French electronic group M83, with their style of alternate/pop-new wave was formed in 1999 with multi-instrumentalist Anthony Gonzalez at the helm as lead vocalist and songwriter. With nine albums the group is out in support of the newest 2023 release Fantasy. The group has won numerous awards—2006 PLUG Awards for Electronic-Dance Album of the Year, the 2008 Robert Awards Music Prize for Best European Artist, and in 2016 awarded Best International Group from the Sweden GAFFA Awards. We spoke with Sarah Landau, Lighting Designer, Lighting and Video Programmer, and Erin Peters Lighting Director for the tour.
SARAH LANDAU,
Lighting Designer
Landau has designed every M83 tour since 2011. Her connection started from a cold email to their manager with her resume attached, offering her services. “I’d been a fan for 10 years at that point, and figured there was nothing to lose, simply asking for the job. It was the right moment, apparently—after a brief phone chat, I got the gig. As the production has grown, I’ve developed a lovely friendship with Anthony Gonzalez (M83/lead artist) over the years, and he really trusts me as a collaborator.” Gonzalez gives her a lot of creative freedom for her designs. “I am inspired directly by the music, and I first envision a fantastical setting where it is being performed. My design proposals usually start by sharing images with the artist from movies, TV, and art that reference elements of this imagined space, to ensure we are on the same page. Then I translate those images into practical touring rigs based on logistics/budget/etc. Finally, I send renders drawn in WYSIWYG for feedback.”
Gonzalez and Landau began discussing inspirations for the design six months prior to the start of the tour, “But of course it took until the last moment to decide on the eventual setup. Originally, he wanted a giant monster face set piece, to replicate the character on the album cover and music video. I was able to convince him that video content would be more versatile, as well as easier and cheaper to tour the world with.” Gonzalez got quite involved in the video content aspect of the show, insisting that it was used sparingly, to give space for the lights. “He also doesn’t care about being seen clearly, and pushed for even more darkness when I thought it was already plenty moody. The whole band is very tolerant of strobes and fog, so I can go pretty wild without complaints. Otherwise, when it comes to looks for songs—colors, cues, etc., it’s all up to me and I just channel the collective unconscious synesthesia from the music into light, and thus, together, we create emotion.”
Landau had the luxury of programming with WYSIWYG and a command wing in a friend’s home office, while staying in their guest room. “I could work at any hour, in my pajamas, and finished the 23-song set in five days, stopping only to sleep. I was gob smacked at how accurate WYSIWYG was to the real world, when running back my previz work for the first time in person. There were no production rehearsals to speak of, so I joined the tour for the first few weeks, to finish up cue notes and integrate new video content that was still being submitted.”
Frosted LED tubes were integral for the M83 style says Landau. She notes the Martin VDO Sceptrons were the lightest and brightest option. “I was excited to try the new iVL Photons, after using the original iVL Carré on another band’s tour a few years ago—they really work for the M83 aesthetic. I was happily surprised to discover how incredibly well they translate outdoors. The [Elation Proteus] Rayzor Blade Ls are insanely powerful. I got them as a substitute for GLP x4 bar 20s for a one-off gig last year and have never looked back. The Portman Mantises were another perfect-for-M83 fixture, weird and unique, like little alien flowers. I was sold from their demo videos.”
Landau quickly discovered that hanging their racks of overhead Sceptrons was a bit too labor-intensive for festivals and with a one-tech tour. “We have transitioned to using them virtually, using captured video of them running their cues in WYSIWYG, positioned and scaled as they would have been hung and layered over our usual video content. Otherwise, we hang one iVL Photon upstage center, when possible. Erin [Peters] is cloning overhead house and festival rigs daily, as it’s always a different plot, up top.”
Landau chose Peters to operate the M83 tour after seeing her wonderful work taking care of the Purity Ring tour in 2022 that she and Julien Reux designed. “M83 was going to be a much bigger and more complicated production, but I was confident in her ability to learn quickly and rise to the occasion, which she has.”
