality full recordings.

I have all these flash drives that I’m actually looking at right now, and I bring these to sound check every day. My dude Woodman records sound check everyday. Sound check is more like…we check one song, but we go for like an hour and a half sound check, and we write music. Some days we might write two songs, somedays we might write one, but it’s really cool because we’re actually really successfully working on this album while we’re on tour. So the songs that we’re writing… we’ll write a track, and play it that night. But then, we also recorded it that day. So it’s like we were in the studio, but it’s on stage, so when the live show happens I’m able to capture the song, and then when we get to the studio on the bus, I’m able to sample sections of it, chop it up, rearrange it, and then I show that to the band and then we learn the new version, so every track keeps evolving, you know? I’m continually working on producing and evolving the new style of music I’ve been bringing to the live show, which is the real “analog future” part of it which is like the…you know…I’ve been calling it “60s soul hip-hop” sound; the sound quality sounds like its from the 60s but the way it’s mixed and written…it’s just dope hip-hop breakbeats. Super soulful, super classy, dope, dark feels, dark soul…I’m into all of that.”

So are these new “breaks” that the band is creating… is that the direction you plan on taking Pretty Lights? I know you’ve been performing breaks called names such as “Athena” or “Artemis” live and I’m curious as to whether this is the direction the band is now heading in or not.

“I look at it as a continuation of what I’ve always done, which is just…you know, Pretty Lights is just a vision. It’s not just me; It’s just me manifesting musical ideas, whether that would be making 60 LPs over a year and producing a record out of it or creating a studio on stage and putting a band together making ill-beats that any hip-hop producer, or any producer in the room that samples would be like “I wanna make a beat with this.” So, yeah, that’s where I am trying to take it but I’m trying to take it further…I look at things like I’m constantly trying to manifest and create the best music that I possibly can create with what I have and the situation that I’m in, and I’m trying to constantly catch up with what I can imagine myself doing, and at this point, what we (the band) can do.

I’m collaborating with these five musicians, so what I can do right now is make these breakbeats with them and edit the beats into really hot tracks with the band, and it’s like fully live, analog, computers, so that when it comes out it just sounds dope…it’s really dope man, I can not wait for you to hear the studio version- which is really the soundcheck version- but at the same time, I want to do the same thing with these recordings as I did with ‘Color Map of the Sun’ but on a more “light” level. Rather than just sample breaks and match them up and make tracks, I want to take these songs we write and just supe them up. Maybe bring dope vocals in, or use other musicians with really unique sounds while triggering sample pads, playing bass, triggering rock samples, and other things to just really add to the song’s “intrigue”. After all, that’s one of my very high priorities: having the tambre of the songs, and the sounds of the instruments from track to track, very “great”. So one track has a certain set of instruments and another track has a different set of instruments. Where as a rock band had the same four instruments to work with…yeah…the beauty of sampling live.”

When did the idea of the live band come to you? Was this something you had in your head for a long time, and now seemed like the right time for it to come to fruition?

“Well, a little of both. It paralleled with the album because it’s the tour for ‘A Color Map of the Sun’, but with a lot stuff that’s way newer than that (the album). So, just like that record and that concept of going “all the way”, like taking everything from scratch and going super hardcore; that idea sat in my subconscious and developed over the years…in hindsight, it’s an obvious progression of my vision, you know what I mean? One day it sort of came into focus, and it became a tangible idea. And it’s the same thing with the band; I’ve always wanted to bring it back to playing with a band, but not in like a “normal” way…not the way that bands have been done before, with just producers and musicians…I wanted to do a very “new” approach. That was the same thing; it was building in my subconscious and after the record came out it was like…there’s no way I can go on tour for this record unless I put a wicked band together and a new show with a completely different state of mind.

I didn’t make the record thinking about the show. I didn’t make it thinking, “oh, “Press Pause” or “My Only Hope” is going to smash the live show”, you know what I mean? I wanted to make a record that was beautiful and one that you could listen to over and over and really enjoy it. My plan then was to remix a lot of these tracks after the fact so I could perform the album tracks and also hype versions to bring to the show as well, so I have both options. And then once the band was together, it was like I had three options: the completely live version, the live produced version, and the live remix version. So it’s really dope, because with every track from the album you can take this journey through a song, and the different sounds and ideas that make it different every night. I can drop into a banging remix and have it switch out to the bridge of the actual track and drop into it full live and then trigger some clips and have it end with the full remix and completely switch it up. The improvisation is insane.”

You’re having your first ever pay-per-view show on the 30th in San Francisco. What prompted you to put your show up for pay-per-view?

