The 1975- Jun '14 by The Fifth Estate Ltd

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM JUNE 2014

ISSUE 178

LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • JUNE 2014 • ISSUE 178

PRISM VISION BABY, YOU’RE A FIREWORK....

KATY PERRY’S PRISMATIC WORLD TOUR

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TOTAL SOLUTIONS • THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST • THE 1975 • LOUDSPEAKER MARKET FOCUS • ELBOW • IN PROFILE: CHAIN MASTER • COACHELLA’S SPECIAL EFFECTS • CATCH 22

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The 1975

THE 1975 LAST YEAR THE 1975 EXPLODED ONTO THE MUSIC SCENE WITH A POPALICIOUS, SYNTH INFUSED, INDIE SOUNDING DEBUT ALBUM THAT QUICKLY BAGGED THE BAND THE NO.1 SLOT. THAT SUCCESS HAS SEEN THE BAND SPEEDILY GRADUATE FROM PERFORMING IN 50 CAPACITY CLUBS AND PUBS TO SOLD-OUT GIGS AT BRIXTON ACADEMY. UNSURPRISINGLY THE BACKSTAGE TEAM BEHIND THE MANCHESTER-BORN GROUP HAVE HAD TO ADAPT QUICKLY. TPi CATCHES UP WITH THEM DURING THEIR ROYAL ALBERT HALL DEBUT . . . Nominated for Tour Manager of the Year 2013 in the Live UK Music Business Awards, Production Manager Ant Forbes has been with The 1975 since the band first took to the open road. In fact, when The 1975 began touring Forbes was exactly one half of the original backstage touring operation, alongside Darren Purves, the bands Lighting Designer. However back then job titles were somewhat irrelevant as, between them, the pair covered all aspects of production: from Tour Manager to guitar tech; Production Manager to FOH sound and monitors, lighting and stage design to even driving the bands tour bus! The 1975’s rapid rise to success necessitated expansion of the team. Tom Fraser Nicol came on board as Tour Manager, which happily left Forbes to concentrate on what he really enjoys – production management. Later on, Tobias Rylander of Seven Design 58

Works was employed as Creative Show Designer and Jamie McLuckie joined as FOH Engineer with associate Mick Eggett on monitors. The schedule has taken the team to an eclectic range of venues from shopping centres in Manila to the Royal Albert Hall in London as Forbes explained: “18 months ago we embarked on the first headline tour for The 1975. We were doing tiny 50-capacity venues and now here we are at the RAH - amazing!” The production team have been quick to adapt: “For the RAH we’ve got two packed trucks of gear,” said Forbes. “Last week in Manila we were renting backline and tiny PAs and prior to that we were riding high on three sold-out Brixton Academy shows - that can be a bit mind bending!” The tour is clearly demanding: Forbes said the key to its success is to keep an organised mind and the support he gets from his team. “I partition my mind; switch on the right bit at

the right time, otherwise I would lose track,” he explained. “Luckily for me Lighting Director Darren Purves and the sound team - Jamie McLuckie, FOH and Mick Eggett on Monitors, are totally brilliant.” LIGHTING AND VIDEO As the venues that The 1975 played got bigger, the band re-evaluated its stage and lighting design. They found an ideal match with show designer Tobias Rylander of US show design collective Seven Design Works. Quietly spoken and modest in nature, Rylander says he has never really considered himself a ‘Lighting Designer’ per se but simply another collaborative creative member of the bands that he works with. Ryalder’s career began in Sweden where he worked as a Lighting Tech for a rental operation and then as in-house LD at a venue called Kaffè 44 in Stockholm. Here he became friends with a

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The 1975

Opposite: The 1975 play synth-fused indie rock. Below: FOH Engineer, Jamie McLuckie used an Avid Profile desk for mixing; Tobias Rylander of Seven Design Works was employed as Creative Show Designer, and his work is heavily influenced by projection.

number of artists who subsequently invited him to tour with them. During this time he became fascinated by projection and video, which now forms the foundation of much of his work. For The 1975 Rylander’s design is visually inspired by architecture. He says he enjoys working with glass and prisms and bouncing light from angled reflective surfaces. His design is certainly sculpted around his subject. He says he has been inspired by the work of artist Anthony McCall, who famously overlaps film, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance: For the 1975 this influence is indeed striking. Although the rig is modest, what Rylander does with it certainly isn’t. A mix of large-scale projection and aerial lighting effects, the look is monochromatic, architectural and there is real physicality to its structure. When it comes to the video content Rylander says he has a clear vision for each song: “I plan out my ideas on paper through drawing. I then work with a design house, (in this case, Visual Bandits in Stockholm) to look at the best ways to realise it. I try to keep control over everything from staging / set design to video design.” So how did an emerging band from

