Dan “Malibu” Krygowski

The jam band scene is a tight knit group of kindred spirits that are less corporate rock and marketing, and more in-theknow rock ‘n’ roll music junkies. Most bands have die-hard followers and rely on their live performances to not only generate income, but also to create the scene that results in their success. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that LD Dan “Malibu” Krygowski plays a vital roll for the band he tours with, O.A.R., or that he even has his own fan Web site. After all, he’s rock ‘n’ roll at heart, and he’s one of the family.

PLSN: How did you end up with the “Malibu” moniker?
Dan Malibu: I got it from a lighting designer from Chicago who was kind of my mentor and gave me my start, Mark Serpico, who’s the head lighting designer at the House of Blues Chicago right now. When I started in the business—I was like 15 or 16—I was a lifeguard full-time and did stagehand work part-time at the Vic Theatre in Chicago. I had blond hair—you know, like the Barbie doll Malibu Ken…Well, the Ken thing kind of fell off and I was stuck with “Malibu.”

How old are you now?
I’m 27.

And now you’re touring full-time. How did you get your start and progress as a designer?
I started as a stagehand at the Vic. And then I started working with Mark, learning how the console worked—they had an old Avolites Rolacue—learning timing, how dimmers worked and basically how a lighting system works. I’d help him re-gel and focus. And then, I started doing the opening bands to learn timing. He used to tell me, “Anybody could have a 300-moving-light rig, but if you don’t have timing, it can make or break a show.” I tell that to everybody. Seriously, if you don’t have timing on a band that you don’t run sequencing control with, if you’re running live, it can make or break it.

What’s the name of your company?
The company I am associated with is Luxious Lighting. I am actually an associate designer. I do a lot of Vectorworks plots for the company and pick up gigs here and there. We are doing Lexus at the Chicago Auto Show right now, and we did the big Kia reveal in Detroit. It’s a nice little company; we do a lot of corporate, a little theatre and a little rock ‘n’ roll. But my main act right now is O.A.R.

What types of shows are you inclined to do?
I pretty much handle the rock ‘n’ roll side if it because that’s my background. I’ve done a couple of corporate events, and the money is great, but I love rock ‘n’ roll. I was in a theatre with Carrot Top for the last year and it was a great gig—we had pyro and moving lights—but my heart is in rock ‘n’ roll.

This O.A.R. rig is rock ‘n’ roll. What are you using?
I have 90K of conventionals, six High End Systems x.Spots, six Studio Spot 575s, six Martin Atomic Strobes and then a whole lotta ACLs. That’s kind of my thing.

And don’t forget control. You’re using the “ultimate rock desk?”
You gotta stick with the Avo Sapphire 2004.

As far as design goes, these guys play a long time. What do you have to do differently when you are designing for bands like O.A.R. or jam bands?
Well, these guys have toned down the jam part of it quite a bit. Unfortunately, this is not a band like U2 or Dave Matthews, where they let me go into rehearsals for two weeks—or two months—in an arena and program. I usually have a day or a day and a half where I nail down 30 songs. Right now, I’ve cataloged 42 songs. I usually can get about 30 in rehearsals.By Rob Ludwig Once you start building palettes, it starts going a lot faster towards the end. So I do the core stuff and try to build off of that. A lot of the rigs are rigs I’ve had out before, and I just update and add fixtures to it. The x.Spots came from the Madison Square Garden show; we did a one- off and sold it out. They were added to this rig because everything was pretty much programmed.

With 42 songs to choose from, is a lot of bouncing around and playing back on-the-fly or do you stick to a set list?
They do a set list. This is the first tour where I am actually in personal monitors with the band so if they call an audible or a change, one of the musicians on the stage will call it on a mic and let everyone know what’s changing. So they will do different versions of their songs. If the crowd is really into a song, they’ll throw in a verse and extend a song that’s normally three and a half minutes to 12 minutes. And I was around for the 18-minute version of “Crazy Game of Poker.”

I guess that’s where the jam band label comes from?
Definitely; especially with their crowds, it’s a high-energy show. For a band that doesn’t sell multimillion records, to sell out Madison Square Garden in the middle of January—17,000 seats in the round—is surreal. It was the biggest thing I’ve ever done.

How did you start working with O.A.R.?
My cousin. He’s a huge O.A.R. fan and used to bug me for tickets when they came through House of Blues in Chicago. I’d never heard of the band. Finally, I asked him to burn a CD for me and it was okay, but I’d always heard their live show was where it was at. So, they came through House of Blues in Vegas, which was where I transferred to after Chicago, and—they still give me a hard time about it—I called the tour manager and introduced myself and asked for a set list. Well, it was early in the morning and they had a long drive, and I guess no one had ever asked them for a set list before. So they were giving me crap…like, some dork guy is calling asking for a set list to program lights. Then when they came though, it just so happened that they were going to start looking for a lighting designer. So I submitted my resumé and I came out to do two shows for the band in L.A., at House of Blues in Los Angeles. I did two shows in New York and two shows in D.C. And after that, it was a permanent job. It’s great—these guys are like my family out here.