In support of Foster The People’s latest US tour, FOH Engineer Adam Rowley recently hit the road with East London-based alt/indie-pop band, Good Neighbours. “I’ve known Oli, the lead singer, for a long time. We used to write together before the pandemic, so it was lovely to be part of this tour – a real full-circle moment,” he told TPi, as the dust settled on a successful 42-day, 30-show run.
“We used Clair Global to fill in the gaps alongside my FOH setup. The main advantage of working with such a large company, especially when we needed such a small package, is their ability to rectify issues overnight. We don’t have the capacity to carry a trunk of spares on a bus and trailer tour.” Being able to call our account manager and have whatever we need shipped overnight to anywhere in the world is invaluable. Huge thanks to Ed Shackleton in London and Reece Webber in Nashville for supporting me, as always,” he recalled. “It was a packed schedule – I think we played pretty much every Fillmore and House of Blues across the continent…”
As an early adopter of Waves’ Classic setup, Rowley received the first shipment of IONIC 24 and 16 SoundGrid stageboxes – featuring Waves Signature preamps. “I built the rig to be modular so I could place the stageboxes in different places on stage. However, I first got to know the LV1 Modular system while touring with Against The Current last year and absolutely loved how ridiculously compact it was for the power on offer. When the Classic was announced and I started chatting with Waves, it quickly became clear just how strong a value proposition it is,” Rowley enthused.
He pointed to the console’s 24-inch touchscreen, 16+1 faders, 12 outputs, network capabilities, and six USB ports – all built into a surface that fits in an SKB case and can be flown, costing less than the control surface alone from other major flyable options – as key advantages while on tour.
“The fact I can run six stereo IEM mixes and a banging FOH mix – all with latency compensation throughout the console, tonnes of Abbey Road plug-ins, and still keep audio under 5ms – is staggering,” he enthused.For Good Neighbours, the brief was clear: the gear needed to be flyable, liftable by one person, handle 55 inputs at 96kHz, run six IEMs, and translate a specific production style with heavy vocal effects all operated from FOH. “We ran tuning and formant shifting live on the console for all five vocalists on stage, then could tear it down, chuck it in an Uber, and knock out a small acoustic set at a radio station using the exact same vocal processing as on the records,” he explained.
With plenty of press and varied venue sizes on the agenda, Rowley appreciated the rig’s modularity. “I’ve got 16/16/24 racks that can be split up and distributed around the stage, so we don’t need to haul massive copper cable runs – we just drop in some Cat5 instead,” he explained. Giving TPi a tour of his rig, Rowley explained how he uses a Waves Titan SoundGrid Server on stage for processing redundancy. Should the internal computer fail, he can fall back on the LV1 software running on his MacBook, which instantly picks up from where the surface left off. His setup also includes a small router Velcroed to the rear of the console, allowing all six musicians on stage to control their own monitor mixes – leaving Rowley free to focus on the FOH mix.
“Inside my session, I’ve got everyone’s mixes on hotkeys that PAFL and flip to sends-on-fader – massively helpful when you’re juggling that many mixes on a compact surface. The Classic also gives you two viewable Mixers which are completely independent but share the same inputs. I’ve got MIXER 2 set, so each fader bank corresponds to a different band member’s mix with their key inputs. Flipping over doesn’t reassign my FOH faders, so I’ve always got one hand on the house mix, while still managing monitors on screen,” he explained, highlighting the flexibility of the Waves ecosystem. “I come from a songwriting and production background, so having access to the Waves plug-ins I know, and love is just wicked. I can fully recreate the exact sounds the band used in the studio – and that gets people hyped,” Rowley said, sharing his favourite moments in the set.
“Ripple came out while we were on the road – it’s got some mad shifts in dynamics and vibe. There’s a slightly garage-y drum groove in the verse with this almost spoken-word cadence, then it explodes into this massive, reverb-drenched, five-part vocal chorus. I love that contrast between tight, dry drums and the big wash in the chorus. Kept my hands busy – and me dancing – at FOH.”
Summing up his experience, Rowley said: “Good Neighbours are genuinely good people. Touring with them is a joy. Their fans are brilliant and the songs bang. They’ve got this gift for writing lyrics that just get it – I think that’s a huge part of why they are taking off.”
Words: Jacob Waite
Photos: Waves and Adam Rowley