Manchester find a designer from Stockholm, living in LA? “The band has long-loved the work of prolific and award winning Lighting Designer LeRoy Bennett, in particular his work on Nine Inch Nails, Beyonce, Bruno Mars and Lady GaGa.” Last year Rylander joined forces with Bennett and his associate Cory Fitzgerald and together they formed the company Seven Design Works. Today all three are represented by respected LA based agent, Will Sharpe. The 1975 frontman, Matt Healy, originally approached Bennett to design the show, however both Bennett and Sharpe felt Rylander would be a perfect match for the band’s aesthetic. “We had a meeting with the guys in LA and the design came into my mind almost immediately,” explained Rylander. “Matt loved Roy’s work on the Nine Inch Nails and so we tried to bring that feel into the show. The 1975 album artwork has a very distinct graphic identity. They wanted everything to be black and white. Their logo is a strict square and they use it everywhere. I just started out with five LED framed squares, which provide the backdrop for the band, and from there I began to layer the design on top and around them.” The design is gritty, moody and hypnotic. 59

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The 1975

Using only white light of varying colour temperatures, Rylander designs the dark as much as he does the light. Sharp geometric shapes are traced out from the LED square frames that form the backdrop to the band, which then morph into melting, almost dripping light, only to jolt back to fast moving solid lines and structures. Colour temperature and level of light are used extensively to further accentuate mood and atmosphere as each cue challenges visual perspective with aerial projections that burst out from behind the squares. At times, the light feels almost solid - touchable even. Projection content comes from five 20K Panasonic on-stage projectors, which blast through the five LED framed rectangles. Another two projectors are positioned at FOH and the band themselves become the projection surface. Projectors are supported by a floor package comprising a number of VariLite VL3500 Wash FXs and Clay Paky 800s. “I’ve always liked Clay Paky Spot fixtures,” said Rylander. “I exclusively used the 700 HPE for a number of years as my spot fixture of choice. The new 800s are a perfect upgrade, without being too big. They have projection sharp optics and are fast and reliable. They also have a nice FX wheel. This being an ‘aerial projection’ based show means they are the ideal foil to the video and flown fixtures.”

The challenge for Rylander is that this very precise show also has to be supremely scalable: “I designed the show for venues the size of Brixton Academy,” explained Rylander. “It’s scalability comes in the fact that the number of LED framed squares can be cut from the outside to the centre. The production can cut down to using three or even just one square frame and a projector, depending on the size of the venue. For the Albert Hall, Rylander used all five and also added additional Clay Paky 800s and VariLite 3500 Wash FXs as a floor package. ”The VL3500FX is a really dynamic wash light, which I used exclusively for the touring design, they were the only moving light specified. I used the aerial projectors to do the work that a spot fixture would normally do. The FX fixtures actually delivered some excellent aerial effects and I worked them really hard at different intensities and at different zooms. They complement the projections perfectly without “over shining” them in intensity, they’re very bright and very wide.” Rylander said that the FX features and the ‘cat eye’ lens make them more interesting than a standard wash fixture. Said Rylander: “I got to know the VL3500FX last year. In fact I first used them on the Phoenix Bankrupt design.” Touring LD Darren Purves works in close collaboration with Rylander. Purves takes care

of programming, and day-to-day operation, bringing together the power of a Green Hippo Hippotizer media server (supplied by Browns Blend) and triggered by an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. Lighting fixtures and control were supplied by VER. “Although I’ve worked for The 1975 for around 10 years, I toured professionally with a number of other acts for eight,” said Purves. “Just before everything started happening for the band, they asked me to come on board full time! My role is to take care of the lighting and video and program in the in-house lighting rigs so they fit with Tobias’s highly stylised, minimalistic show design.” In addition to the package of Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FXs, Purves is using strategically placed Solaris LED Flares, Sunstrips, the Panasonic projectors and blade frames as he explained: “We use whatever fixtures are available in the in-house rigs to complement our floor package. The VL 3500 FX’s are great for huge aerial effects as well as cross lighting the band. The flares are used both behind the band for strobe effects as well as foot lighting. They have really proved hugely versatile running in full channel mode and are being used as wash lights and strobes, sometimes even a mixture of both at once.” To guarantee precision in delivery, Rylander

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The 1975

bought in old friends and colleagues Morgan Brown and Magnus Gronberg from Swedishbased operation, Browns Blend. Brown specialises in Hippotizers and video timecoding, and created and supplied a fully merged system comprising the grandMA2 and Hippotizer. Timecoding, although a strong advantage for tours like this one, can be a time-consuming exercise to programme, as Brown explained: “The one and a half hour set meant that we had to record Timecode for 19 songs, with some additional extras, plus a number of effects. All in all the process took two long days.” Both Brown and Gronberg are delighted with the Hippotizer / MA set up: “It’s a really stable system and has been running extremely well,” said Gronberg. “With the release of Hippotizer version 3.2 we can use the MA Net instead of ArtNet, which makes it fantastically fast. In fact, the network cards in the computer hardly does any work at all, yet content runs extremely smoothly. The cues in this show have to be bang on. With the Timecode we’ve been able to scrub the millisecond latency from button push to output out completely.” The show is using anything up to 16 layers. “We have two outputs on the stage Hypotizer and each outputs 3800 pixels, 40 by 720,” Gronberg explained. “That goes to matrix from which it distributes three signals then

