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Matte Babel Q&A: Drake Gets On Track For An Inclusive Fan Experience

By Hannah Kinnersley Oct 15, 2025 6:04am

Matte Babel has built an extensive career as a VJ, TV correspondent, and live-music professional before emerging as one of today’s most dynamic branding minds. He is also Chief Brand Officer of DreamCrew — the multidisciplinary management and entertainment company that serves as a hub for all things Drake. As one-third of Drake’s management team, he helps steer nearly every aspect of the operation, from strategy and brand partnerships to the creative vision behind global tours. Most recently, he was the creative director of Drake’s UK tour, which featured a raised, illuminated track encircling the arena to bring the artist closer than ever to his audience.

Live Design: What was your scope of work on this project?

Matte Babel: I led the creative direction for both concept and design, which includes the lighting rig and stage. I worked directly with our Technical Director Guy Pavelo who engineered the system, to ensure the lighting structure was built and operated as desired, ensuring every creative decision translated emotionally and technically on the road. John Torres, a New York–based lighting designer known for his theatrical work, came in once the structure was built to translate the concept into motion, rhythm, and light. He also had ideas, once he had seen the finished structure or staging, on where we might be able to add some extra punch. Torres designed the cue structure, fixture movement, and visual narrative of the lighting — ensuring every transition aligned musically. Guy Pavelo runs the system on a nightly basis, operating the grandMA3 console and maintaining full control of both lighting and video triggers for complete integration.

LD: What was the inspiration behind running a stage around the arena floor?

MB: Drake was really the driving force, he's always pushing me to think of ideas to get him as close to the audience as possible. He wants to create the most inclusive and democratic experience possible, where every fan no matter where you're sitting or standing can enjoy the show. I'd been ideating on a circular, more democratic environment that could bring Drake and the audience closer together and further close the gap. After the maximalism of It’s All a Blur, I pitched the inverse — an intimate, minimalist design. The result was two, mirrored “bare” stages joined by transparent acrylic walkways, allowing fans to move freely under and around the structure.

The 360° stage wasn't really artist-requested, it was more artist-inspired, born from years of dialogue between Drake and I on how to keep evolving the live connection.

LD: I’m not seeing any guard rails - what restrictions did you have for the extended stage?

MB: The height of the walkway was consistent throughout the entire tour. The height satisfied safety regulations in every country. Because the floors were clear it was important the height was consistent and Drakes's depth perception didn't change so he was comfortable to run and jump and perform every night without having to get re-acclimated. Because that stage is relatively simple, with no pyro or mechanical aspects, there wasn't a bunch of additional restrictions to navigate. I would say the only other aspect was ensuring the stage left 8ft (sometimes 10ft) around the outer edge and the grandstands. Guardrails were omitted intentionally for aesthetics — and again it's also about trying to create a seamless connection between Drake and the audience, any kind of barrier or rail disrupts that. It had to be sleek and minimal.

LD: What vendors did you use to create the custom stage?

MB: The entire scenic and motion system was fabricated by TAIT using bespoke deck modules and TAIT’s Nav Hoists. PRG UK and PRG North America handled lighting, video, and rigging integration, working as one transatlantic unit. While the geometry references modular touring systems like VersaTruss, this design was completely unique—dimensionally modeled for the kinetic truss grid and plexi runways, allowing us to plug and play seamlessly wherever.

LD: How long does it take for setup/strike every night?

MB: The teams are amazing. Load-in was typically takes 24 hours. Riggers mark points overnight and automation lines are pre-checked before lighting or video load. Strike averages 12 hours depending on venue dock access.

LD: What lighting elements are embedded in the walkway stage?

MB: Approximately 200 Astera Titan Tubes are mounted beneath the transparent decking in custom TAIT brackets. The tubes are wirelessly controlled and charged in cases during load-in. They're all on time code.

From above, the under-glow gives the runway a bit of a floating appearance. Additional JDC1 strobes and GLP FR10 Bars are recessed into both stages’ sub-decks for “flash-through” effects — all fixtures are fully enclosed to protect them from audience interference or debris.

LD: What were the main challenges for this stage design?

MB: The initial challenge was weight. The magic of the show was it was simple but BIG. I wanted to ensure there were enough trusses to cover the entire arena floor, which meant 16 moving trusses, each 70 ft long, carrying over a thousand fixtures. We also had the mother grid (above the 16 moving trusses) with all the JDC1 strobes, the follow spots and all the additional perimeter audience trusses.

The show was heavy and we had to figure out how to keep it intact at suitable weight.

