I, like many, got in to dance music listening to the artists. Filthy beats and choppy drops strike my core and buzz my insides. They are great, love them, but the entire vibe would not be without the conglomeration of every track, piece of equipment, person, rail, or security guard in the venue. It just wouldn’t be the same without the lights. One of my favorite light memories is Datsik at Red Rocks (worth mentioning frickin Ghastley, boom Slander, lay it on me Cookie Monsta B2B Funtcasae B2B Dr. P, Bro Safari) throwing down at GlobalDub festival (this year’s card picture/ video link Datsik Instagram). But EVERY single show I go to, the lights continue to dazzle me.

The lights are one of my favorite parts. You have to love a perfectly synched drop while lasers beam across the sky in all directions. Blue lights and green mixed with yellow fill up the atmosphere. I’d been a little bit curious, and I wanted to shine some light (pun definitely intended) on one of the key positions running the show. Below you’ll see an interview from another passionate soul that loves to play in this arena, Ben Newell. He has created shows for the likes of Datsik, Steve Aoki, and many more big names to come.

What are you doing at work today?

Actually today I’m working with a visualizer program called capture that I use for my lighting. I’m actually just kind of messing around with it today. I’m teaching my friend some of it tomorrow. Capture is basically just a visualization program that I can use to visualize what the lights and stuff will look like before the show, so I can program before we get to the venue.

Where did your career in lighting first begin and how old were you when you first got started?

I first started actually in high school, I went to a performing arts high school called Arts of the Capital Theatre in Connecticut where I’m from. My mom knew I was in to the arts and theatre, but she kinda made me go there really. I started doing film stuff there and little video editing things like that and then I also did sound engineering. I hadn’t really gotten in to lighting, but they had a cool theatre program with lighting so I learned the basics of theatre lighting. Gels, dimming, and all of the technical aspects of theater lighting; so that’s where I got my start there in high school and it’s cool because I got my start at a younger age. By senior year I got to run every single production that they had, which was nice because I got to take the reins in the lighting production that they had.

The only thing I know about lighting and light design is the word “Gels”, could you explain more about your job and how it’s really crucial to the whole production?

So basically what I do is once I get a call, sometimes a week before sometimes a few months before; and they’ll give me an idea of the setup: how many lights they are going to have at the show, how big the stage is going to be, how much equipment we’re going to have. And then what I’ll do is take all that information and then create a lighting plot so I can place all of my instruments where I need them and that’s where the visualizer can help me see what it will all look like before the show. Then from there I can basically program my show and I can change values and all of that so I can see how it’s going to look. You have certain positions for the lights, you have certain colors for the lights that you want to put in, and you need them accessible at all times during the show. I think of it as a big painting. You’re doing this artwork in the sky, its painting light in the sky and that’s how I love seeing it. My console will be in the back of the room (where everyone is dancing), which is what they call “front of house.”

Where does your creativity really come in? Do you get to choose the colors and positions or is that up to the artist’s discretion?

It depends sometimes. I’d say for the most part when I’m designing I get a lot of creative freedom. That’s what I think is really cool is I can, for the most part, do anything I want. And it’s great because they give me the reigns and say “we know you’ve got this skill set here, we know you’ll do a good job, so make it your own.” And there are times when they’ll say “we want a certain color at this point, or we want this kind of fade change here, or a spotlight on this person” and it really depends on the show and how in depth they have thought about those things. Also because I’ve been doing this a long time I’ll provide suggestions or anything else I can do to make what they’re looking for. And if they don’t have any idea then I make what they think should be in place. It is definitely a collaborative effort.

What’s the hardest part about your job?

It gets difficult at a few different points. There are long days when you’re on the road for a while and you’re not home for a long time. I think that’s one of the hardest times, but there’s points during the year, especially during the summer, where you’re not home for a couple months at a time. Otherwise, it does get tough, and it does get strenuous with lifting heavy stuff and long hours and things like that, but honestly it’s so hard to complain about any of it because it’s so much fun. You’re always meeting great people, you’re always meeting cool likeminded people that are in to the production world; and it’s just really cool to constantly meet those people and talk to them and be working with them. I just meet the coolest people all the time. It is really hard to complain, ever. I am always having a ball.

What were some of the shows you’ve done? And what is your favorite part?

