LIZZO: CUZ I LOVE YOU TOO

LIZZO: CUZ I LOVE YOU TOO

One of this year’s most talked-about artists, Lizzo rounds off her incredibly busy year with a European run. Following relentless months of touring, TPi catches up with the men and women who try to keep pace with the singer’s skyrocketing success. TPi’s Stew Hume reports…

If you were to make a list of 2019’s most hotly tipped artists, American singer Lizzo would certainly be in contention for the top spot. With her exponential growth in popularity – and ticket sales – the artist had to adapt quickly to this higher calibre of touring. Following her Coachella performance, Lizzo’s management brought in a selection of men and women who, eight months later, have been across the globe keeping up with her relentless schedule. TPi caught up with the team on the tail end of the European Cuz I Love you Too tour. TPi’s first stop was with Rob Bright, who greeted us on a cold evening at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse while the final preparations were being made before opening doors to Lizzo’s loyal fan base. “This year has been insane,” stated the Production Manager as he recounted the sheer number of dates, he and this tight-knit touring family had completed. “We’ve done just under 100 shows since we pulled this touring party together, so we know each other very well,” he chuckled. The PM was quick to complement each of his team for their work and was clearly proud of what he and the crew had accomplished, in keeping with Lizzo’s surge in popularity. “There was a lot of work to do when we got brought on,” he commented. “Going into Coachella, she was still using the same setup as she had for the past three to four years, which was her singing and her DJ, Sophia Eris, running MP3 tracks from a laptop.” Updating her setup involved the introduction of a bespoke playback rig, along with the services of FOH Engineer, Brandon Blackwell and Monitor Engineer, Loreen Bohannon. Bright’s suppliers of choice were informed by the nature of the schedule jumping to various regions, with Clair Global and PRG handling audio and lighting respectively – both in America and for the European run. “Having suppliers that have operations on both sides of the pond has made life much easier, especially as we’re always short on time to pull all the pieces together,” said the PM Ensuring all the pieces got to each region, the PM brought on EFM Global Logistics. “John Sprague from EFM has been a superstar,” commented Bright. “During the early part of the year, our transport need on the truck side increased a lot, but EFM were able to ensure that the right vehicles were available.” On the current European run, Stagetruck provided transport alongside Beat The Street for bussing. Finally, providing risers of the stage was All Access Staging and Production.

STAGE MANAGER

While walking out on stage, TPi caught up with Stage Manager, Shaughn ‘Shoe’ Adamski. “He’s truly been a savour on this run,” enthused Bright, noting how well Shoe had grown into his position. “I came into this camp somewhat accidently,” laughed Shoe. “I was on a break from another artist and was looking for some work to tide me over. I got put in touch with these guys as they were looking for a runner for the first weekend of Coachella. There was an overhaul of personnel after the first performance and, by weekend number two, I was the Stage Manager. Nine months later and I’m still here.” This ability to jump into any role has become standard practice for Shoe who, in another life, was a professional bass player, but quickly took on other responsibilities, from tech’ing to stage management. “Lizzo actually jokes with me, saying ‘I can’t believe you started as our driver’,” Shoe laughed. During the show day, Shoe jumped on a number of tasks, from helping the lighting department chalking out the floor pre-rig, to overseeing the two major set elements on the stage. “In total, we have 34 decks to build each day along with the custom DJ both,” said Shoe. “We also have these aluminium panels – six per side – which I oversee along with hanging a backdrop.” The set pieces in question had been created by Anthony Asaro with soft goods being created by Jordan Coopersmith. “This whole tour has been a bit of a transition for me as I’m used to managing acts with a live band,” stated Shoe, chuckling at the fact that he was used to passing guitars to acts rather than passing props to dance troupes. “Just another thing I can add to the resume, I guess.”

