You couldn’t have written this Cinderella story with a happier ending. After being dropped by Columbia Records, pop rock band OneRepublic, formed in 2003, watched their Internet presence grow exponentially, attracting the attention and winning the support of producer Timbaland, who signed them to his Mosley Music Group and remixed their song “Apologize,” turning it into an international hit.
Today, OneRepublic is one of Interscope Records’ most successful artists, having recorded a slew of hit songs, many penned or co-written by vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist/chief songwriter Ryan Tedder (who’s composed music for many artists, including Leona Lewis, Beyoncé, Maroon 5, Adele), racking up millions of digital downloads while garnering unprecedented radio airplay.
OneRepublic’s blend of techno rock and symphonic elements gives The Killers, Coldplay and even Radiohead a run for their money, while also incorporating morsels of U2, American roots music, Beatles-esque hooks and a dose of Jeff Buckley soulfulness. In other words, OneRepublic’s material combines some of the most seminal aspects of popular music over the last several decades, yet it retains a certain electronic edginess courtesy of digital production techniques and audio software manipulation.
It can be debated whether OneRepublic’s ascension to the upper echelons of the pop world was random or by design. One thing is certain, however: nothing in the production of the band’s current tour to support their U.S. Top 5 studio release, 2013’s Native, was left to chance.
OneRepublic unleashed the inventiveness of lighting and video designers — and tapped their own creative resources — to present archetypal imagery in sync with the band members and the music.
Flown Diamonds
Such a heavily layered musical style needed to be matched, not only by a multi-dimensional lighting design, but striking production elements. By combining visual aspects typically found in the electronic dance club world with vintage effects generated by modern tools, lighting designer Chris Lisle, along with OneRepublic’s bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle and Scott Scovill, owner of video content and equipment services provider Moo TV, dreamed up the tour’s signature look: diamond-shaped lighting trussing pods.
“We wanted to play with geometry to accomplish a look that none of us had really seen before,” says Lisle, “at least to the extent that we took it.”
What emerged were symmetrical, diamond-shaped trussing structures, or pods, which underscore the entire production’s marriage between mathematical precision and creative beauty. “I find math and art are connected,” says Scovill. “I think there’s a math to art, and a pacing, cadence and an energy level to music that can be complemented by something visual.”
Four of these diamond-shaped lighting pods (i.e. square trussing structures that are elevated and then rotated 45 degrees), hang via inverted motors from an upstage truss. Each diamond measures approximately seven feet by seven feet (taking into account corner truss blocks) and secures three of Bandit Lites’ 5×5 matrix blinder boxes (arranged in a chevron pattern and placed in the interior area of the pod), a Martin Atomic strobe (placed under the chevron pattern), four Clay Paky Sharpys placed at midway points along each side of the pod, Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s fixed to the pod’s three corners, and Philips Color Kinetics’ four-foot iColor Accent Powercore tubes running along the piping on all four sides.
“Rotating the panels to create the diamond shape, at first, happened out of necessity, due to how the panels fit into the flown pods,” says Lisle. “I liked the look so much that we went ahead and turned [the 5×5 panels] all diamond shape on the downstage truss and floor units as well.”
The pods are visually elegant and compact, fulfilling much of the production’s lighting needs. “Sharpys are a big part of this show,” says Lisle. “The corner fixtures were originally MAC 101s, but starting this year we’ve used the new [Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE] K20s, which we absolutely love.”
The aggressive, arena-rock show look created by the blinders is balanced by the electrifying EDM feel the iColor tubes generate. “The 5×5 matrix fixtures were a must have for the show,” says Lisle. “The band loves the tungsten lamp look. The band also wanted some of the songs to have a very techno feel. The iColor tubes were a nice little alternative to a truss toner, that also allowed us to do some fun chases and effects through them.”
Two additional ground-supported lighting pods, positioned near the back of the stage, are each equipped with Sharpys on two sides, three 5×5 blinder boxes, an Atomic strobe, and the B-EYE K20s. (The latter were added for the band’s recent U.S. leg.)
Although only a few songs feature content pumped through the Bandit boxes, when the matrixes are in use, they perform dazzling pixel-mapped sweeps programmed via Pro Systems Group’s Catalyst Media Server software. “We actually come right out of the gate with the matrixes,” says Lisle. “When the band performs the opening song, ‘Light It Up,’ they are behind a white cyc, a kabuki, and we backlight them with one or two lamps from a couple of the floor matrix units.”
Near the conclusion of “Light It Up,” the kabuki drops and “we do a content effect through all the matrixes that looks huge,” says Lisle. “These fixtures have a nice ‘pop’ that complements the song. It’s a big visual moment for us.”
Puzzle Masters
Diamond shapes permeate the entire set. Six standalone 5×5 units dot the downstage area and eight matrix boxes are fixed atop the face of the downstage lighting trussing. Positioned upstage of the pods, three large center video screens overlap, creating a multi-form diamond-shaped video cluster.
Even in absence the overarching design is reinforced. For instance, two ground-supported pods and two rotated “table-top” (or “T-shaped”) side video screens, coupled with the fact that several diamond-shaped tiles have been surgically removed from the center cluster, create an intriguing, puzzle-like look, suggesting a form of geometric tessellation.
