Pretty Lights

Derek Vincent Smith is an American electronic music artist who performs under the stage name Pretty Lights. Originally a duo project, Smith went on to be the sole-proprietor of Pretty Lights and his associated music label, Pretty Lights Music. Pretty Lights is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and envelope-pushing electronic musical projects of all time, often referred to as “the face and voice of the new American electronic music scene.” Smith started making music at an early age when he brought a bass guitar to a skateboarding session with friends. Smith credits artists like The Beastie Boys, The Alkaholiks, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, The Roots and The Casualties as influences of his musical style and includes old school hip hop, funk, punk rock and the overall skater culture as well. After graduating high school, Derek attending University of Colorado at Boulder – but dropped out during his freshman year to concentrate on his music instead.

Work on Pretty Lights began in 2004 and began playing late nights in 2007 and 2008 for larger acts such as STS9, The Disco Biscuits and Widespread Panic. After playing several venues around San Francisco, Texas and Arkansas, Derek started playing under the moniker Pretty Lights at some of the major festivals in the United States, including Bonnaroo, Forecastle, Wakarusa, Rothbury, Electric Daisy Carnival, Camp Bisco and the 10KLF. In 2010, Pretty Lights took to the road on a multi-city tour of the United States; including, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Ultra Music Festival.

Pretty Lights music relies heavily on digital sampling and crosses many genres. The overall sound forming a combination of “glitchy hip hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples.” Pretty Lights sound is generated by manipulating samples and organic beats using digital controllers to program the music production; often using two Macbook Pros during live performances. Smith considers his music as “Electro Hip Hop Soul”, a mix between elements of electronic based music and beats from hip hop and soul music.

Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an American hip hop duo consisting of rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis). Slug was introduced to Ant in high school after another rapper brought him to Ant’s house to record a track. The duo learned how to structure songs properly and practiced vocal delivery. A prominent theme in Slug’s lyrics is his allegorical usage of women, especially in his early work, notably in the song “Woman with the Tattooed Hands” and “Abusing of the Rib”. Slug uses both symbolism and metaphor in his musical pairings.

Tipper

David Tipper (Tipper for short) is a British composer and producer specializing in electronic music that ranges from ambient, through to hip hop, to uptempo nu skool breaks. Tipper’s live performances consist largely of his own unreleased compositions and is noted for scratching his own sounds over his music, creating a live element of turntablism stemming from prowess early in his career as a vinyl DJ. He’s widely respected as a surround sound composer, releasing one of the first albums composed, produced and intended for the DualDisc format.

G Jones

Bringing a new wave of genre bending bass music, GJones is glitchy, dubby, trappy and making people absolutely wild, driving this movement forward with his amazingly creative and hard hitting music. When he plays live, no GJones show is ever the same, with on the fly remixes and breakdowns of music that keeps the crowd on their toes and begging for more long after he’s done.