Dreams and nightmares are the main themes of the Billie Eilish When We Fall Asleep world tour – the first major tour for this young internet sensation whose career is experiencing a meteoric rise. Helping this seventeen-year-old, Indie pop phenomenon to dizzying heights is the tour’s wonderfully creative set design, the central motif of which is a flown bed, inlaid with 24 Ayrton MagicDot-R lighting fixtures supplied by PRG.

Erik Anderson of Cour Design is the creative director behind this incredibly dynamic show. Anderson and his partner, Gordon Droitcour, have been working with Eilish since late 2017 and on this occasion, collaborated closely with production and lighting consultant, Nick Whitehouse at Fireplay, alongside lighting director and programmer, Tony Corporale and lead programmer, Dominic Smith.

The stage design is an intricate structure revealing a forced perspective with a diamond-shaped raked video floor and an overhead truss to match. Midstage there is the main feature of the flown bed which is iconic to much of what the singer has to say, and dramatically brought into focus by the novel lighting beneath. Anderson explains: “The MagicDots are rigged to the underside of the custom scenic bed piece (built by Gallagher Staging Nashville), and are utilized during three specific automation moments during the show. We needed a compact, fast-moving light that could be rigged in a grid formation, to act as a sort of custom chandelier when the bed underside was raked out toward the audience. At one moment we use this look to silhouette the guitar player for a solo and at another moment we use the MagicDots to represent the ‘monster’ living under Billie’s bed.”

Eilish herself is very involved and invested in the design process, in particular with the use of certain colours to denote the mood and texture of a song, and having the lighting and video highlight the musical intricacies, so getting the right lighting fixtures was imperative. Anderson is already an advocate of Ayrton. “Ayrton has a reputation for high-quality, innovative lighting fixtures,” he says. “We have used Ayrton products on many of our other tours, typically as the ‘eye candy’ fixtures that we use to create special moments during the show.”

The MagicDot-R proved the ideal fixture for the bed centrepiece and Anderson found them to be extremely versatile: “MagicDots offer unique programming options because of their continuous pan/tilt ability, and this is best shown when you can utilize many of the fixtures in a tight grid formation. Since they are lightweight and very compact, we were able to use 24 of them on the bottom side of what was a relatively small automation piece in a manner that would not be achievable with a larger fixture.

The MagicDot-R aesthetics were also a distinct asset being on full view of the audience. “Ayrton fixtures always have a sleek look to them, as opposed to some other fixtures that might provide good lighting functions but are an on-stage eye sore,” concludes Anderson.

Eilish’s exciting, extensive tour kicked off in MAy 2019 in San Francisco, for the USA leg, and has encompassed, Australia, New Zealand, mainland Europe, and England, (notably Glastonbury Festival), and is due to finish in Mexico City in November.

There’s still time to catch the magic!

 

Photo: © Jonathan Kingsbury
Text: Julie Harper

Other news

Vietnam Army Theatre Welcomes Ayrton Fixtures

Ayrton is extremely happy to announce that new Ayrton lighting fixtures have been installed in the Vietnam Army Music Hall and Theatre.  The theatre which belongs to […]

Ayrton Cobra, Huracán Profile and Ghibli light Amsterdam’s biggest EDM event

Created in 2013 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of dance in The Netherlands, the Amsterdam Music Festival is the biggest electronic dance music event of Amsterdam Dance […]

Roland Greil scores a hat-trick with Ayrton Domino, Huracán and Cobra for the AFC Asian Cup Opening Ceremony in Qatar

On 12 January 2024, Qatar hosted the Opening Ceremony of the AFC Asian Cup at the 88,000-capacity Lusail Stadium, the largest stadium in the Middle East. Unusually for a […]

LIT Lighting installs Ayrton, MA, MDG and RapcoHorizon gear in Footprint Center for the Phoenix Suns

LIT Lighting in Tempe, Arizona recently specified, designed, sold and installed new lighting and production equipment in the Footprint Center, home arena of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns […]

Ayrton Mistral S is perfect for Saturate Designs in Bangkok

Established in 2009, with offices in Bangkok and Sydney, Saturate Designs specialises in lighting design for the entertainment industry, providing bespoke solutions for festivals, live music, installation […]

Bruno Poet works magic with Ayrton Khamsin TC for Macbeth at London’s Donmar Warehouse

Max Webster’s intense production of Shakespeare’s bloody, supernatural tragedy, Macbeth, featuring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, opened to fantastic reviews at London’s Donmar Warehouse in December. Played […]