Pretty Lights is still shining bright
Pretty Lights has gone quiet. Despite his steady stream of live performances, it’s been more than three years since the prolific Colorado-bred electronic music composer released “Color Map of the Sun,” his last album — or, aside from one single to promote his second annual minifestival in Telluride’s Town Park this summer, any new studio music at all.
He’s been just as scarce in print. But with a massive social media following — more than 850,000 followers on Facebook — Pretty Lights (born Derek Vincent Smith) doesn’t need traditional media anymore.
On the cusp of a big year, Smith made a rare exception, agreeing to a phone interview as a part of a feature we’re running next week on Denver’s electronic music scene.
Pretty Lights spoke at length about why he’s shied away from traditional media and shared the first details about his new album, which is set to come out in early 2017 — potentially, he mentioned, on April 20.
Read the extended cut of our conversation with the producer below.
Q: You’ve haven’t made many appearances in the media in this year. Is there a reason for that?
A: I don’t even converse with the media anymore. Kids don’t have to look to the magazines or charts to find music. I’m sure the media has some influence, but it seems like there’s so much more of an organic cross-pollination of tastes online. (The internet) leveled the playing field. That’s trickled over to not just people making music, but people who love to listen to it.
Q: You moved from Colorado to New Orleans a couple of years ago. What led to that decision?
A: I had a good experience working on “Color Map of the Sun” in New Orleans and put
the feelers out and found a dude in New Orleans who was renovating old houses in the Garden District. He was from Colorado, and had a place he thought would be perfect.
I feel pretty famous every time I come to Denver. Before I moved, I would go up to a Starbucks and look in the windows and be like, “There’s nobody in there with fitted hats or hemp necklaces on, so I’m good to go.” But then older people and guys in suits started recognizing me. I’m like 6 9 , so I kind of stand out.
At that point in my life I felt … you know, I was a little intimidated by the fame. I was in my head about communicating with people. Now, I love to come back to Denver. I do get recognized, but I like it. People are really respectful.
Q: Do you think you’d ever move back to the area?
A: My family is out in Colorado, so I’ve been patiently shopping around, waiting for the right property to come up so I can get a place there again. I want to get a piece of land. I looked at Caribou Ranch, and came close to getting Phantom Lake Ranch in Red Feather Lakes. It already had my “P.L.” initials everywhere. I wanted to do a festival out there, too, but water irrigation issues ended that.
Q: Speaking of festivals, what do you think of Buena Vista’s Vertex music festival? I don’t know if you heard, but they pulled out of their planned second year after complaints from town residents. A: I hadn’t heard that. That’s a bummer. I’m really psyched about that Vertex location. They were asking me to headline. I said I wanted to play at that place, but I didn’t want it to be at Vertex — I wanted to have my own festival there.
Telluride has been great — the fact that Tesla has a power station at the top of the valley around there speaks massively to its energy — but every year, they’re like, “This might be the last one!”
Q: In 10 years, you’ve gone from playing Mugs Coffee in Fort Collins to regularly selling out massive, 10,000-person venues like Red Rocks. What do you have in store for 2017?
A: I’m really excited about what I’m working on. I’ve got an album that’s almost ready. It’s slated for an early 2017 release.
It’s not just a music record — I’m actually making a film with it as well. Q: What will that look like?
A: I’m trying to make a film and a record that’s really about the connection of people — the amazing things that happen between people on the same frequency. It will be an episodic thing that makes a full piece. Every song has an episode.
It connects to my episodic music festival. When I was booking that tour, I wanted to call it “The Weekend’s Episodic Festivals.” I didn’t know why I wanted to call it that, but it’s all going together. Every festival, we’d have a film shoot that became the building blocks of these episodic film pieces. It’s pretty (cool).