RADIOHEAD / BY ANDI WATSON

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MONIKA BIELSKYTE / YOU HAVE BEEN COLLABORATING WITH RADIOHEAD FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS NOW, HOW DID YOU MEET THEM & HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO WORK TOGETHER?

ANDI WATSON / I FIRST MET THEM WHEN THEY WERE THE SUPPORT ACT FOR A BAND I WAS WORKING WITH. WE WERE PLAYING TINY PLACES & AT THAT TIME THEY HAD ANOTHER DESIGNER WORKING FOR THEM. I THOUGHT THEY WERE AMAZING & WAS DELIGHTED WHEN THEY ASKED ME TO DO THEIR LIGHTING AFTER THE ORIGINAL DESIGNER HAD LEFT TO PURSUE HIS MUSICAL ASPIRATIONS.

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MB / WHICH OF THE RADIOHEAD TOURS WERE HARDEST & WHY? WHICH TOURS SEEM MOST MEMORABLE FOR YOU? CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE LIGHTS YOU’VE BEEN USING FOR THEM?

AW / MOST OF THE TOURS HAVE BEEN PRETTY TOUGH AT THE BEGINNING, ALTHOUGH IN THE PAST I HAD ALMOST NO TIME TO PROGRAM THE HUGE NUMBER OF SONGS THE BAND WANTED TO PLAY. ON THE LAST FEW TOURS I HAVE HAD MUCH MORE PRODUCTION REHEARSAL TIME BUT WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO ACHIEVE HAS BEEN WAY, WAY MORE. THE LAST TOUR WAS PROBABLY THE MOST COMFORTABLE BECAUSE IT WAS JUST SO INSTANTLY BEAUTIFUL & FLEXIBLE.
IN TERMS OF THE ACTUAL EQUIPMENT, WE PROBABLY FOLLOWED A PRETTY HISTORICALLY ACCURATE PATH. FOR THE FIRST FEW TOURS I DIDN’T WANT TO USE MOVING LIGHTS, JUST USING FIXED INCANDESCENT LAMPS, MOVING ON TO COLOUR CHANGING FIXED LAMPS. THE FEEL WAS PERHAPS MORE TRADITIONALLY THEATRICAL ON THOSE TOURS. THEN WE DID SEVERAL TOURS WITH MOVING LIGHT RIGS, EVEN ADDING THE LASER IN THE TENT, BEFORE THE ‘HAIL TO THE THIEF’ TOUR WITH THE PIXELLINE LED WALL CONTROLLED FROM THE CUSTOM CATALYST SOFTWARE. THE TOUR AFTER THAT INVOLVED A COMPLEX CAMERA SYSTEM FOR THE FIRST TIME & AN EVEN MORE COMPLEX MULTIPLE PROJECTION SYSTEM. FINALLY, OF COURSE, THE ALL-LED ‘IN RAINBOWS’ DESIGN WITH ITS 3D VIDEO SCREEN OF VERTICAL PIXEL ELEMENTS MADE UP OF ELEMENT LABS VERSATUBE HD UNITS & THE MULTI REMOTE CAMERA SYSTEM USED TO CREATE MUCH OF THE VIDEO SCREEN OUTPUT.

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MB / CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE LATEST TOUR & THE LED LIGHT SYSTEM YOU HAVE DEVELOPED FOR IT? WHAT WERE YOUR TECHNICAL & ARTISTIC INTERESTS IN DEVELOPING THIS LIGHTNING SYSTEM & WHAT WAS THE ECOLOGICAL ENGAGEMENT BEHIND IT?

