Ayrton MagicBlade-R key to Discovery + Form
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Having kicked off at The Crocodile in Seattle on 22 February, the tour runs for 17 dates culminating on 22 March at the U Street Music Hall in Washington DC. The venues throughout the tour vary in size from the 350-capacity Catalyst Atrium in Santa Cruz to the 800-seat EchoPlex in Los Angeles.
To maintain the visual integrity of the production between venues, lighting designer, Taylor (Brotay) Copp chose Ayrton MagicBlade-R fixtures, supplied by Hivemind Lux LLC, as his highly versatile key lights. “We mount the MagicBlade-Rs on to black poles on either side of the stage,” says Eric Bindman, Haywyre’s tour manager. “We can up- or down-scale this arrangement to suit each venue, and because it requires no overhead truss, we can fit into the smallest room.
“The complete scaleability of the design means we can keep true to the identity of the show design without having to rework the set from venue to venue. This is really important, firstly because Haywyre relies heavily on our visual cues, and secondly because it ensures we can deliver the same standard of show to every venue regardless of size. The MagicBlades are totally instrumental in keeping the promoters and the artist happy.”
Bindman first encountered MagicBlade fixtures on stage at a festival in Canada. “I found them incredibly intuitive and very versatile, so as soon as Taylor said he wanted to design the Haywyre tour stage around them, I loved the idea. I knew that not only would they be a perfect foil to Haywyre’s style, but also a fantastically versatile touring light.”
Haywyre’s musical style is eclectic and experimental, crossing genres and continents as it encompasses a synthesis of jazz, classical and contemporary electronic music, with keyboards and keytar as his chosen instruments.
The unusual shape and properties of the MagicBlade-R prove an appropriate lighting tool for Brotay to echo this style, as he uses them to frame the artist, alternating dramatic cross light with dynamic and static configurations, running chases and video content through the linear faces of the fixtures as well as mixing up the style with position and alignment.
“We wanted to have something that really allows our stage design to stand out from those of other artists out there,” Brotay says. “Many of the venues we are visiting don’t have movers, and using the MagicBlades in this way enables us to bring something new and exciting to these spaces.
“The MagicBlade-R’s pixel mapping capabilities have been an incredible feature. Not only can you drop media into the lighting program, but you can control it from Resolume as well. This allows me to really bridge the gap between lights and visuals.”
Aesthetically the MagicBlades are a crowd engagement tool. “During the keytar solo in Tell Me, Haywyre walks upstage into cross stage shafts of light as we are outputting red, green and blue chases from the MagicBlades to throw a rainbow onto the artist. It’s a completely different way of using the light and the crowd reaction has always been exceptional.”
Bindman and his team have been impressed with the handling of the MagicBlade-R fixtures on tour. “They are a breeze to work with, and their tour worthiness and ease of set up has been extremely valuable,” he says. “We are a small team, so easy handling and quick set up is vital. The MagicBlades are so intuitive to work with that no experience of handling them is necessary, and they are engineered so well that they are easy to rig even after a long drive and little sleep.
“The MagicBlades have proved physically durable and extremely reliable, and capable of surviving a rigorous nationwide tour through all regions in the heart of winter.They are always ready to go as soon as you get them out of the box and we’ve had no issues with them.”
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(Jim Evans)