I haven’t been on tour personally, but I do some of the bigger shows when they come through like Datsik, Steve Aoki, Yellow Claw, and some bigger names that come through the area that we’ll just do the lighting for their one-off shows, so If they don’t have a lighting designer, I will do that for them. I am looking to tour this summer, there are a couple of artists that are looking to have me on tour with them this year. So it’s definitely a possibility. My favorite part is definitely meeting the people in the industry. You get to meet all these awesome artists that you wouldn’t really meet otherwise and you get to go to some pretty cool places I would say.

I’ve always liked how it’s never the same thing twice. I mean you may be setting up the same rig twice or the same kind of show twice, but you’re never really in the same place twice, you’re never seeing the same people twice, it’s just always a new kind of experience wherever you go and that always keeps it fresh and exciting, I think.

How many events do you usually do per month? Do you span all genres or just focus on EDM?

I probably do 20-50 events a month. I think I am doing about 20 shows this month, but in a month like July or August I may do 50 somethin’ events, or I may be on tour, or I may be going out every day kind of thing. So it really just depends. I do festivals a lot too during the summer so you go to a festival for a week and that’ll be all EDM music and then you do another festival and it’ll be all jam bands kind of thing. And there’s certain circuits that we’ll work with Christian bands or weddings, and we’ll do rock shows and then we’ll do EDM. It really is all over the place and I think to be a good lighting designer you need to have your fingers in everything, you have to know all types of music, because if someone wants you to do a jazz festival you can’t be like “ahh I don’t know jazz”, it may not be your favorite thing, but you need to be able to handle anything they would throw at you. This lifestyle is very vagabond, the next job isn’t guaranteed. You are always looking for the next job and you need to be able to take it. I’ve always said to say yes to everything because it will always lead to more opportunities down the road.

Do you have any specific goals with lighting or artists you would like to work with or long term plans?

Yeah for sure. I mean you always look at the big two like Pretty Lights or Bassnectar, I mean that may never happen in my lifetime but I’ve gotten to talk to their lighting designers before. It is cool because the LD (lighting design) world is actually real small, so I’ve gotten to talk to all these professionals and these people that I’ve looked up to for years and years and I’m just thinking “wow, you’re taking the time to talk to me.” I would love to be on tour and just go around wherever. If I can do this my whole life and continue to make a living off it, that’s my dream really. I’m having fun doing the work that I do and I don’t really think I can ask for more than that. I don’t really think there’s a lot of people that can say they enjoy what they do and that in and of itself is pretty awesome.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve gotten to do with your career?

I think my favorite show was probably Datsik which was really cool. They didn’t have an LD, they had their laser guy or whatever and I was surprised, you were asking earlier about how much freedom they give you, and I was surprised with how much creative freedom they actually gave me to just do this tour that they’re going around the country with (The Shogun). They said do what you want. I mean there were certain parts where they said at this point we want all lasers or all lighting and we just got to go back and forth, but it was cool how much freedom beyond that they gave me. To be able to just do what I want, make the looks the way I wanted, use the colors I wanted to use. So that was a really cool experience. I also got to do Steve Aoki a few weeks ago actually at the club I work at and that was pretty cool. It is just gratifying I think. It’s gratifying to see a lot of people there enjoying the show and they may not even know what I do. I work at a club so I’ll have people coming up to me saying, “hey can I request a song?” thinking I’m the DJ lol, but it’s gratifying that people are enjoying themselves and having a good time and they have no idea what I’m doing or that I’m even doing anything for the show. A lot of people will be like “you control the lights? What is that? I thought they just did that themselves?” It’s cool too and you’ll have people coming up to you after the show saying “I saw you were doing the lights and that’s really cool, I appreciate that, I see that”, and that’s one of the cooler things too are the people that notice what you’re doing or say “that’s awesome!” to you. It’s cool to see those guys recognize what you’re doing and that you’re a part of the production.

For someone that hasn’t gone to a specific high school or anything, how do you recommended anyone get involved with lighting?

There’s no one way I’d say. You know, people go to college for it. My part I basically just, out of high school I started bouncing around for local production companies and just saying “hey I’m in to lighting, I do sound too, I’ll push cases or do whatever.” I’ve always had the mindset that if you want to get in to the world, just be willing to do anything. You may not get on the console or push the buttons or whatever for the first two or three years, but you’ll just absorb as much knowledge as you can and be willing to take any job possible. As long as you are a hard working person and willing to show people that this is what I love to do, this is what I want to do. Like I said earlier, it is a very vagabond lifestyle. The next job is never guaranteed ever, so sometimes it does get a little scary like “how am I going to pay the next bill” type of thing, but you just have to keep pushing through and working hard and people will see that and in the end it all works out.