CONCERTS & TOURING
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team of 11 people working on this, and it was a real mixture of people who were in their early twenties along with some people who were much older, bringing with them decades of experience. It was so nice to work both with people who understood the references from their original sources along with others who would be looking at them from an entirely different perspective. I believe that this led to something that felt truly authentic – but also brand new at the same time.” Cinematic techniques have been seen taking increasingly central roles in the production of live performances in recent years – from theatre shows to arena tours – and Fray is no stranger to deploying these kinds of approaches to its visual content. “It’s the first show in a very long time where we’ve used such a wide range of tools,” Young explains. “We used Unreal Engine, Touch Designer, Notch – and we also incorporate lots of Midjourney and AI elements. We took each track and distilled down the idea, then figured out what the best bit of software would be for producing that element. It was challenging to figure out how we could make visual effects from many types of software feel like they were still coming from one world.” Young emphasises how the band’s frontman Dave Bayley was especially open to trying new things, “letting us push further than other artists would usually let us push.” “Dave was the creative powerhouse behind all of it,” concludes Squib. “They came to us with an almost social art concept, which was to measure the size of humanity within the wider realm of space. He essentially wanted a spaceship to take the audience on a journey.”
holograms featured in a dome, bringing an extra dimension to the set and enhancing its galactic feel. The Pepper’s ghost effect was realised with the use of two LED panels on a polycarbonate-formed dome, projecting animated holograms of dolphins and pineapples – tying into the tropical feel of the band’s Pork Soda track. The show’s climax featured Denzel Curry appearing as a hologram inside the dome, which allowed for a live collaboration – despite his physical absence. The hologram dome itself was inspired by animated sitcom The Jetsons . “We were the team behind the dome’s physical structure,” Levitt continues, “creating the base, the cover and key structural elements of the Pepper’s ghost, which was set at upstage centre.” For the visuals themselves, Fray Studio was recruited to deliver the content that was displayed on all 23 of the unique video surfaces featured across the show’s set. These displays integrated real-time and pre-rendered content, with the band’s instruments sending MIDI signals to directly control all the visual elements. The MIDI-controlled instruments were synths, electronic percussion and keyboards. Using Ableton and QLab, Fray were able to condense the information into simple on and off notes, translating into one and zero. Utilising accumulators, condition modifiers and a little bit of maths in Notch, they were able to create visual representations of the beats, as well as creative accents and nuances corresponding to specific rhythms and notes. The content was as dynamic as the musicians on stage. “So much of it was real-time interactive content that primarily came from the fact that the band don’t play to time code or backing tracks,” says Adam
It was challenging to
Young, co-creative director of Fray Studio. “This approach means playing live and, consequently, slightly differently each and every night. Any pre-rendered songs were split up sometimes into 25 individual sections that would be manually triggered at the right musical moment by the operator. The rest was created in real time, and was largely controlled directly by the band.” The initial brief and the creative development included many references to sci-fi figures, silhouette tunnels and outlines. During the process of creative development, the Fray team soon discovered that Nvidia background removal was the most effective way to achieve this vision for camera content. This technique allowed edge detection to pick up clean edges and create an androgynous-looking figure on screen. From this, the team could then generate tunnels using cloners, which led to the chorus look for song On the Run . The term retrofuturistic might sound like a juxtaposition, but the team at Fray accomplished the creative quota largely thanks to its age-diverse team. “I had a figure out how we could make effects from many types of software feel like they were coming from one world”
Dave Bayley, the band’s frontman, was the creative force behind the vision for the tour’s unique aesthetic
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