For a creative and expressive field like live music production, it’s amazing how jaded some people can be at times. But I’m not going to talk about that; I am going to talk about the exact opposite of that. I want to talk about the energy that pushes you to keep moving to create something almost beyond this world. If there is a single word for it in English, I don’t know what it is. It’s beyond enthusiasm. It comes over you like a spell until you see the project through, then it goes somewhere else for a while. It comes back again later. This energy, as I know, it can manifest in at least three different ways.
In some particular places, there is a creative energy that exists permanently, and you can tap into it if you know how. Think about all the great records that came out of Muscle Shoals, for example. Even whole cities can possess it — New Orleans, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris and New York City come to mind. Sometimes I go to those cities just to get inspired, to absorb it.
It can also come from a particular challenge or opportunity. Suddenly, you see the potential to move your career, your artistry, to another level. In the course of what might be a single design, your résumé could end up weighing twice as much or more. It makes you jump out of bed and keeps you working all day and night without tiring. Ideas just come to you from what seems like another world. Everything comes together almost seamlessly. In a different set of circumstances, it would be exhausting. You can’t stop if you tried, and until this vision comes to life, you couldn’t rest if you wanted to.
The energy can come from a person as well. It could be from a mentor, a fellow crew member or even someone not really involved directly. Most often for me, it comes from the artist who calls, especially if it’s a particularly good fit for my skills and style. A call like that can bring a certain sense of validation to all the hours (paid and otherwise) that I have invested in myself. All the time spent learning software, studying design, figuring out how to make the console play out in a particular way. It justifies all the money you spend on things like tools, gear and software, things you borrowed or bought on your own dime to take the project over the top. Suddenly, all these expenses and experiences pay off because you just got the call you can hardly believe. It all finally affords you an opportunity to work with someone who amazed you before you even knew this was an actual, viable career path. When you get to that headspace, you know you’re hooked. Once you give in to it, it’s great to know with certainty what you were born to do.
Back in 1999
The first time that energy really hit me hard, it happened to come from all three ways at once. In 1999, I had been working as the lighting director at a concert club in Minneapolis. It was my first full-time creative job. By this point, I had been there a couple of years. I knew the rig inside and out. It was basically the lighting leftovers from a movie shot there years earlier. I knew every little quirk in the system. I knew its full potential. It was kind of a mess, but it was my mess, and I made the best of it. The story from the office was that there wasn’t any money to update anything. However, the place seemed to be in the middle of a good run. There were some really great shows being booked, not big money makers, but great shows. I was getting paid a livable wage to hone my craft and get a music education for free. Artists I had never heard of from around the world were becoming my new favorites. They certainly could have paid better, but can’t they all? I would stick around for a while. Besides, I couldn’t do much better in Minneapolis at that point with my skill set. It was cool, but I was cooling off. I wanted a lot more than just a job.
One day the phone rings at home. It’s a guy who says he works for an Artist Formerly Known As… you know. He needs a lighting person out at his compound for some special events. How did he get my number? Of course, I said yes. I was absolutely electrified and terrified at same time. There certainly was not a bigger musical icon anywhere else in the world, and I was going to go work for my own hometown hero, The Dude.
To be fair, I was young and inexperienced. I knew that I wasn’t ready to take on the job as his touring LD. But out at the compound they had this thing they simply called “club.” It was, for the most part, the loading dock area of the soundstage with a few lights. The Artist would play a very late set, or maybe he wouldn’t, but if you wait until dawn, he might come out and play the entire Purple Rain soundtrack for the sixteen people left in the room. He could play songs nobody had ever heard before. Maybe George Clinton or Maceo Parker would be there jamming too. Being there, in the middle of nowhere, you knew one thing for sure. There was no place in the known universe that was witnessing anything as spectacular as this guy in his own private habitat at that particular moment. I was dumbstruck that I was actually there, and it was actually happening (or was it?) It was five in the morning, after all, and it was as surreal as anything you have ever experienced.
The funny thing was, the lighting was sparse, and it was my job to light the “club,” but make sure that there was absolutely no light on “Dude” as we all referred to him. I didn’t actually get to “see” him, nor did anyone else in the room, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I was being creatively involved on any level whatsoever, with an artist of that magnitude.
I was validated, energized. The switch had flipped. It was then I realized that any door could open or close at any moment in this business. That places, situations and certain people can suddenly ignite an energy and bring you to a point you never expected to be at a moment’s notice.
I learned a bit about this creative energy from an absolute master of it. Since then, I have learned how to better channel it and even better, how to allow it to utilize me. It seems the universe is full of this energy. It exists in infinite supply, and if you can get out of your own way long enough, it will find you and have use for you. It will keep you going and take you lot farther than you ever imagined once you are struck with it. It also helps if you work your tail off and do your homework so you are ready when the phone rings.
Scott is the lighting designer for Minnesota-based bands Trampled by Turtles and Hippo Campus. He hails from Minneapolis and can be reached at www.thedirtybusiness.net.