MONITORS

One of the longest-standing members of the Lizzo family is Monitor Engineer, Loreen Bohannon. “I think I was one of the first professional hires that was brought in,” reflected the Engineer, as she reminisced about her time with the artist. She was brought in a few weeks before the artist’s Coachella performance, following a break from the road with Michael Bolton. “Since day one it’s been non-stop. It’s certainly one of the hardest schedules I’ve ever been part of. It’s also been a huge step-up going from playing MP3s to a full touring production.” As the only audio member for a long time, it fell on Bohannon in the early days to oversee all audio duties, which included cabling and RF management alongside her other monitor responsibilities. Even with the audio team expanding with inclusion of FOH Engineer Brandon Blackwell, Bohannon still acts as her own tech and handles everything on the RF side of things. “It’s always been my mentality since I started doing this at 16; if you’re an audio engineer, you should be able to turn you hand to anything from monitors, FOH and tech’ing,” she asserted. The fact that Bohannon was wearing so many hats on this tour ended up informing her choice of desk: a DiGiCO SD12. “I started using DiGiCo with Michel Bolton,” she explained. “I remember I had a chat with the guys from DiGiCo at the NAMM Show earlier this year – we discussed that if I was to take the desk out, I would need to know there would always be someone on the other end of a phone to talk over any issue. To their credit, that has always been the case. It’s a huge weight off my mind for a show like this when I’m looking after everything.” In terms of the IEMs, both Lizzo and her DJ were on Ultimate Ears UE7s, along with the rest of the technical crew. “We are using the Shure PSM1000 for ears and I’m doing all my scans off an Aim-TTi, then importing all those scans onto Shure Wireless Workbench,” stated the engineer. “I’ve got around 22 channels of RF, along with a fairly elaborate talkback chain.” Bohannon explained that the need for this talkback system came due to the unique challenges with a Lizzo performance – namely the incredibly loud audiences. “When I first joined, the biggest issue was that we simply couldn’t communicate,” stated Bohannon. “The crowd really is that loud.” Along with her loyal (and vocal) fanbase, what Lizzo has become known for is being a standard bearer for body positivity, along with gender equality – a theme that played out throughout the evening. What was great to see was this message clearly fed into the crew. In fact, Bohannon – who is a proud member of the Sound Girls organisation – had be using this platform to give more women a chance to experience the live touring environment. “Let’s be real; there are not many females working on this calibre of show as audio engineers,” she commented. “I’m really lucky to be in this position as so few of us get here! Throughout the tour, I’ve been able to bring in some other females onto the road for a day under the Sound Girls mentor scheme. It’s been such a fantastic opportunity and fits so nicely into Lizzo’s message and air of acceptance during these shows.”

FOH

On the other end of the audio chain was FOH Engineer, Brandon Blackwell. Having worked with the likes of A$AP Rocky and Camila Cabello for the past few years, Blackwell was brought into the Lizzo camp back in April this year. “They originally asked me to cover a show in Boston,” he commented. “I did the gig and drove back to New Jersey, before I knew it, I was called back to New York to cover another one. What followed was a two-week European tour and, from that point on, I’ve been a permanent fixture.” But as Blackwell explained, there had been a seismic change in the mix he was now handling. “In the beginning, I had around six channels, which has really expanded now,” said the engineer. “It was one of the main things I was pushing for when I came on, as I had no real control of the mix other than basic EQ and compression. Because of this I wanted to stem out the record arrangements as far as possible. With the help of Hugo [Marcotte, Playback] we had the switch to a MADI set up and the change has been really good in terms of what we can produce.”

Along with the technical changes, Blackwell also did a fair amount of homework with Lizzo’s music, which informed his mixing style. “I personally see her music as something you would put on in the car to have a good time or at your house when you’re with some friends – it’s a party,” he stated. “On my end in the live show, I’m finding the balance of staying true to the record and bringing a live feel, with the mixes produced by Devin Johnson, our Musical Director. “Devin added so many extra bits, including live drums that are now produced by our playback rig. It’s like mixing a live drummer each night,” Blackwell continued. “The way I see mixing is like painting a portrait, I want to use all the colours – or, in this case, frequencies – to give the fullest sound.” He went on to explain that this full frequency range was partially applicable when “The way I see mixing is like painting a portrait. I want to use all the colours – or, in this case, frequencies – to give the fullest sound.”