“The empty spaces allow for a lot of negative space around the diamonds,” says Scovill. “The band didn’t want a big look for video.”
Venue size dictates how many screens are used for each show. Whenever and wherever possible, five screens are employed, putting the total number of active 20mm Elation LED video tiles at nearly 120. “Our standard, or ideal, video screen package consists of three large flown diamond-shaped screens with two smaller screens, one on each side [of the large screen cluster],” says Lisle. “On some European tours we had to scale down the number of screens to only one flown diamond.”
Moo TV’s content was designed with heavy input from the band. “If you look at cover of Native, the heads of five animals are featured on the front,” says Scovill. “Each member of the band had an animal that represented him. For the video content for the song, ‘Counting Stars,’ we took 3D renderings of animals and we built them out of rectangles and polygons and animated them. It was all computer generated. We also incorporated the band’s graphic elements, little symbols the band made for each other. The band enjoys symbolism and wanted to carry some of that through the content.
“The band knows what they want,” adds Lisle. “Some band members give input, and sometimes it’s simple comments on lighting intensity. At other times it’s ideas for effects that they would like to incorporate into the show. I tend to follow Moo’s lead in terms of color palette for each song.”
Multipurpose Lighting
Lisle uses a smattering of ColorDash battens and Martin MACs (Viper Profiles and Auras) to wash the stage with broad strokes and fulfill other duties as well. “The battens provide low fill front lighting, and we have some mounted into the ‘jump boxes’ to uplight the guys,” says Lisle. “We use the MAC Auras to lay an overall color base onto the stage while the Vipers, with the use of gobos, are our go-to spot fixtures. They help paint the look we’re going for in each song.”
Although they had plenty of fixtures at their disposal, Lisle and lighting programmer Scott Chmielewski worked to ensure that the production wasn’t lighting heavy. “Scott is amazing at knowing to hold things back and keeping it simple,” says Lisle. “He also knows when to hit hard visually.”
Prior to the programming process, Lisle mapped out the set list for Chmielewski, noting the songs that require the use of custom, stock or no content at all. “I’ll point out the color palettes of the custom content and try to stay in that range,” says Lisle. “The reverse is true for stock content. I’ll choose a color palette I want and match content to that.”
The pacing of the show was discussed at length as well, with a concentration on the individual energy levels of the songs OneRepublic performs. “I’m interested in letting the show build and not showing all our toys from the beginning,” says Lisle. “I’ll also ask the programmer to save certain fixture features for a specific song or moment of the show. The band does an acoustic set halfway through the show, so we take that opportunity to pull everything back down to a single look for each of those songs. We can let the audience have a break from the visual production to sort of reset their senses.”
It’s no surprise, however, to find that the busiest lighting looks are saved for the last tune — the dance-y and infectiously catchy “If I Lose Myself.” “The band wanted an EDM feel for the song,” says Lisle. “We pull no punches and push every fixture to the limit.”
The lighting designer says he’s lost count of the number of cues for the show, but estimates the tally to be in the neighborhood of 800. To ensure that all aspects of the performance are in sync, the show has been time coded, decreasing the possibility for error. “We have an awesome playback guy [Bert Elliott] who sends [SMPTE] timecode for both lighting and video control, which is done via Catalyst,” says Lisle. “Timecode is something that the band wanted to use to ensure that all cues were really locked in and synced.”
As is the case for other aspects of the OneRepublic production, when it comes to specific lighting looks, a measured, calculated approach seems to produce the best results. “It’s all about taste,” says Lisle. “It’s about knowing what to use and when to use it.”
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Vendors
Lighting Co: Bandit Lites (U.S.), Neg Earth (Europe)
Video Co: Moo TV (U.S.), XL Video (Europe)
Rigging Co: SGPS (U.S.)
Crew
Lighting Designer: Chris Lisle
Tour Manager: Mark Oglesby
Production Manager: Zito
Tour Coordinator: Matt “Sators” Satorius
Rigger: Bill Heinzlmeier
Stage Manager: Aaron “AA” Draude
Lighting Director: AJ Pen
Lighting Programmer: Scott Chmielewski
Lighting Crew: Carter Fulghum, Billy Willingham, Adam Macintosh
Lighting Crew (Europe): Antti Saari, Neil Johnson
Video Engineer: Charles Signaigo
Playback Operator: Bert Elliott
Gear
1 MA Lighting grandMA2 Light console
1 MA Lighting grandMA2 Command Wing
3 MA Lighting grandMA2 NPUs
1 Pro Systems Group Catalyst media server
21 Clay Paky Sharpys
12 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
22 Martin MAC Auras
22 Martin MAC Viper Profiles
16 Philips Color Kinetics iColor 4’ Accent Powercore tubes
2 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX fixtures
12 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s
4 Chroma-Q ColorForce 48 fixtures
18 Chauvet ColorDash Batten TRI 6 fixtures
32 Bandit Lites matrix 5x5s
6 5K Fresnels
24 5’ sections of 12” truss
18 12” Corner Blocks
15 10’ sections of Tyler GT truss
Assorted Pipe and Base
