Visuals have accompanied musicians during their performances for decades now, from Pink Floyd to Beyonce. And usually, an engineer is responsible for the visuals -- not the actual musician on stage — and they're usually created far ahead of the performance.
But Las Vegas audio-visual artist and longtime local musician Brett Bolton is different. He creates musical pieces with digital visual accompaniments together, in real time, using nothing but a drum kit and a touch pad.
And this is just the latest iteration in Bolton’s fascinating career devoted to the evolution of audio-visual entertainment. He also designs visuals for resident performers at Sphere and major touring acts, from classic rock titans The Rolling Stones to indie favorite Purity Ring. And he works with visual media production companies that forego the traditional green screens for computer-generated scenery, and instead use extended-reality stages and LED screens that actually show said scenery in real time.
Bolton just released his first solo work, EP1, which he will perform November 7 at Dustland in the Arts District.
Brett Bolton, audiovisual artist and designer