AW / THE DESIGN FOR THIS TOUR IS THE CULMINATION OF AN IDEA FROM SEVERAL YEARS AGO TO CREATE A VISUAL FIELD WITHIN THE STAGE/PERFORMANCE AREA SO THAT THE SPACE COULD BE FILLED WITH COLOUR AS OPPOSED TO SIMPLY USING BEAMS TO LIGHT OBJECTS OR SMOKE. OF COURSE THE ULTIMATE AIM WOULD BE TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE OPACITY & COLOUR OF THE AIR ITSELF BUT WE AREN’T QUITE AT THAT STAGE. WE DID GET AS CLOSE AS TECHNOLOGY WOULD ALLOW THOUGH BY USING 72 VERTICAL COLUMNS OF LIGHT, ARRANGED IN AN EQUISPACED GRID PATTERN & MAPPED IN 3D INSIDE A VERY CUSTOM VERSION OF THE CATALYST MEDIA SERVER. IN ADDITION TO THE VERSATUBE ARRAY WE HAD A NUMBER OF LED FIXTURES TO DO MORE ‘CONVENTIONAL’ LIGHTING, AS WELL AS A LARGE NOCTURNE V9 VIDEO WALL IN ULTRA WIDESCREEN BEHIND THE BAND & TUBES. THAT INTENTIONALLY MADE IT HARDER TO SEE THE CONTENT PERFECTLY & ENSURED THAT I COULD LOSE THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE VISUAL ELEMENTS ONSTAGE TO CREATE A COHERENT VISUAL SPACE. IN TERMS OF THE PHYSICAL CREATION OF THE DESIGN, THERE WERE MANY CLEVER IDEAS SUCH AS HANGING THE STRIPS FROM CUSTOM THEATER TRACK SO THEY COULD BE MADE TO DISAPPEAR UNTIL JUST BEFORE THE SHOW (ESSENTIAL FOR FESTIVALS) & HOW EVERYTHING TRAVELED. IN TERMS OF THE SOFTWARE, THERE WERE A LOT OF VERY CLEVER IDEAS USED TO CREATE VARYING MAPPING TECHNIQUES & THEN A LOT OF RESEARCH INTO HOW WE COULD MAKE THE HUMAN BRAIN FILL IN ALL THE MISSING INFORMATION FOR THE VISUAL SPACE SO THAT THE STAGE BECAME AN ENTIRE AREA AS OPPOSED TO JUST A NUMBER OF STRIPS.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TOUR THE ONLY REQUEST I HAD HAD FROM THE BAND WAS TO CUT DOWN ON SOME OF THE INCANDESCENT LIGHTING TO SAVE ELECTRICITY. IN THE END, AFTER MUCH RESEARCH I DECIDED THAT THE ONLY WAY I COULD MORALLY APPROACH THE DESIGN WAS TO HAVE AN EXCLUSIVELY LED SYSTEM. I WAS DELIGHTED TO WORK ON CREATING SOMETHING ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE AS WELL AS STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL. INCIDENTALLY THIS TOURING SYSTEM USED ABOUT 20% OF THE ENERGY OF THE LAST ONE.

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MB / WHAT I FOUND VERY BEAUTIFUL IN THE ‘IN RAINBOWS’ TOUR SIDE SCREEN VISUALS WHERE THE VISUAL EFFECTS YOU WERE PUTTING UPON THE FILMED MATERIAL OF RADIOHEAD ON THE STAGE. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT? THE ANALOGUE SOUNDS TRANSFOMED INTO LIGHT & VISUALS?

AW / EVEN BEFORE WE USED THE LASER ON THE TENT TOUR I WAS COMMITTED TO ALWAYS GENERATING EFFECTS LIVE. IN THE CASE OF THE LASER, THE DEFLECTING MIRRORS WERE ACTUALLY GLUED STRAIGHT ONTO SPEAKER CONES SO THAT THE WAVEFORMS WERE CREATED BY FEEDING THE BANDS ACTUAL INSTRUMENTS OR VOICES THROUGH THE SPEAKERS. THAT WAS A REVELATION IN PURE SYNAESTHESIA.
FOR THE ‘IN RAINBOWS’ TOUR, RICHARD CREATED SEVERAL NEW SOUNDS ANALYSIS OPTIONS FOR CATALYST. BY HAVING THE MONITOR ENGINEER SEND US SPECIFIC AUDIO CHANNELS, WE WERE ABLE TO ANALYSE THE BANDS MUSIC & REPRESENT IT VISUALLY IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. FOR EXAMPLE ON ‘HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY’ WE USE JONNY’S ONDES MARTINOT TO GENERATE LIVE FREQUENCY MAPPED INTENSITY LEVELS WITHIN THE BOTTOM VERSATUBES. IT IS ALSO BEING USED TO CREATE A FREQUENCY WATERFALL THAT MOVES WITH TIME OVER THE REAR SCREEN, OVER THE LIVE CAMERA IMAGES OF THE BAND. AT THE SAME TIME THOM’S GUITAR IS CREATING A FLICKERING DISJOINTED WAVEFORM REPRESENTATION ON THE VERY TOP TUBES WAY ABOVE THE BAND. THE WAVEFORM FROM THOM’S GUITAR IS DELIBERATELY VERY THIN & ALMOST UNRECOGNIZABLY LINKED BUT IN A SYNAESTHETIC WAY MAKES PERFECTLY SUBLIMINAL SENSE WITHIN THE SOUND YOU ARE HEARING. JONNY’S MARTINOT ON THE OTHER HAND IS A VERY EASY LINK TO APPRECIATE SINCE IT IS A LARGE NUMBER OF 3M HIGH LINEAR SPECTRUM ANALYSERS.

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PLEASE FIND THE ENTIRE 26 PAGES ARTICLE (6 PAGES INTERVIEW & 22 NEVER PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IMAGES OF RADIOHEAD) IN THE PRINTED EDITION OF SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE ISSUE002 / THE BLACK BOOK