Ed Warren Sets Mood for Mumford and Sons “Tour Before The Tour” with ChamSys
LONDON – Stepping back from the whirlwind of one’s usual life isn’t just a chance to “get away from it all.” For some, most notably creative types, it’s also about much more. Rather than an act of “getting away,” they view this respite as an opportunity to move toward something, namely a fresh, new source of inspiration!
Mumford and Sons embarked on such a journey a few years ago when they withdrew from their self-described “almost nonstop touring schedule” to channel a new more organic and personal wellspring of creative energy. Ultimately, this led the iconic band to record Rushmere, their first album since 2018.
„Because we’re no longer as rushed as we used to be, the creativity of Rushmere comes from us carving out more space for our best artistic selves,“ Marcus Mumford told an interviewer after the critically acclaimed album was released in March and instantly reached the top of the charts.
Mumford and Son’s longtime lighting designer, Ed Warren reflected this mood in his work for the band’s “Tour Before The Tour,” a limited run of shows at mid-sized venues before their 32-city North American arena-amphitheater tour scheduled for this summer.
Like the band’s new creative outlook, Warren’s lightshow was designed to give the heartfelt emotions behind the music, a chance to breathe and flourish, unencumbered by extraneous things. Video walls were not to be seen on this tour’s set, neither were an abundance of fixtures on the stage deck.
“We decided against video to keep the shows warmer, more intimate and more like the ‘good old days,’” said Warren. “For the same reason, we also kept the stage uncluttered.”
His set may have been simple, but Warren was able to use his lights to weave a deeply textured and engaging web of emotions in support of his client’s music during the 80-minute long show. Helping him along the way from venue to venue through a variety of different house rigs was his versatile ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium console.
“The Group Cues feature in my MQ500M was very helpful, since we were presented with a different house rig every show, as the tour moved through the UK, USA, and Australia,” said Warren. “Having my cues, programming and effects all adapt seamlessly to the different variations of fixtures and fixture amounts saved a lot of hassle.
“Also, the Pan and Tilt Offset was also very useful for the same reason,” he continued. “With every show, more often than not, I only needed need to update a single position. Since my ChamSys adjusted every other position for me automatically.”
Warren programmed his show at home before the start of the tour, which had lighting supplied by three different vendors (Neg Earth in the UK, Solotech in the USA, and Chameleon in Australia.) When programming, he found the Timeline feature to be an “incredible” time- saver.
“Having the audio loading and skipping along with each cue was great,” explained Warren. “I programmed every show using internal timecode, even though the show itself is not timecoded.”
This summer when Mumford and Sons embarks on their tour, the venues will be larger than the ones played in during the Tour Before The Tour, but one thing is certain, the music and the production will glow with the same genuine authenticity nourished by the band’s journey of self-discovery.
