UK – Singer songwriter Hozier has taken his self-titled debut album on tour with a carefully crafted lighting design by Matthew Kilmurry who specified Clay Paky Mythos to play “one of the most versatile roles in the show.”
Kilmurry specified the award-winning Clay Paky fixtures from Adlib Audio, employing them for fast-paced punchy beam looks, spot work, atmospheric washes and seamless colour changing.
“The Mythos are incredibly versatile,” continues Kilmurry. “They have a huge zoom range meaning they can perform as a spot or wash, which is pretty incredible for one moving light. And on top of all that they are extremely bright.”
The Mythos units were flown in the rig, with seven positioned on Kilmurry’s upstage/back truss, one on the centre truss and six on the mid stage truss. From here he used the fixtures to complement Hozier’s raw sound with aerial looks that swung from intensely moody to more soft and subtle.
“What really made me choose the Mythos over the other fixtures of its type was its colour mixing aspect – it’s a real game changer for me,” Kilmurry explains. “Most other beam lights use colour wheels which means flicking between hues. This isn’t conducive to subtle and seamless colour changes, which is what I needed for the more mellow parts of the show.”
After an incredibly busy 2015, where his song ‘Take Me to Church’ was nominated for ‘Song of the Year’ at the Grammys, Hozier announced he would be kicking off 2016 with a UK tour. The Irish-born star performed at such venues as Sheffield o2 Academy and the Liverpool Empire.
“The Mythos were also great as they are robust in terms of build quality,” says Kilmurry. “I didn’t experience any problems with them throughout the tour – they simply came out of their cases every gig, went into the air on the trusses and worked without fail.”