Ultraviolet Shares Insight On Performance Styles And Light Shows In History Of Rock Classes
Students in two History of Rock courses learned about the intricacies of designing and producing a live show on Nov. 30 with the help of local events band Ultraviolet.
The band performed, crafted a light show and shared experiences during the visit. The School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts co-presented a concert by the band the following night as part of Grand Stafford Theater’s First Friday series.
Rob Hitchcock, general manager at Grand Stafford Theater, said he created Ultraviolet to fill a need for an events band in Bryan-College Station. Hitchcock plays keyboard and electronics, alongside singer Theron Early. Larry Rogers is the band’s lighting designer.
Dr. Matthew Campbell, instructor for the course and assistant program director for Performance Studies, said he chose to avoid teaching a “big man history,” which would typically focus on big songs and big artists. Instead, he wanted students to think about how music is created by scenes.
“Those scenes involve fans, and the people who create the posters, and the people who clean up after the venue. It takes up a whole world,” he said. “It takes a whole village to make a song. I was excited to work with Rob because he has been doing this as a musician for a really long time, and he is able to articulate these ideas. You can’t really teach music theory in a class like this, but you can teach a narrative. You can teach by telling a story.”
In every city, Hitchcock said, there is a need for events bands to play at events of all kinds, including weddings, corporate events, university events and proms. He said many local events in the area bring in an expensive band from out of town.
“We figured we would start an events band with some of the best vocalists, and have formed a really great top 40 EDM cover band,” he said. “It’s like Skrillex, David Guetta, Avicii, all of the stuff that goes hard at the club played by a live band with electronic drums, fully decked out with a light show and fog for an amazing club experience.”
Hitchcock and Rogers guided students in designing a light show, and shared how audio and lyrical cues are incorporated to shift lighting and color schemes during a performance.
A student volunteer was asked to make lighting choices for Taylor Swift’s song “Anti-Hero.” Hitchcock gave a breakdown of the song’s structure and how it follows a traditional form with a verse, chorus and bridge cycle.
“You want to tell a story with the lights,” Hitchcock told the class. “You can add motion with a small chase of lights. You don’t want to give everything away in the beginning of the song, you need room for it to grow. With lighting, you take lyrical cues to whip up the chorus and change the colors to make them dance.”
The student chose which colors would represent verses, and at what level and pace the colors would overlap, flash or change. Rogers then input the design choices into his lighting equipment, and Early and Hitchcock performed the song live.
Another student volunteered to craft a lighting design for “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd. Rogers emphasized how lighting cues are all about timing.
“You can do a million things with a million different lights on a show, but if the timing is off you aren’t going to have that connection between the lighting and the system itself,” Rogers said. “You never want the lighting to go faster than the music itself. Lighting is supposed to accentuate and not distract, and reeling it in is one of the best things you can do.”
Early, who has appeared on “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent,” portrayed how a singer can elevate a performance by crouching down or jumping up to express emotion. He encouraged students to explore individuality.
“Always be authentic to yourself — it if doesn’t feel good, it isn’t you,” Early said. “Sit with your music and figure out what you like. I study a lot of different performers and people, and I started studying myself when I did ‘America’s Got Talent’ years ago. I studied every single line in a song to create a template. Try to dissect the song and think about what you would do if you were to perform it.”
Following the class, Hitchcock said he was grateful to lead a classroom discussion about experiences in music. He said there is a readiness to make local music thrive.
“I see the desire in the classroom to make big things happen,” he said. “And not just with music, but with all of the arts, and that is really exciting to me.”
Students were invited to sign up for Hitchcock’s internship program through Grand Stafford, in which they can learn about the music industry. For more information, students can reach out to Hitchcock on Instagram.
Campbell said he has been impressed by the students’ eagerness to learn about music across all genres and eras and share their love of music with others.
“I have had more than enough students come up to me and say, ‘This is the best class I have taken here,’ or they wish they had taken classes like this before,” Campbell said. “This is why I wanted to teach the history of rock ’n’ roll. I want to make them feel how I feel when I go to a live show or listen to a song. It has been an amazing experience.”
