If you’ve been to a Dave Matthews Band Concert, you’ve seen his work. His efforts can help make or break a show, yet he might walk right past you in the parking lot and you’d have no idea who he is.
Fenton Williams is the lighting designer for Dave Matthews Band. That means structure of the lighting rig, the cues, and sweeping colors that appear on stage during Ants Marching are thanks to him.
Weekly Davespeak obtained an exclusive interview with Fenton just before the second show at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Over the course of the interview we talked about a variety of topics, which we've broken up into the following for parts:
- Fenton's experience at SPAC
- How Fenton First got involved with DMB
- Lighting vs. live video
- Typical time table for DMB Lighting design
- Lighting SPAC is difficult
- Programming aspects, and pre-tour rig/programming testing
- Arena where Fenton tested out 2004 lighting rig and programming
- Time Fenton spends at DMB studio rehearsals
- Thoughts on Hello Again
- Improvisation and approach towards lighting new DMB songs
- The Carter Cam
- What happens when the band gets lost in a song
- Fenton and the Crew reading online message boards
- Process for archiving DMB concert footage
- How Fenton stays faithful to Dave Matthews Band
- Hardest part of Fenton's job
- Fenton's Favorite Venues
- The importance of crowd energy at shows
- Fenton's On the fly lighting.
- Most memorable and difficult experiences with DMB
- The Gorge DVD
- Future of Lighting for DMB
- Thoughts on DMB
 The complete Interview is available for download in our forums (Requires Registration)
|