“With her voice, I like to carve out a place for her so she can shine through. Her voice is not overbearing but intertwined. Like Bohannon, Blackwell also utilised a DiGiCo SD12. “I’ve used it with multiple artists all year and it really fits into my workflow. Although I only have tracks coming from the stage, I tend to use a lot of effects and reverbs, so I could easily max out my desk if I wanted to.” Blackwell also had a selection of outboard events – notably a Waves H-Delay with all Lizzo’s reverbs handled by TC Systems 6000. “I use an Avalon 737 on vocals for every artist I work with,” added Blackwell. “It’s only really doing compression and drive to get tone. Essentially, we take our mics in AES so you lose the characteristics of the stage racks pre amps. It allows me to run the signal on the board a little quieter and then boost it on the Avalon to get a little bit more grit and harmonics” For the singer’s vocal, Blackwell opted for a Sennheiser Digital 6000 with a 9235 capsule. “It’s tough in these small rooms, but it’s been great,” stated the engineer, referencing the loud audience volumes they’d experienced throughout the year. “I really haven’t heard anything like it,” he laughed. “It’s not even random noise – each audience member is singing every word, sometimes getting up to 115dB. I tend to try and keep my show at 102dB, so it’s a challenge to compete against the crowd.”

PLAYBACK

Talking through the playback set up for the show was Hugo Marcotte. Having worked with Jay-Z for a number of years, Marcotte was more than familiar with complex playback systems, although admittedly this was the first time he had worked with an artist whose show had never used such systems. “I was brought on back in May,” he recalled. “When I first came in, I didn’t want to freak anyone out and change too many things. I took it from where it was, implementing elements to where we are today.” The main backbone of Marcotte’s playback setup was the Ableton Live software, which produces the 24 tracks that make up the musical backing to the live show. “I knew I wanted to keep DJ Sofia triggering all the tracks, so I brought in a controller for her, which keeps the focus on the stage,” he explained.

LIGHTS

The look of the show was a very collaborative process in the early stages of the run. Creative Director, Quinn Wilson joined forces with the team from Early Bird – consisting of Lighting Designer, Drew Gnagey and Lighting Programmer, Megan Dougherty. With the basics of the show in place, Lighting Director, Danielle Edwards took the reins of tour’s lighting design, with the aid of Lighting Tech, Alex Peters for the UK tour. Edwards explained that, in recent years, she had specialised in a lot of Christian rock acts, so the world of Lizzo was somewhat of a sea change – although considering the fact that the whole show followed a church theme, down to the singers’ opening outfit replicating a preacher’s gown, perhaps it wasn’t miles away. For the tour, PRG provided Edwards with a selection of Claypaky B-EYEs, Robe Pointes, TMB Solaris Flares, Chroma-Q Color Force 48 and 72s and PRG Best Boys. “My workhorse fixtures are the B-EYEs and the Flares,” stated the LD. “The vibe of the show is not very flashy and more of a creative vibe. For a lot of the looks, I tend to wash the stage with a certain colour. Then with the façade, I light them with the Flares to give a glow to the set.” For control, the LD utilised the full size MA Lighting grandMA2 with a spare grandMA2 light. “Most of the show is on timecode,” she explained. “Through the tour, I’ve added some elements, so I still have some hits and cues to launch manually during the show.” During the show, Lizzo was illuminated by a front spot with all the dancers being lit with the flanking wash fixtures on the truss. “There are a few times in the show when I try to silhouette the dancers, but it’s important to not make them just look like shadows. Having said that, they can’t be the main focus of the look – it’s very much a balancing act.” Edwards was also keen to compliment lighting supplier PRG, who had been working with the tour on both sides of the Atlantic throughout 2019. “This was my first time with them and it’s been great. Anything we need, we can shoot them an email and its done. Even when we first came from the US to the UK, I had our American rep call just to check the handover had gone smoothly. Those kinds of things really make a difference.” To close, the LD gave her lasting thoughts from this year’s extensive touring schedule. She commented: “It’s been interesting to see her career progression. We’ve really got to see this change first hand. For example, we never used to get stopped by fans in airports, but now we can’t get through them. It’s been great that she’s had all these opportunities and I’m glad I’ve been able to pay a small part in that.” With several more commitments back in the US, Lizzo and her crew headed back Stateside to round off an incredibly busy 2019. However, with the sheer number of sold-out venues across Europe, there is little doubt that Lizzo’s unique blend of R&B and rap will be heard once again in venues this side of the Atlantic – although capacity might have to increase.

TPi

Photos: Shirlaine Forrest

www.lizzomusic.com

www.earlybirddesigninc.com

www.clairglobal.com

www.prg.com

www.allaccessinc.com

www.stagetruck.com

www.beatthestreet.me

www.efm.global