“Pay-per-view came to me. It was either that or my management solicited them. Either way, it wasn’t directly my idea. It got brought to me and it was like “do you want to do this?”. I thought about it, and I remember that a handful of guys in my touring crew, like Lazershark and my sound guy were massive Phish fans, and I know that Phish does the pay-per-view thing. That was the only band pay-per-view thing I had ever heard of, so I asked them about it and I thought about it. I’m actually working on a video right now that we shot with Go-Pros to show my fans what’s going on and what I’m doing behind the booth on tour and how involved and sophisticated it is. So that’s what kind of sold me on the PPV, was that I’m going to be able to have all these cameras behind my booth, showing the gear that I work with and what the instruments are doing up close, and also give people who weren’t close to any cities on tour or who live in the middle of nowhere the opportunity to check out a show. So I saw it as a pretty cool opportunity. I had to speak to the director first and get his vibe and make sure that we could collaborate, but it’s all good. It’s cool that that medium is available. We’re putting a lot into it.”

The “Illuminators” sprung up not too long ago, and now the force of dedicated PL fans has been a huge presence on tour. Could you give us your feelings about them and how they have affected tour?

“It’s so awesome, and I run into them backstage sometimes- there’s an Illuminator green room backstage where they can have their own backroom- and I can set aside time to talk to them, and I see them in the pit handing out water and fanning people and rocking out…I love to see the Illuminators break it down. The whole idea of Illuminators is awesome. I know that these kids that are doing that and want to be a part of that collective of people that help make other people’s experiences better, those are the kids that have gone to the most shows and really enjoy the shows. So I appreciate them dedicating their night to working and helping people rather than just having a party and having a good time with their friends. So much props to everyone who has done it and will do it. I think it’s the start in a part of an emerging culture. It’s a community and grassroots based culture. There’s even art forms coming out of it, like the Instagram #PLPix is an example of that. The whole PLPix idea inspired people to really start trying and making photo phone art and so many people have told me that just how that Instagram feed and concept pushed them to be artists, and it’s so crazy to hear that. I go on it sometimes and scroll through it and look at it at once and it’s beautiful. That art form, plus the pins that are popping- new ones every night, the pin culture is so fresh- I see so many positive things coming out of the community based around this music, Pretty Lights, PLM, and other electronic artists similar to this genre.”

For the remix album, how did you choose whom you wanted to do the remixes? Did you find the artists and then had a song in mind for them to remix, or did artists get chosen and then decide on a track themselves?

A little bit of both. First off I had to think of the producers that I really wanted to work with and have them be a part of this project. Then I did think a lot about which songs would fit best with each producer. Sometimes I would send them one or two songs, but usually I already had a track in mind. For example, I really wanted Opiuo to do a remix and I really like Opiuo’s stuff at 90 to 100 beats per minute. So, I gave him a track (“Done Wrong”) that was 100 beats per minute and asked him to remix that. He actually slowed it down and remix that at 90, but it’s still really sick and I can play it at 90 or 100 or anything in between and mash it up with other tracks off the record and have the “Done Wrong” remix come out of “Color of My Soul” and stuff like that. Since playing with the band, mixing from track to track in key and in relative keys and key change transitions on the fly have become a big part of the show. I’ve learned a lot about music working these kids. But yeah, I’m really amped about the remix album.

Funny story about Blood Diamonds’ “My Only Hope” remix. When I was working on the original track, I had written this vocal for the track in the studio, and was planning on using in on track, but ended up not using it. I forgot that I had left this other vocal that I had written and recorded with this ill soul singer from New Orleans that I met and found at Magaritaville playing in a cover band, and I had accidentally left that vocal at the end of the Ableton Live session. So when I sent him the stems of the track to remix, he found that vocal and put it in the remix. So there’s this vocal in the remix that’s not in the actual song, but I still wrote it and recorded it out of the New Orleans session. I guess if I sent it to him, he has the right to use it. (laughs)”

So what’s the future of Pretty Lights? Is the band here to stay?

“I think it’s a really easy answer for me because that’s been my philosophy from the get-go, which is really that I don’t commit to anything hardcore long-term. Earlier I said Pretty Lights isn’t me, it isn’t us anymore, it’s a vision that I try to manifest through making records and doing shows. I am having more fun that I’ve ever had on tour with this band, and all of them are amazing and we’ve been writing amazing music together; I’m super amped for the record we’re making together and I’m looking forward to playing festivals with them next year and what not. But, it will undoubtably always evolve. It will change and evolve and become cooler and different, and hopefully always for the better, or fresher or newer. One step at a time, one step at a time.”

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WRR would like to deeply thank Derek for taking the time to speak with us. Be sure to like Pretty Lights on Facebook for all Pretty Lights news, and visit the Pretty Lights Music website to download all of Pretty Lights’ and the rest of the Pretty Lights Music collective’s music for free!

Jay Laiche is a WRR editor, Pretty Lights Family member, Illuminator, and all-around PLM fanatic. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @la1ch3

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