Lighting Company
Promosa
Venue
Various (Tour)
Production Team
- Lighting Designers: Alex Bridge & Kyle Jadon
- Lighting Programmers: Alex Bridge, Kyle Jadon, Andrew Balzer
- Lighting Director: Andrew Balzer
- Tour Manager: Jen Ochej
- Production Manager: Chris Kaplinski
- Production Assistant: Josh Banfield
- Promosa Account Rep: Kyle Jadon
- Lighting & Video Tech: Andrew Balzer
- Mantis Lighting Fixtures: Electric Magic Productions
- Video Co: Promosa
- Video Content Creator: Cam MacNeill
Gear
Lighting:
- 12 Robe Spikie
- 8 GLP impression X4 Bar 20
- 4 Robe MegaPointe
- 8 Portman Mantis
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA3 light Console
- 1 Brainstorm SR-112 Distripalyzer Timecode Rack
- 2 Unique 2.1 Hazers
Video:
- 66 Promosa MV 2mm Video Tile (.5m x .5m)
- 1 Apple MacBook Pro M1 w/Resolume
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
LIGHTS Baby I’m Back Tour 2022
Kyle Jadon (Lighting Designer)
Lighting designer Kyle Jadon was first introduced to LIGHTS and the camp through Jeremy Pummell of Synapse design where he went out on the road for him as the lighting director for the Lights ‘We Were Here Tour’ in 2018. “It was hands down one of the best camps I had been a part of in the last decade as well as a good relationship with the artist and management. From there we kept collaborating on different projects. Singer Lights (Lights Poxleitner-Bokan) lives just outside of Vancouver so both of us living close led to a fair bit of music video/TV projects during the pandemic.”
Lights wanted to see a video heavy show that best represented her new album ‘PEP’. Jadon says the previous tours and festivals had just started to incorporate video but for this tour she wanted to go more in depth with the video content. “We brought on the expertise of Cam MacNeill to curate and create new animations and video content. I should also mention that Lights is an amazing artist that has her own comic book series. We were able to incorporate a fair bit of her own art and comic book visuals in the show visuals and it easily ties things together. Overall we were given free reign on the design with the following parameters- every song should be colored and represent the PEP album art. Designing and programming with only primary colors was harder than we thought! Then create the largest looking (and scalable) show that fits within the confines of a bus trailer. The last parameter was difficult and we spent a solid week selecting fixtures and products to maximize the scale of the show while being mindful of the managements request to not bring a semi on the road.”
Fixture wise Jadon started with the Robe Spikie and had the idea that they wanted a key fixture that would provide some eye candy. He notes that they just didn’t know what that fixture was when they started drafting. “There are few fixtures that can do what the Spikie can do in regards to brightness, zoom and prism while all being in a compact body; perfect for a bus and trailer tour. Our big light that provides gobo looks which is also our main clone fixture for this show is the Robe MegaPointe. I am a huge fan of the output and gobo selection of this fixture, not to mention their reliability on the road. The X4 bars were added as the last fixture to the design as we needed to create depth between the risers and the video wall. We have them outlining each riser and are able to create looks that make the stage much larger than it actually is. It’s hard to imagine we weren’t going to put them on the tour. Finally the Portman Mantis! Our search for a unique eye candy fixture was complete. Andrew Balzer of Electric Magic Productions had just purchased some that he was storing at the Promosa warehouse. I wasn’t super sold on the idea until I saw a demo. It was exactly what we were looking for. It was unique, with a bright blinding function and we were able to create a lot of eye candy looks with the RGB individual glow in each cell.”
Alex Bridge (Lighting Designer)
Alex Bridge notes he’s worked closely with Kyle for the past few years and that’s how he’s gotten to know Lights and her team. “Kyle has pulled me into a couple different projects with Lights in the past as well as music videos. When Kyle had approached me with the idea of designing this tour I thought it would be a great chance to work on a different setting coming from initially focusing on the electronic producer / music world.”
Bridge says there were a few previous revisions. They initially started a bit larger, however they knew that they would be limited to trailer space going into it. “We needed to approach the design being conscious of the pack as well as the process for load in/out. Once we had a rough idea of the shape of the stage. We began to speak about fixtures. We needed something that would provide a lot of punch in a small package. Video is always a good solution for this. We still wanted to make sure the lighting could provide a strong stance to make the true saturated “PEP” color palette.”
Early on in the process, Jadon had spoken with Bridge about needing to look at the Portman Mantis. It had just been released and knowing that they needed a lot from a limited amount, the versatility of what it provided was perfect and portable enough. “We decided to use Robe MegaPointes as the bright standout fixtures to really pack some punch, and we used Robe Spikies to fill the space to add a lot of energy into the rig. We looked to the versatile X4 Bar 20 to help define the shape of the stage by lining the risers. It allowed for some powerful looks that could separate lights from the band and make her stand out even stronger.”
Andrew Balzer (Lighting Director)
Lighting director Andrew Balzer started working with Kyle Jadon and Alex Bridge at Promosa Management in August of 2021. They had worked a little bit together on previous small projects but this was the first major project working with the two of them. “It has been an absolute pleasure the entire time and I’m looking forward to a long-term partnership with Kyle, Alex and Promosa Management.
There was some additional songs that required programming after the initial set list was completed which were taken care of under the direction of Kyle and Alex. Being able to dive deep into the file that they had been working on by doing some of the programming really helped to build the comfort level for the start of rehearsals and shows. The rest of the programming involved is the usual cloning and updating as required for each venue and updating with the artist’s requests.”
Electric Magic Productions supplies small lighting fixture rentals and MA console system rentals to the touring market and works closely with Promosa Management on many projects. They focus on providing efficient LED solutions and unique fixtures that are more niche, that may not be found in many rental houses, especially in the Western Canadian market. As the President of Electric Magic, getting into the fixture rental business, Balzer was looking for a fixture that was unique and modern but could also give that great tungsten blinder look.
“The Mantis is just a super versatile fixture that allows for such a wide variety of looks for any environment both in corporate and live music applications. When I first received a demo of the Mantis, I was absolutely blown away by the brightness, especially after getting a demo of the Portman P1 mini. For the Lights tour they play a huge role in providing an audience blinder, backlighting and a wide number of effects. The other great part is they’re relatively small, fitting into 24” x 30” cases which was essential to fitting them into the bus trailer.”
More Lights photos by Steve Jennings:
