George Maple (aka Jess Higgs), is an Australian born, LA-based multi-disciplinary artist and entrepreneur. She walks the tightrope between artist, creative director, businesswoman, director, songwriter and record producer. As an artist, ghostwriter and producer she has over 500 million Spotify streams.
Last month she played a one-off show at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre as part of the Sydney Solstice Festival.
The show was FOH engineer Stu Padbury’s fourth show working directly with George Maple, though he had done a few shows with her as a venue tech.
“Jess is very hands-on when it comes to how she likes her sound to be interpreted,” he commented. “We’ve worked together to create something of a middle ground between referencing the original songs and keeping a sense of coherence throughout the set.”
The in-house L-Acoustics system was utilised, 18 x L-Acoustics VDosc and 12 x SB218 subs, and Stu ran the show with an Avid Profile.
“Every show we’ve done this year has been on an Avid Profile, so it made sense to tour a file rather than a console,” he added. “While it’s increasingly common for artists to tour consoles, I believe it’s better to err on the side of frugal when spending the artists’ money.
“Though the input list is relatively simple, I like to be hands-on with the mix. I’m not particularly tempted to compress the live vocal that much, with the consequence being that I need to ride levels a lot more. It’s more work, but it sounds better.”
Stu also mixed monitors from FOH on the FOH console with IEMs for Jess and the techs, side fill for the dancers. Jess gets a pre-fade mix of everything except the fx. Stu sends a post-fade mix of fx to her ears so that she can sing ‘into’ the effect. It creates a sense of play, particularly in the moments where the music builds and the fx levels are pushed in response.
“There was just one wireless mic plus a spare,” remarked Stu. “For the Enmore, we tried the Telefunken M80 cap on a Shure transmitter which worked nicely. Having a dynamic capsule with such a clear top end makes it a solid option.”
Stu commented candidly that his biggest challenge at the gig was anxiety. Being from Melbourne, this was his first show in three weeks as everything from the 27th of May onwards had been cancelled.
“Everything was up in the air, from whether or not this show would happen, whether or not a border closure would have prevented me from working or worse, trapping me in Sydney after the show until the borders reopened,” he said. “The day after this show, Newport was declared an orange zone so I had to get a Covid test and isolate until I got the result which thankfully came back negative. Any challenge about the gig itself pales in comparison to the challenges surrounding the gig.”
Stu reports that the gig went very well with the right feel, the right energy. Everything from the lighting to the staging to the choreography was on point and he says it’s a privilege to be part of such a team.
LIGHTING
For the last George Maple tour, lighting designer Mike McDonald received a 75-page document with a full creative from the artist.
Jess wants to understand how to control and manipulate every element of the show production,” he said. “She wants to know how to articulate the lighting and video, create silhouettes and shadow play, choreography blocking, then down to costumes under show lighting, and understanding all the stagecraft of all show elements. For this campaign, I received a 63-page document with key events, imagery, and musical references.”
The design concept was solid from the artist’s design company called The Process, with a full storyboard that had strong ideas about how the show should look and feel. Essentially, Mike brings the show treatment to life from a technical perspective as the artist has a limited understanding of lighting fixture types or how to push the fixture limitations.
“From a technical design perspective, I get to design the show’s lighting, video, and atmospherics to curate the show treatment,” Mike explained. “It’s usually based on what local equipment is accessible, affordable or included within a festival rig.”
The biggest challenge for the Enmore Theatre show was not having a video wall. So far, all of her shows have included an upstage video wall.
“It proves difficult as the video content is often the primary canvas that frames the stage, and the lighting is secondary,” commented Mike. “Many lighting moments are static or subtle because it’s complementing the movement of the video. So when you remove the video content, lighting has to articulate all the musical and visual cues. This often means more programming, with a bit of busking of musical moments with stabs and bumps.”
The rig changes quite often depending on what’s available locally, with the Enmore gig supplied by the venue and Chameleon Touring Systems.
The Enmore venue equipment fixtures were 12 x Martin Mac Viper Profiles, 12 x Mac Viper Wash, two Atomic Strobes, four 2-Lite Blinders and a grandMA2 light for control.
Chameleon provided four TMB Solaris Flare Q+, two Martin JEM ZR45, one Look Solutions Unique 2.0, two Martin JEM Gladiator Dynamic – Low Fog as well as a small power distribution and cabling package.
This show has a pre-programmed, flown rig (Spot, Wash, Strobes) with specials that Mike clones into every festival show. For the floor package, he has six Wash lights as side-light for choreography moments, with four upstage LED Strobes behind the riser, one Profile upstage centre to give backlight to the artist and create silhouette and shadow play. For atmospherics, he has one Hazer, two Smoke and two Low Fog.
Control is a grandMA2 Light, sending sACN to PRG Mbox Studio with a Rosendahl Mif4 for timecode for lights and video.
“I pre-program all my shows before the first show,” said Mike. “This is where you can re-purpose equipment, trim the show budget if required or readjust the client’s expectations before the first show. Sometimes you need three additional lighting fixtures to achieve the desired look, and this can be articulated using a simple render or a pre-vis zoom call.”
Set pieces included a 4.8m x 2.4m stage riser with a mirrored façade with two upstage risers with a clear perspex deck, so strobes can be placed underneath.
“My favourite lighting moment is The Intro transitioning into a song called Mine,” remarked Mike. “Both songs are bipolar to each other; Intro is very theatrical, elegant, gentle and soft whilst Mine is abrasive, unpredictable, whilst strobing and attacking your visual senses. Intro colour palette was white and dark blue with low lying fog, cathedral music, dark and mysterious, moving statues, scattering light flashes. Slow fade to black. Mine is a full-throttle attack with blinding the audience with full saturated red with shuttering and strobe white.
“It catches you off-guard, and is completely unexpected in the first three minutes of the show.”
