Project Overview: Dead and Company is one of the most highly respected cover band of all time. The band formed in 2015 featuring Grateful Dead original members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann (all of whom are in the rock n roll hall of fame) as well as the incredibly talented John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti. For The Final Tour, Bill Kreutzmann was replaced by Jay Lane; the original drummer from Primus and the drummer in Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. The section I was involved with is called 'Drums and Space'; a 20-30 minute avant-garde freestyle on a collection of drums called the 'Wall of Drums' and a custom instrument called 'The Beam'. Both instruments are an extension of Mickey's creativity and give him the ability to bring his vision for abstract rhythms to life with the help of Oteil and Jay. I was tasked with discussing the theme for every show with Mickey the days prior, and then create content to play based on those themes. Given that we have three show runs in multiple cities, this was a very large task that required around the clock attention. Each show would require a new project file, with new content, and new midi routing to bring Mickey's vision to life. I joined the tour at Citi Field and stayed on for the remainder of the tour because they needed a VJ that could move sonically with the band and improvise by taking big chances in order to create special moments for the audience. For 13 shows, I did just that - improvising with the band and making changes show to show in order to bring Mickey Hart's vision to life while still expressing my own creativity. Many members of the band, including Hart, have left the door open for future Dead and Company shows, stating that this is just the final tour.
Mickey's Art: For The Final Tour, Mickey had a vision for what he wanted to see visually. He has a large collection of paintings that he wanted to see move and warp into space and surreal landscapes, so he contacted Johnathan Singer to some content. I had been working with Johnathan at the time, so he brought me on to tackle the content creation. In addition to manipulating Mickey's art, I also focused heavily on creating new 3D art that Mickey wanted to see, such as: skulls eating roses, morphing 'Stealy Heads', cosmic roses, and many more. I also used a lot of Mickey's paintings in the theme content that was created for each show, where I would remix it with my 3D art to morph into rainforests, etc.
The Wall of Drums: Mickey Hart is not your average drummer, he is more of an experimental percussionist. His drum kit doesn't have the normal snares and symbols like Bill Kreutzmann or Jay Lane's drum kits - rather he features drums and instruments from all over the world that he has discovered in his travels. The Wall of Drums is the perfect example of this collection of unique instruments. Every drum has a story and with the help of Jay Lane and Oteil Burbridge, Mickey tells those stories during Drums and Space. Every single drum on the wall is fixed with a frequency meter that can translate a hit on the drum to a midi note. Those midi notes were then routed to the Lighting Operator and me (the Visual Operator), to trigger certain effects. This midi routing helped bring the Wall of Drums to life in a new way that hasn't been experienced before.
The Beam: Originally created for the Apocalypse Now Soundtrack recorded by Mickey Hart, The Beam is a large, 8-foot aluminum I beam strung with 13 bass piano strings all tuned to the note of D. It has a movable magnetic pickup block to facilitate capture and transmission of various tonal qualities. The pickup block feeds a volume pedal and various audio effects units, which route the signals through an amplifier or sound system. The Beam generates a large variety of low frequency primary tones and harmonic overtones, and is played by hitting the strings with a percussion mallet, plucking the strings by hand and or with a plectrum, or by pounding on The Beam frame itself to induce a bell-like resonance of all the strings simultaneously. The audio frequencies created from this beam were sent to my computer can analyzed by GLSL code to create real time effects.
Visual Tech Setup: For the Dead and Company Tour, I was brought on very last minute and put into a system that was already touring for several stops; that being said I had to adjust the the resources available. I was able to take a clean audio feed of the drum section into my computer using a Focusrite Scarlett. From the camera team I was able to take three SDI feeds of different cameras, which I would take into my Roland 4-Channel SDI Mixer to view/switch between on my Multi View setup. That Roland Mixer would then send the signal through an AJA U-Tap SDI to USB converter so I could take the mixed camera feeds into my laptop. That camera feed was then opened in the software Synesthesia which utilizes the audio feed being input to manipulate the feed in real time based on GLSL code and the audio spectrum being analyzed. This output was then sent to Resolume Arena 7 where it was live mixed with the tour/theme visuals for each night. Resolume also analyzes the audio spectrum coming in as well as utilizes the midi signals from each drum to trigger effects and clips. The signal from Resolume was then passed out through HDMI and converted back to SDI with a Blackmagic HMDI to SDI converter. With all this routing and converting of the signal, I was sending the signal at 1920x1080 (Full HD) at 60FPS, with latency from 0-1ms.
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Theme Nights: On The Final Tour we would present a theme every night during Drums and Space. These themes would be sent to me the day before or day of the show along with a write up explaining how we should translate the theme through sound and video. Some nights we would have video to work with; for example, on rainforest night I got to work with footage captured by Steven Feld from his documentary 'Voices of the Rainforest'. Other nights I had to become more creative with ways of working in the theme; like the picture above, this is from Por Por night which is a honker from Ghana. So to translate that theme I 3D modeled various honkers and made them swirl around in fun, abstract ways. During Drums and Space Jon Koh (our Ableton Tech) would play sounds mickey recorded, such as recording of water under the golden gate bridge, sounds of the birds of Papua New Guinea, etc. Also featured above are two videos created for the Golden Gate Bridge theme in San Fran Night 1 (The Golden Gate Bridge was 3D modeled in Cinema 4D).
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3D Content: For The Final Tour I was asked to make 3D models to be played during drums and space. I created all of them with alpha layers so they could be remixed in After Effects and layered live in Resolume. Everything created was supposed to have a 'spacey' feeling to it to make it stand out from the rest of the show. Above are a few of those animations; in all I created over 50 clips to be remixed and played. Some clips, like the last one above, were used with the midi signals being sent from the drums; so every time there was a drum hit, there would be a lighting switch like in the clip. In the end, we had over 75 clips to be used between all the stops (not including the theme content).
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Camera Manipulation: During Drums and Space I was taking in three cameras through SDI that I would then manipulate live using GLSL code in Synesthesia. The shaders are edits created by my good friend Psybernautics, the synesthesia team, and myself. I would route the camera in through Synesthesia, where the audio would create feedback and ripple effects, then I would route that signal back into Resolume to be mixed with all the tour content we created. The shader in the video above is 'Vial Spiller 4' by Psybernautics.
Largest Show: Oracle Park, San Francisco CA
Attendance: 140,000 over 3 days
Attendance: 140,000 over 3 days
Lead Drum Tech: Kenny Sharretts
Lead Ableton Tech: Jon Koh
Midi Routing: Jon Koh
Live Visual Performer: ZiP Visuals
Theme Content Creator: ZiP Visuals
Tour Content Creators: Johnathan Singer, ZiP Visuals, Glass Crane
Featured GLSL Shaders by: Psybernautics and Synesthesia
More Information about the themes for Drums and Space can be found here:
https://mickeyhart.net/drums-space/
More Information about Mickey's art can be found here:
https://mickeyhart.net/mickey-hart-fine-art/
Lead Ableton Tech: Jon Koh
Midi Routing: Jon Koh
Live Visual Performer: ZiP Visuals
Theme Content Creator: ZiP Visuals
Tour Content Creators: Johnathan Singer, ZiP Visuals, Glass Crane
Featured GLSL Shaders by: Psybernautics and Synesthesia
More Information about the themes for Drums and Space can be found here:
https://mickeyhart.net/drums-space/
More Information about Mickey's art can be found here:
https://mickeyhart.net/mickey-hart-fine-art/