ERIN PETERS,
Lighting Director
Lighting Director Erin Peters was sent to prep the U.S. tour in Tacoma, WA at the Promosa shop for a week before the U.S. run. Peters didn’t actually see Sarah Landau (or the show for that matter) until rehearsal day. Landau stayed with the tour for a couple of weeks to do notes and get the video tidied up, then they got to work together during that time, notes Peters. “Lots of tag-teaming the console. For the UK prep, Sarah and I met in London and headed to Portsmouth to prep at the Lite Up shop. We were there for a week and now I am out on this first of two legs of Europe shows.”
On the U.S. run, Peters says the biggest hurdle wound up being the upstage backdrop, Sceptron, Photon, and video wall. “Sarah’s design has a sparkle scrim backdrop with a small 4×3 video wall hung behind it. Hung downstage of the scrim is a Photon at center and eight sticks of Sceptrons (four on each side of varying lengths hung on an angle to fit in with the ground Sceptrons). Our solution for the video wall when we weren’t able to hang it was that we would push the USC tower all the way upstage, strike the lighting and add a 4’ piece of truss to the tower, making it 10’. We then ground stacked the video wall against it (with an extra unused row on the bottom to make it sit taller).”
Peters says the way Landau used the Photons in this show is next level. “I have seen them come through the Van Buren a couple times, but this is the first time I have seen them used purposefully and it’s excellent. The Mantis is such a strange fixture. I think they’re beautiful, but they are so specific, I would love to do some kind of weird jungle show with a whole bunch of them all over the place. I loved the absolute killer versatility of the Rayzor Blade L that we used for the tour.”
Peters is currently into the first leg of the Europe run, where they played places like Helsinki and Dubai. Peters says it’s not really too much different over there, noting the food seems better, and lots of history. “Something it can be more difficult playing places like Dubai, in that it’s easier to have them set up your floor package locally than trying to get all your gear trucked there. Which just means a whole lot more work on the preplanning and programming end. I’ve been trying to do as much as I can in advance for that reason.
“Every single person I’ve worked with in regards to this tour has been wonderful,” notes Peters. “From the band to the crew, and the lighting providers have been easy to work with. In the U.S., Anthony thanked us from the stage nightly and even had a meeting to thank us. It’s rare but just that small gesture means so much. This crew is excellent, we all work hard to help each other out without crossing boundaries. Promosa was a very professional shop to prep in and supported us throughout a video wall ‘situation’ at the beginning of the tour. They made quick work of it, so we didn’t have to do a show without it. The tech they provided was super knowledgeable and helpful. The thing I love most about being an LD is working and collaborating with other artists. Something that comes along with that is learning to communicate using positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. Sarah is great at that and gives me notes that I can complete with confidence. This is a beautiful show to get to watch every night, I just want to make her proud.”
Production Team
Tour Manager: Mark Dempsey
Production Manager: Kai Johnson
Stage Manager: Mitch Cady
Lighting Designer: Sarah Landau
Lighting/Video Programmer: Sarah Landau
Lighting Director: Erin Peters
Lighting Techs: (US) Andrew Balzer, (Europe/UK) Iain Keigtley
Video Content: Michael Lim, Rosa Sawyers
WYSIWYG Draftsperson: Joe Casper
Vendors
Lighting Companies: (US) Promosa / Kyle Jadon, (Europe) Liteup Events Ltd /Marc Callaghan
Soft Goods: Sew What / Marianne Lopez
Gear
Lighting
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 Lite (MA2 Mode)
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA NPU
- 1 PRG MBox Studio Media Server/M2 MacBook Pro
- 19 Elation Rayzor Blade L
- 9 Elation SIXPAR 300
- 4 Minuit Une iVL Photon
- 8 Martin MAC Aura
- 5 Portman Mantis
- 4 Robe MegaPointe
- 6 Robe Spikie
Video
- 60 Martin VDO Sceptron 10
- 24 Gloshine MV 2.9 Video Panel
Effects
- 2 hazebase Base Touring Fog Machine
- 2 Antari Ice-101 Fog Machine
