Interview Index -> Part 1
WD: Hanging out at George, are you enjoying yourself? [Lake George, where Fenton was staying for the SPAC shows.]
Fenton: Oh yeah, we had a good time. Played a little golf. I don’t play all that much, not very good. It’s a good way to get outside,. Even though these venues are outside you’re underneath the roof all day.
I rented a little boat and cruised around. I’m not real big on going so fast as much as just putting around and looking at the houses along the lake. So that was nice.
WD: You live in Charlottesville?
Fenton: I do. My wife is up on the cape right now, outside Boston--Cape Cod. We have two days off so I’m going up there for two days and just spend it with her. Then after the first show go back into the city with everyone.
WD: Does she come out for the shows?
Fenton: She comes out quite a bit. She'll come to the bigger cities. I don't see her all often in Indiana. But she'll come out to Chicago and New York, and Boston--that type of stuff.
WD: I kind of want to roll it back to when you had your first job with the band, how you got involved with Dave.
Fenton: I was working at Trax after school where they started. Where they started a weekly concert. I worked with them a little on those one-offs between Charlottesville and Richmond. And went on the road as their tour manager. I was going to do it for the summer.
WD: What year was it?
Fenton: It was either the summer of 1991, or 92—I think it was 91. I went out as their tour manager and I was a horrible tour manager. I can be a little bit spacey. I don’t claim to be the most organized person in the world.
At the same time they were playing clubs and that type of thing and I started messing around with the lighting and everything and really enjoyed it.
Another person came out as Dave’s guitar tech who was more organized than I was. Michael came in and really just did a fantastic job. And as the band grew, it gave me more to do with production so I just stuck to that.
I started when moving lights were just taking off in the early nineties, so I got in there at a good time to learn something about that. And just went from there and did the lighting, I moved in there and did the lighting. I’ve always done the designs. For two years I did video. I was directing the video when we started using screens during the show. [Information on real-time Vd
Mike Lane, who has worked with me for a long time, or worked with me while I was doing video stuff is now video director and calling the cameras. He’s doing a great job up I think, it looks great up there.
WD: So you’ve been concentrating on lighting now.
Fenton: Ya, I love it. Its what I did with them originally. After as many concerts I’ve seen of theirs, I kind of feel like there’s more freedom with the lighting. I can do more things at once—trying to cover drum fills and violin parts and sax parts. And not just call in a camera here and there—which was fun because I know what Stefan’s going to fill with the bass slide.
I do enjoy doing video stuff. With this band I feel that I know the music pretty well, not so much that I know the music well as I know them very well. I can play off what their doing and feel their energy. If they’re going to be real high energy or laid back on a jam, there’s a good connection there between everyone involved. You know Bagby, and I think everyone has gotten to know each other so well I think you can kind of read kind of what is going to go on.
WD: Could you tell me a little about the time table for a typical tour. I know when we talked a little while back you were just getting some of the lighting set up for this tour.
Fenton: A typical time table is—we’ve been on the road what now, for nearly two or three weeks? I’ve definitely already started working on next year’s lighting design.
I’m in the beginning stages of next year’s lighting design. I’ll draw probably, I’ll end up with on a typical year, 50 some files of different variations. I’ll start with something, then it goes to something else. Then one day I’ll start one whole separate idea and work with that. Usually I’ll get two or three ideas and change them a little bit here and there.
WD: So are you talking about when you’re hearing a song on stage you’re thinking about what you’re going to want to do for next year, or are you actually programming while they’re doing the songs.
Fenton: What I’m working for next year now is in CAD [Computer Aided Design], it’s the structure of what the trussing itself would look like. Looking at the structure and the overall look. That’s why its just a shame this is your first here, because the design up there [at SPAC] is very flat. We’re about twenty feet short of what we really need so we’re missing parts and that type of thing. Things are just broken up.
I start with CAD just drawing ideas and different things. Figuring out where light can come from and that type of thing. I’ll just take it and mess with it a little bit.
WD: What kind of software do you use?
Fenton: I’m using VectorWorks, it’s a type of CAD program.
 Continue to Part Two of The Fenton Williams Interview
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