Although the world first got to know Donald Glover via his standup and comic acting in the late 2000s, since then, the modern-day renaissance man has held a huge amount of cultural capital from his acting roles to his music. Every time he drops a new single or album using the Childish Gambino moniker, it becomes an ‘event’ in the zeitgeist, often with an accompanying music video that is then pored over in multiple cultural think pieces.
In TPi’s world, Childish Gambino and his production team have certainly had a track record of pushing the envelope when it comes to their live performances. For example, in 2018 they were one of the first productions to utilise the then brand-new L-Acoustics L-ISA system to explore the boundaries of immersive audio.
Fast-forward to May 2023 and with a new album that the artist has said will be the last using the Childish Gambino alias, and with a tie-in movie in the works – Bando Stone & The New World – the singer’s creative team began to start amassing to produce a tour that was just as ambitious in terms of creative vision.
From an enormous hologram look, to pushing laser design to a new level, this latest arena production certainly turned heads and made it all the sadder when the run had to be cut short due to Glover having to deal with some underlying health issues. However, at the time of writing, it looks like the tour will be returning to make up those missed dates and to pick up where it left off. With that in mind, TPi spoke to some of the lead creatives that were at the helm of this latest production to find out how this ambitious tour came together.
CREATIVE COLLATION
There has been a core creative team at the centre of the Childish Gambino world for some time, headed up by Creative Director, Chad ‘Wolf’ Taylor. Also back on board was Tour Director, Christian Coffey and Production Manager, Bryan Scheckel.
“Some of the initial conversations for this tour happened in May of 2023 at Chad’s wedding,” recalled Coffey as he traced back the origins of The New World. “Then a few months later we started working out the timeframes and schedules of how we’d make this work. Then in January 2024, Chad began to collate some of the ideas Donald had and what he wanted to accomplish for this tour.”
The team’s approach to creating a tour is different to some of their contemporaries. “We had this idea to take many of the lead voices in the camp off to Big Bear for a collaborative session to come up with what this show could be,” stated Scheckel, impressing on TPi the importance of thinking creatively.
With most of the team living together for a time and other voices being Zoomed in, the broad strokes of the show began to take place. “Working on Childish Gambino forces you to think outside the box constantly, which can be a frustrating experience, but the lead from both Donald and Wolf is that they don’t want to leave anything off the table,” stated Coffey.
One of the key elements that Glover wanted within the show was a hologram at the centre of the stage design. Also, in line with the themes of the album, there was a ‘dystopian’ motif that ran through the show, which all departments were keen to explore.
To help build out this vision, the production once again brought in Cory FitzGerald as Creative Producer as well as newcomer to the team, Tobias Rylander, who took on the role of Production and Lighting Designer. “Tobias created the vision and design of the show, working with Donald and his team,” outlined FitzGerald, explaining both his and Rylander’s responsibilities on this project. “He brought the form and ideas to life from the initial creative brief and added his own twist to the overall creative idea. I was tasked with taking those visions and realising them into the touring world, making sure we could create a canvas for Donald to perform his show in, as well as have it work every night and in every room.”
The Childish Gambino camp is “very democratic when it comes to the creative process,” stated Coffey, while talking about the importance of bringing in new voices to the production conversation.
“It’s why we often don’t go with companies who can offer us a 360° option. If you have a company that does ‘everything’, you can lose some of that expertise. Instead, I tend to think of suppliers as consultants bringing ideas and solutions to the table.” When it came to the core suppliers of the tour, the team brought in Upstaging for lighting, Screenworks for video, Vis A Vis for cameras, TAIT for the set, and Strictly FX for lasers and pyrotechnics. The impressive ‘Light Binder’ – the structure containing multiple automated LED tubes – which created numerous looks including the giant hologram, was provided by Glowmotion, while the custom LED helmet was created by The Specialists.
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Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Greg Noire
