Today we’d like to introduce you to Aidan Lutz.
Hi Aidan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My lightshow was crystallized in time before it could be actualized. I was always an avid music and film collector growing up through the 2000’s. This passion for music naturally landed me into countless rock ‘n’ roll shows and festivals throughout my teenage years. One festival that cultivated my sense of art direction and frankly, change my life, was Desert Daze located in Lake Perris, CA. The year was 2018 and I was going to see headliners like Tame Impala, My Bloody Valentine, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, and King Gizzard (to namedrop a few) at the autumn festie. My friends had told me it was the one event where you can find the best names in the underground rock scene that brought modern psychedelia to the fringes and always postured a unique line up. I witnessed psychedelic lightshows there accompanying rock shows all weekend long while fancily floating several lucid chemicals. My perspective had completely changed as I gained connections with some of the lightshow artists that I befriended from show to show in that weekend. I remember speaking with the Madalchemist Lightshow (Lance) and Zack Roddell in between show times. They seemed pretty psyched about their work at the festival doing liquid light projections on the stage and overhead canopies towering above the terrace. I asked them how I could potentially get into doing my own lightshow and shockingly, they were dismissive and discouraging to trying it. Nevertheless, I kept my wonderment burning long enough to hit the internet as soon as I got home from the weekend.
At that point, I was deep into the rabbithole of Google searching up videos, reading blog posts, scouring through comment sections to find out anything and everything. I had never been more hungry to learn. So in 2019, I purchased my first overhead projector and some glass dishes I found on a liquid light merchants site and started to experiment with different liquid concoctions. The mixtures consisted of mainly oil, water, and alcohol inside those dishes with any variation of water color and oil dye I could source from the local art supply store. I lived with a band at that time in Portland, Oregon and thus had a reason to practice to live music. This inevitably provided a springboard for me to get into doing lightshows for actual rock shows in the Portland underground scene. I was doing lightshows for all my friends bands whenever I could and lugged around more and more gear to all the shows. As time surpassed, this new “hobby” became more of a lifestyle and I saw that the demand for my work was growing. I was getting booked at least three to four nights a month at venues and commanding more compensation for my services didn’t seem all that ridiculous since my investment into it was building. By the tail end of 2019, my lightshow had been a staple name within the psych-rock scene of the PNW and I was getting on micro-festival bills and playing with some popular local bands. In the beginning of pre-pandemic 2020, I was actually asked to perform for Nike at one of their fundraiser events. This show felt like the start of something bigger for me. Once the pandemic kicked into full gear and I was locked in my house all the time, I was really forced into a position to create for myself more than for anyone else. Intrinsically, this allowed my to innovate my work and pursue new techniques of a sixties style liquid lightshow. My lightshow brand is and always will be analog which is what makes it so alive and fun for me. Everything that I make is manipulated in real time with these two hands and the shows speak for themselves. This very ethos is what holds my brand in a unique space and time where societal reliance on AI and computers to do the heavy lifting is commonplace. Throughout the pandemic, I would buy and sell antique projectors and at one point I actually owned 9 projectors! Fast forward from 2021 to now, I relocated to Southern California to be close to family and restarted my lightshow in the SoCal scene. Within the 4 years since then, I have been hired to do visuals for everything from photoshoots and music videos to weddings! Life is crazy and you truly never know where your passions will take you.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has never been a smooth road ahead, yet a road filled with sinkholes and psychotic tour managers! The work has come along with its fair share of disgruntled venue staff and accidents involving spilled liquids or broken glass. When you have to fit several projectors with loose glass pieces on top of a 6 foot shelving within a sold-out dive bar to light your friend’s band up; it will come along with some party fouls. I will admit that the least of my worries has been fitting my gear inside a small venue and the worst has been hunting down payments from bands I worked with. All in all, the struggles are something I’ve gotten proactive about and over-communicating with bands/promoters I work with has always delivered better outcomes.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in analog liquid lightshow and analog video art. This may sound confusing because it is so niche! So in simple terms, I create psychedelic lightshows and project them onto walls for bands at concerts. The projector I use now is an Epson Powerlite that emits 5,500 lumens which is really freakin’ bright. I like to choose from styles of moire patterns, liquid light, 16mm film reels of found footage, or my own home videos I craft in my home studio!
I love to tinker around with analog video equipment to see how I can manipulate the video switchers internal feedback signal. The analog video feedback from the 90’s switchers I own added into my liquid lightshow clips creates a combination that is undeniably my brand. I am most proud to see my show get to the multi-disciplinary stage that it is at where I can design a visual show tailored exactly to the artist/band’s vision for the show. I strive to find ways to shock and awe audiences at my shows by implementing every visual technique that I have honed over the last 6 years. The people that have seen my lightshows know me for my expansive understanding of liquid light which is why my brand is named Liquidfidelity.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Good luck has attributed the way people spread the word about my lightshow and surprisingly (everytime), people remember the name! I have had a lot of different people from all regions of the United States reach out to me on social media and tell me how they found my lightshow or what made it special for them. This is the blessing of my work. The good fortune is the stuff I try to harp on the most because it feels like the opportunity lent itself when I needed it the most.
Pricing:
- Event local to Orange County: $150/full show
- Event outside of Orange County: $200/full show
- Music videos: $300 – $600 sliding scale
- Promotional Reels: $100
- Touring: $50-80/show sliding scale
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liquidfidelity/?locale=kk-KZ&hl=ar
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiquidFidelity/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-lutz-786305138/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiquidFidelityVisuals
Image Credits
“Lone Guitarist” Photo by Dug Moore
