User:Schmitie86943/Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights is the musical creation of Derek Vincent Smith, who while putting on live shows is accompanied on the drums by Cory Eberhard, both coming from Colorado. His music is the byproduct of digital sampling and transforming it to create a new kind of music that crosses all genres pulling bits and pieces from each one, the end product being a combination of "glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples." Influences of Derek's work include that of many famous members of the hip-hop community, such as The Notorious B.I.G., and even to the extent of sampling work from Etta James.

Musical Background and Live Performances
Derek started his love for music in eighth grade where listening to grunge and punk bands like Nirvana, and buying his own bass guitar. In high school Derek created his own hip-hop beats and was introduced to the rave scene where he ran into artists like Aphrodite. After high school he proceeded to start producing music as a freshman at The University of Colorado at Boulder, and after he deciding to produce music instead, dropped out with a 3.9 grade point average. Since then Derek and Cory Eberhard have been appearing at multiple music festivals such as Rothbury, the Electric Daisy Carnival, and Camp Bisco, along with his own separate set of tours that sell out at almost every venue.

In order to change up the sound of music and to combine the samples of music Derek uses the monome and the Akai MPD32, both are digital music controllers that can be programed to perform certain computer functions when knobs, buttons, or a sequence of buttons and knobs are pressed or turned. The program he uses to allow this to come together is [[Ableton | Ableton 7] where he can take his samples and combine and re-arrange them to create the music that makes it to his listeners.

Discography
Pretty Lights has released four full-length albums that are all available for free due to the nature of the material that similar to artists like Girl Talk (musician), has samples taken from the original to create new musical pieces. According to Derek "One thing I've run into a lot, is people that immediately judge artists who sample, as music thieves without enough of their own creativity to make good music on their own. Now, with some producers, I'd say that might not be far from the truth, but I strive to always use samples in a way that brings new life and feeling to them."
 * Taking Up Your Precious Time (2006)
 * Filling Up the City Skies (Disc 1 and 2) (2008)
 * Passing By Behind Your Eyes (2009)