London-based Cassius Creative are the production and lighting designers for Tour Of Earth, Glass Animals' latest North American outing. Responsible for overseeing scenic design and the integration of stage lighting, video surfaces, and scenic LED in addition to stage automation effects and laser integration, the team incorporated concepts from the band's lead vocalist Dave Bayley and referenced vintage sci-fi visuals with both cutting edge tech and a Victorian stage gag.
The lighting and production agency are known for working on festivals from Riyadh, KSA, to Middlesborough, UK, and have worked with Glass Animals since 2019. Cassius Creative co-founder, Dan Hill, talked to Live Design about their work on this project.
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Live Design: Have you worked with Glass Animals before?
Cassius Creative: We first started working with Glass Animals in 2019, for the Dreamland album campaign.
Whereas that album was about creating an all-inclusive world, where everything was physical and present. For the current "I Love You So F***ing Much" tour, the direction was to present a ‘darker’ side to the live shows. Collaborating closely with Dave Bayley over several months, we produced the spaceship concept for the bands “...Tour of earth”; using a wide variety of vintage space references like early Star Trek and Barbarella, merged with the minimal and functionalist style of product designers such as Dieter Rams to create a unique stage, with a retro-futuristic aesthetic, that was reliant on video content emerging from negative space to elevate the bands performance, and bring the set alive.
LD: I see the influence of Ken Adams and the glass and steel world in the control panel on set-was this part of the collaboration with David Bayley?
CC: We worked closely with Dave throughout the process, and the work of Ken Adam and his design for film - and use of geometry - was often referenced throughout. While the set needs to look amazing visually, our role is also to produce a functional and practical design, that can withstand the nature of concert touring around the world. Keeping the Ken Adam/Dieter Rams minimalism in mind - we worked with Ox Event House which fabricated the set to supply the right materials visually (a textured aluminum effect sheeting, matte and gloss black detailing, mahogany ‘wood’ panelling, and an off-white semi-reflective facia for the consoles) that can work to the curves and dimensions of the set, while withstanding the nature of touring, yet still look realistic to audiences each night.
LD: What did you use for previz/renderings and how much input did Bayley have on your initial designs?
The whole creative process was in collaboration with Dave, with a close relationship helping to streamline the design process - and maximize what we can achieve in the timeframe available. All initial drawings of lighting and set were created in Vectorworks, with lighting programmed using Depence visualization software, with control via MA3 consoles using 3 software. Once the initial video programming was done, this too was inputted into the same Depence system for a holistic pre-viz period.
As Glass Animals did not use timecode, both lighting and video is fully operated manually - utilizing a variety of MIDI triggers, and the mad skills and safe hands of Alex Noel lLighting programmer) and Ed White (video programmer.)
This made for a more involved pre-viz process with a lot of integration across various touring departments, but ultimately led to a more visceral engaging live show - with a unique show each evening, reacting to the nuances of the band's live performance.
LD: Can you talk me through the Pepper’s ghost effect? What look were you going for?
CC: We were in talks about creating a center focal point for the stage for a long time, and the central ‘orb’ was actually one of the final pieces of design for the show.
Hiding the built-in lift in the stage floor behind, and semi-concealing the upstage central band entrance - there were many options discussed; it needed to feel part of the spaceship, but not be too serious - or pull focus and be too distracting onstage.
Dave has been keen to include a Pepper’s ghost in a live situation for a while, so after experimenting with the right LED video product and transparent surfaces and realizing we can make it work in a bright live environment - we designed the retro-futuristic enclosure for it, and it landed perfectly as our central focal point on stage,
The hologram imagery within it is purposefully kept simple, using motifs for each song, easter eggs for fans, or during Tokyo Drifting featuring a guest appearance of Denzel Curry, who performs on the track - performing alongside Dave on stage each night in hologram form.
LD: How are you incorporating the MIDI-triggered video content into your design?
CC: Having worked with FRAY Studio across several projects previously, we’ve a good understanding of each other's work flow - and the style and implementation of each other's work in a live environment.
While the MIDI triggering is mainly beneficial for the generation of the reactive video content, throughout the show there are moments where lighting or video may take the lead, along with specific times where video and lighting is reactive to each other. With the nature of the show being manually operated, while not relied on often - being able to have certain elements triggered by MIDI always gives a precision that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
LD: What challenges did the floating lift present?
CC: The lift in itself is quite a straight forward, off the shelf product, but we wanted it to ‘appear’ from nowhere - so its physical size had a knock-on effect on the size of other stage elements - including the main performance platform's shape and height. But as it is submerged into the upstage floor behind the orb, we were able to create a subtle area for Dave to get fitted into the lift, creating a beautiful moment where he begins to float - as an unexpected reveal for the audience.
LD: What was the biggest challenge and also your favorite part of this design?
CC: Working with Dave and the Glass Animals has always been enjoyable. There’s always brilliant, mad ideas, a fun creative process, alongside a wealth of experience and practical knowledge from their long-standing team. This means that while the creative vision is endlessly ambitious, there is a practical understanding that comes with it.
As production designers, finding the balance between creating something fantastic but impossible and being overly practical and restricting designs based on practicalities is always the challenge; but on this project - the mix of ambition and practical awareness makes designing the show complex, but ultimately highly rewarding - with a great team making the creative process all the more enjoyable.
LD: What lighting fixture do you typically rely on and why do you turn to it?
CC: In general, Cassius have a style that is never visually tech-heavy and overbearing. For this show in particular - Dave was also keen for there to be no visible ‘lighting rig’ - so hiding any trusses, and embedding lights within scenic elements whilst still allowing them to add energy and do what was required was an exciting process. The scenic roof houses the 70x Ayrton Diablos, each situated within a custom curved extrusion, lined with hidden LED to make the voids glow.
The set has over 100 pieces of scenic LED, installed by LED Creative, using their Byte system, that provide discreet illumination among the shadow gaps incorporated around the set, and the detailing of buttons and controls on the spaceships control surfaces. The only other visible lighting is the GLP JDC-1’s and JDC-Lines that are installed within the spaceship's consoles, alongside 16x individual LED screens, that bring the consoles to life - but add the punch and aggression of strobes, as required during the set.
The rear of the floor-based scenic elements are backlit by a hidden row of Solaris Flares, which tend to be a go to for us in providing color and depth when we want silhouettes from upstage.
As a first for Glass Animals, we have introduced 6x 30w lasers into the performance. Hidden behind the consoles, these are situated on automated lifts - so they can appear when needed, elevate the stage looks as required throughout the set, but disappear when not being used, so as to not distract and block the lighting and video surfaces behind,
In order to achieve as much darkness surrounding the band as possible, we avoid stage washes and general illumination on stage. This allows us to have control over maximizing the small lighting and set details on stage, and provide the negative space for the band, lighting and video to come alive in.
In order to keep the band well lit, both for the live audience, and as specifically needed for live camera effects, we have implemented a ZacTracks system for followspots. With high side trusses hidden behind the PA, and an advanced front truss - each band member has 4-point followspot cover. With three targets following the Dave, Ed and Drew in the band - the system has been highly effective in allowing us to follow them with precision while keeping full control of intensity, color and beam effects; knowing the artist will always be perfectly lit wherever they move during the performance, without having to leave this crucial responsibility to local spot ops, and varying levels of success…