distributed to the five projectors. Basically we’re sending out a lot of data, and we can run 16 layers without having any frame latency at all. It’s fantastic to have this level of reliability.” FOH AUDIO FOH Engineer Jamie McLuckie joined the tour in May last year when it first began to grow in size and scope. Designing a system with the bigger theatre-sized venues in mind McLuckie pulled in the resources from UK based rental house SSE Audio Group: “I’ve always used SSE, I’ve got a really good working relationship with them,” said McLuckie. “I’m also a big fan of L-Acoustics, so today I’ve got a K1 and KARA with me.” Using an Avid Profile, McLuckie said: “I like to use the plug-ins. I’ve got a bit of a studio background so I find using an Avid Profile works well. Obviously I’m recording today’s show so it’s handy to be able to plug in Pro-tools HD and hit record.” Nevertheless, McLuckie still carries an element of outboard: “Ideally I’d still use an analogue desk to mix this band,” he laughed. “But for the sake of saving on cost and space digital has taken over. I use an Avalon 737 on Matty’s vocal, a distresser on the bass. I’ve then got a TC Electronics Rev 4000 reverb-unit. The 1975 has a particularly atmospheric sort of sound as McLuckie discusses: “The mix has a

lot of reverb and delay added. It’s very much a band focused mix with the vocal lower in level than say for instance the level that a solo artist’s voice might have in relation to a band. Matty’s vocal is mixed in with the backing vocals, it’s more choral and gives the effect of a vocoder. The 1975 is also keen that their live sound stays close to that of their album. “Live, they’re slightly more reverb-y than their recorded sound,” added McLuckie. “However saying that, if you play their album loud in a venue like the Royal Albert Hall, it does naturally bounce around!” MONITORS Last to join The 1975 team was Mick Eggett, Monitor Engineer: “I started with the band at New Year when they supported the Pet Shop Boys at Edinburgh Hogmanay. I set up a show file on a MIDAS XL8 at the Edinburgh Liquid Rooms. I’d pre-set it so I could focus on Matty’s mix as I had been told the rest of the band were fairly easy going. From that experience I was asked to join up!” By January Eggett was on tour: “We did three shows at Manchester Academy and three at Brixton. We’d had a couple of days rehearsals and I’d had a good chat with Matty about what he wanted for each song.” However much like the changing venue

PRODUCTION PROFILE: The 1975

Below: Frontman, Matt Healy with his Shure SM58 microphone; Production Manager, Ant Forbes; Creative Show Deisgner, Tobias Rylander; Touring LD, Darren Purves with Video Timecoder, Magnus Gronberg.

size, Eggett was to discover that Healy fluctuates when it comes to the desired mix for his in-ears: “Because Matty changes what he pitches to from song to song his monitors mix is constantly changing. The Midas Console is ideal in this situation because of the way I route stuff, I’ll mix him on the VCA groups and then it’s just really easy to access channels if anybody else asks for something it’s literally one button press!” All four of the band members are using in-ear monitors, Ultimate Ears UE18’s although frontman Matt Healy and drummer George Daniel also use d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges alongside. The drums use an L-Acoustics DV subwoofer and a d&b audiotechnik M2 wedge in combination with his in-ears to fully feel his drumming. Similarly, Matt Healy enjoys using wedges so he can take out his in-ears, absorb the atmosphere and properly gauge the show’s vibe. Although there is foldback onstage it doesn’t seem to be a particularly noisy environment: “We have an isolation cab for Adam’s guitar so now it’s a fairly quiet stage. Normally I would have side fills but there’s a sight-line issue with the side fills in the RAH.” As for the rest of the band, “Ross likes to hear a lot of bass 62

and takes a lot of sampler as well. Adam takes a lot of guitar and keyboard, but doesn’t take very much of his vocals because he doesn’t like the bleed from the house in his in-ears,” he noted. However it is Jamie who decides which microphones are used: “At the moment we use Shure’s SM58 for Matty, Adam and Ross and a Shure Beta 56 for George. Guitar microphones are standard Shure SM57’s and the drum microphones are a mixture of Shure and Sennheiser.” The 1975 took to the packed to the ‘acoustic mushrooms’ Royal Albert Hall and made it their own. Performing as part of the Hall’s hugely popular ‘Albert Sessions’ initiative, which enables artists who have not previously headlined at the venue to showcase their talent on the main stage, the Manchester-based band and its fans made themselves right at home. And to think they had been playing a shopping centre in Manila the week before - crazy! TPi Photos: Sarah Rushton-Read http://the1975.com www.sseaudiogroup.com www.brownsblend.com http://sevendesignworks.com www.verrents.com