Once we figured that out, the question became how do we bulletproof our automation? Automation reliability was a challenge. Every four trusses were tethered together, losing one meant losing four which would have a massive impact on the show, so we had to create redundancy. The other automation challenges were the spinners themselves and ensuring spinners didn't lose time and maintained alignment which meant triple-checking our homing sequences to prevent drift across hundreds of resets.
The last major challenge was the amount of cabling, especially with all the overhead rigs. I wanted an incredibly clean aesthetic so we had to figure out the best way to run out bundles and stacks. We figured out tethering the trusses together was a way to reduce cabling but it also created other challenges. I wanted every cable run, haze line, and mounting detail to be invisible. Thankfully PRG, TAIT's engineers, and Guy Pavelo’s touring crew figured it out.

LD: Can you talk us through the design for the overhead rig?

MB: The overhead structure was conceived as a living, moving sculpture evolving throughout the course of the show — a suspended geometric grid of mechanical beauty. The theme was loosely based on an industrial art showcase. Overhead were six spans of 80 ft truss, forming aa 180 × 50 ft mother grid, supporting sixteen 70 ft pre-rig trusses. Each truss carried seven 10 ft spinning sections mounted on Claypaky Panify 2 motorized platforms (customized by PRG). This creates 112 independent “spinners” capable of shifting orientation in endless configurations, generating the show’s signature kinetic geometry.

LD: There are long battens creating striking looks, in fact, the lighting is filled with contrast and drama. Can you talk me through your fixture choices?

MB: Yes, the battens you're referring to are actually Martin VDO Sceptron linear strips, each spinner holds 2 × Martin VDO Sceptron linear strips and 2 × GLP Impression X5 Compact moving heads, totaling 1,180 fixtures on the motion rig alone. We needed fixtures that were of a certain weight, durable, readily available (in large quantities) and had sufficient mobility. Revolution time for the spinners was really important and played into every part used to build the final fixture you saw at the show. The GLP X5 Compact units on the spinners could definitely be nominated for MVP, their ability to withstand constant rotation and vibration made them indispensable for the kinetic truss system, not to mention their color accuracy, compact form factor, and speed.

Then above and surrounding the the rig are:

64 × GLP JDC1 strobes in the mother grid
68 × Ayrton Veloce fixtures on audience trusses
Robe MegaPointe and Ayrton Domino Profile fixtures for aerial definition
Astera Titan Tubes along runways

The “illusion of long, continuous battens” is how the mixed fixtures, through motion, visually behave like one endless light bar — I wasn't sure we had really achieved it so the question is kind of a relief as it was an intentional design trick to try and enhance the minimalist, architectural aesthetic of the show

LD: Do you have a workhorse fixture you like to incorporate in designs?

MB: I'm not a lighting expert, and I know John loves a bunch of different lights, but I love GLP JDC1, they're exceptionally bright, provide a lot of energy, and have this ability to cut through or illuminate atmosphere like haze. A single strobe hit can shift the emotional temperature of a moment. John also introduced me to the GLP JDC Line 1000 during Wireless, which quickly became another favorite. It extends the same intensity and visual language as the JDC1 into a linear format — clean, architectural, and capable of those blinding sweeps that feel more like physical motion than light.

I'm drawn to things that are bright and blinding.

LD: What type of followspots were you using?

MB: We used PRG GroundControl remote systems. Followspot operators worked remotely backstage. Our run of show and setlist is constantly changing, operators are much more malleable, response time is better, reduces overhead weight, safer and enables consistent tracking without having to navigate the rig.

LD: Who made and provided the LED screens at each stage?

MB: Screens were ROE Visual Carbon Series panels provided by PRG, driven via M-Box V5 servers (three live, three backup). Colleen Wittenberg, directed the IMAG mix, combining four operated Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras with multiple PTZ units to maintain full 360° visibility. The show was all IMAG. The content philosophy was a pure minimalist approach: capture the raw authenticity of the show, the IMAG supports, never distracts. Let the content breathe life into what is happening and underscore Drake’s emotional delivery and nuanced performance. Minimal overlays, architectural cross-shots showcasing the industrial beauty of the lighting rig as sculpture.

LD: What are some favorite moments?

MB: I have a lot of favorite moments. The beauty of the show is that the layout/staging creates these personal, interactive moments that just happen spontaneously throughout the tour, but as far as my favorite run of show moments:
1. I would light truss for NO FACE, when the entire structure comes down to its lowest point and creates a false ceiling for the floor. Seeing the rig fully extended from all vantage points is impressive, it creates this party slash rave-type atmosphere. Even watching that arena respond to the fans on the floor and their excitement is a moment.

2. The giant arch at the end of the show, the architectural shape with the magenta lights creates this euphoric and majestic feeling.

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