Sam Parry reflects on an illuminating experience with Sea Girls

The Owl Creative Design’s Sam Parry shares the inner workings of lighting the British indie rock band’s Midnight Butterflies Tour…

Having led the lighting charge for multiple touring campaigns, Sam Parry of The Owl Creative Design, recently curated the Sea Girl’s most ambitious lighting design to date in celebration of the band’s third studio album. TPi’s Alicia Pollitt caught up with the lighting designer at the end of the UK tour to get an insight into how this arena-worthy design toured a range of academy-sized venues.

“We wanted to achieve something that we hadn’t seen on the academy circuit yet, something a little bit more bonkers – which is where I come in usually,” Parry said, reflecting on his three years touring with the camp. “It’s been lovely to work with a band that cares about the whole show and the things happening around them.”

The team worked together to create a design that took the concept and brought it as far forward into the 21st Century as possible. “To achieve more of this punk rock look, we went down a route of pixel mapping with the GLP JDC 2 IP fixtures, trying to recreate a video wall of lights. It was a question of how many pixels can we put on the stage without classing it as one,” Parry laughed. “With the new [MA Lighting] grandMA3 update, I’m able to drive content from the desk and we started experimenting from there, and I arrived at some interesting pieces of content that were quite ambient that I thought were fitting with some of the songs on the new album.”

Parry highlighted the convenience of having everything he needed for the show on one platform with grandMA3, meaning he could have one interconnected system as opposed to multiple laptops on the road. “It was absolutely marvellous, I haven’t looked back since, at this point, I would struggle to find a reason to use anything else,” he remarked.

Cardiff-based SR Production Services, who have a familiar name in the broadcast world, provided lighting equipment and expertise. “I have worked with SR Production Services for quite a while now, they started out doing lots of film and TV work, but as they have shifted into the touring market, I’ve started to use them more and, on this tour, they’ve allowed me to do something different,” Parry added. “I also had some support on the run from Niclen and Neg Earth Lights who helped source the GLP JDC 2 IPs. It felt like at the time we couldn’t get the fixtures anywhere for love, nor money just because they were so popular.”

Other fixtures the rig included Ayrton Kyalami, CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M, onAir Panel 2, and Robe LEDBeam 350 solutions. In closing, Parry said: “Knowing the boys and the songs as long as I have means that I know the vibe and I have what they want down – they are a unique bunch of people but myself and the other crew have been with them for a while now and it now feels like going on tour with your mates, having a laugh and putting on a really cool show. I have absolutely loved it!”

www.owl-technical.com

www.srlx.co.uk

www.seagirls.net