Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights is an electronic music group from Fort Collins, United States, active since 2004. It centres on Derek Vincent Smith and Michal Menert, and releases music through 8 Minutes 20 Seconds Records, 8 Minutes 20 Seconds Publishing and Pretty Lights Music.

Style and production

The project works with electronic, hip hop, soul and trip hop, and is also associated with downtempo, funk, chill and dance. Its music relies heavily on sampling, with a sound built from manipulated samples and organic beats. Smith describes the style as “electro hip-hop soul”, combining electronic production with hip-hop rhythms and soul elements. The music is marked by glitchy hip-hop beats, synthesiser lines and vintage funk and soul samples.

In performance and production, Smith uses the Novation X-Station, monome and Akai MPD32 to control Ableton Live 8. Live shows use two MacBook Pros running Ableton Live 8 together with two Akai MPD32s.

Career

Smith begins making hip-hop while at high school and later leaves his freshman year at the University of Colorado at Boulder to focus on music. Pretty Lights makes its recorded debut in 2006 with Taking Up Your Precious Time, and the release is supported by shows with STS9, the Disco Biscuits and Widespread Panic. The project follows with the double album Filling Up the City Skies in 2008 and Passing by Behind Your Eyes the following year.

In 2010, Pretty Lights tours extensively across North America and appears at Coachella, Ultra, Movement and Electric Zoo, among other festivals. Smith continues touring in 2011 and develops the Pretty Lights Music imprint, which releases albums by Michal Menert, Gramatik and Eliot Lipp. In 2012, Smith appears in the documentary Re:GENERATION Music Project and begins work on the fourth Pretty Lights album.

A Color Map of the Sun

A Color Map of the Sun becomes the next major release and is nominated for a Grammy in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category. The two-disc set includes the main 13-track album and a second disc, Live Studio Sessions From A Color Map of the Sun. For the album, Smith spends a year composing and recording music and vocals intended to emulate styles and periods across the last century, presses the material to vinyl, and then uses that vinyl with a custom-built analog modular synthesiser to create the final record. The album is presented as physical and digital release at the same time and extends the project’s established blend of soul, electro-hop and sample-based production.