Brett Bolton on the Debut Performance of PHASES at MUTEK Montréal 2023
Brett Bolton is an audiovisual artist and designer from Las Vegas who specialises in creating live and virtual experiences. Using projected light, custom musical instruments, and real-time visual software as his main toolset, Brett aims to transform flat physical surfaces into dynamic interactive environments and audiovisual performances.
In his new audiovisual performance, Phases, Brett explores the various phases of matter, gradually transforming the screen behind him into solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasma states with a drum and XY controller. Every drum hit and touchpad gesture has an immediate musical and visual reaction, constantly changing based on the current state of matter.
Along with his own personal shows, Brett has created concert visuals and real-time systems for artists such as Harry Styles, U2, Purity Ring, The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and N.E.R.D.
In this interview, Jake Triola from Notch speaks with Brett about the debut of Phases at this year’s edition of MUTEK Montréal 2023.
Jake: Tell us a bit about your background. How did you first become interested in this intersection of motion graphics and performance?
Brett: I’ve been playing music in some form or another since high school. After graduating college (for entrepreneurship, actually), I became a freelance audio engineer and sound designer for a while.
Around 2009, I started making visuals for a band I was in and got addicted to the motion design world. After many experiments in After Effects, Cinema 4D, Resolume, and Quartz Composer, I eventually shifted from sound design and became a freelance visual designer. My hometown of Las Vegas was a great place to learn and work with all of the LED screens and nightclubs needing content.
A mutual friend introduced me to J.T. Rooney in 2015, and J.T. told me about this crazy new software called Notch. He explained that it combined my favourite parts of other software packages, but it was all in real time.
I’ve been fully in the Notch world and have considered myself a Notch Designer ever since — mainly working for live touring acts. I’ve been really fortunate to be on teams with some of the world’s best designers and studios.
Jake: How do different mediums inform what you do, and how has a history of doing so many different kinds of creative work culminated in this performance?
Brett: Even though I bounce between different formats for client and personal work (real-time concert visuals, interactive installations, XR environments, VR, etc.), I feel like they all have a similar goal of combining music and visuals together to make something unique and impactful.
Phases is a fun way for me to combine a lot of the systems I’ve built for old experiments into one cohesive show.
Jake: You have a highly experimental way of combining art and performance without coming off as a “performance artist.” You strike a fine balance between concept, skill, and popular appeal. How did you develop this particular way of creating?
Brett: Things have evolved on their own over years of experimenting, playing, working, and learning. I just try to make things that I enjoy and hope other people appreciate them as well.
Jake: Tell us about your history and experience with MUTEK.
Brett: I’ve been going to MUTEK editions in Montréal and San Francisco for, I think, six or so years now. The artist lineups are so diverse and full of unique audiovisual performances that I would never see at another festival. After attending, I always end up feeling inspired and have a few new favourite artists that I hadn’t previously known about.
After attending so many editions, it was a huge honour to be invited by the MUTEK producers to play at the festival.
Jake: What kinds of creative challenges has Notch helped you overcome?
Brett: Notch allows me to work so much faster than other render-based tools I grew up using. I can get from idea to creation without waiting for preview bars or buckets to fill up.
Jake: To paint a fuller picture, what other software do you use?
Brett: For the music side of things, I use a lot of Ableton Live and Sensory Percussion.
My current favourite and most used pieces of hardware are the Sequential Take 5, Elektron Syntakt, and OTO Boum.
Visuals are usually all Notch nowadays with some Cinema 4D and After Effects for asset creation.
Jake: What’s your current setup and process? How has this changed over the years?
Brett: I went through a lot of different setup iterations for this show. I ultimately ended up using a MIDI drum and XY touchpad system that felt the most natural and fun to play live. As far as music is concerned, I used Sensory Percussion on a Mac Mini, Erae Touch mainly as an XY controller, and a Roland TD-27 with various drum triggers. And for visuals, I used Notch on a Razer 3080 laptop and Cinema 4D to create some of my assets.
Jake: Who/what are your greatest inspirations?
Brett: This one’s always tough for me because it changes often.
Jake: That’s a great answer–one that I think is true for many artists. I’ve heard other artists say they’ve often disagreed with something they said in an interview the day after it happened! I respect the honesty.
Has Notch changed the way you work?
Brett: Yeah. Before using Notch, I had to make everything timeline-based and synched to a click track. I would have to then play everything back live in the same way, which quickly gets limiting and repetitive.
Notch allows me to iterate ideas quickly, but it also allows me to then play those ideas live at whatever speed and sequence I want. It’s really nice to be able to play through the Phases show, for instance, at whatever pace I want without worrying about following a click or backing track. If I “mess up,” I can just lean into that mistake and make it a part of the song with the visuals corresponding as well.
Jake: At the beginning of a production, how do you gauge the complexity of a project before you’ve started it? Do you know when you’ll be able to implement Notch?
Brett: I go to Notch right away, but a lot of the visual looks I develop inform what kind of music might be needed. Musical and visual ideas go back and forth again and again until things feel right.
Jake: How much of your work is produced on-site?
Brett: For client work, that varies per project.
For Phases, however, the finalised visuals and music were created in my home studio over the course of about four months. And the demos that led up to the final pieces had been created over years of experiments.
I had demo Notch setups created for most of these Phases visuals already, but I decided to rebuild everything to keep it all as optimised and visually cohesive as possible.
Jake: I always like to ask because the answers I get are so varied: have you ever encountered any creative breakthroughs within any particular software? Has there been a clear moment where a light has gone off, and you’ve known you have something great?
Brett: I’m not really sure about creative breakthroughs.
A lot of happy accidents happen in Notch, though. Sometimes, you build a system with an idea in mind but end up stumbling upon something that you didn’t intend to make but like even more.
Jake: How did you feel about the audience’s reaction to this show?
I was really happy to see the MUTEK Montréal crowd so responsive to the debut show. The MUTEK crowd is especially open to experimental audiovisual projects, so it was a huge honour to debut this performance there.
Jake: Another one that’s always fun to ask: where do you see this industry going in the next five or ten years?
Brett: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Probably more AI and real-time (laughs). Hopefully more AV artists as well.
Jake: What’s your best advice for someone new to motion graphics and 3D art?
Brett: Make your own personal projects and share them with the world. You can learn a lot from doing client-based projects, but being your own creative director and producer can push you in fun and rewarding ways.
I’m guilty of stockpiling a ton of ideas and projects that weren’t “good enough” on hard drives and then completely forgetting about them, but I always tend to learn the most when I share the work I create.
A special thanks to Brett Bolton for taking the time to talk to us about his performance at MUTEK Montréal 2023. You can follow him on Instagram, YouTube, and his website.
