We had the privilege of speaking with Jack Sabbath of Something Good amidst Of the Trees’ Moonglade Tour. Jack Sabbath describes his company, which he co-owns with business partner Jeremy French, as a “comprehensive creative direction and tour design” collaboration that also offers large-scale event consulting and artist relations. “If it involves concert touring, we have people on our team that can do it.” Sabbath claims.
Q: How long have you been working with Of the Trees?
A: We started working with Of the Trees about two weeks before his Red Rocks show. So that was November 16th and 17th.
Q: How long has the tour been going on?
A: The first leg was a month, and then the second leg- which we’re on right now, is six weeks. And it goes until March 1st
Q: The experience of Of the Trees has been described as a full “audio-visual experience.” How is this production different than anything that you have done before?
A: Well, it’s the first thing we’ve ever done as a company, so that’s all different. Tyler cares a lot, you know, he’s a huge nerd about every aspect of the show and all the different cues. I mean, right now in this Airbnb, there’s four people all working diligently on making updates and changes to the different color hue on different clips, or like, how exactly the lights or laser are hitting. And it’s all very meticulous, but it comes from a place of, like, enthusiasm. It’s not like he’s this domineering perfectionist character, it’s just that he cares a lot. So do we.
Q: What do you think are some of the most important technical aspects of the show?
A: We’re using these lights, they’re Chauvet’s COLORado PXL Curve 12, and those are those large towers. There were two of them in Louisville, but we have more. Those are relatively new lights and new fixtures, and they’re definitely the centerpiece of this design. And then videos and lasers.
Q: Because the show is so heavily visual, along with the audio aspect, what kinds of challenges have you guys encountered so far?
A: One of the biggest challenges has definitely been the variety. We’re playing some rooms that are 550 people to rooms that are 5500 people. So, I mean, we’re playing an amphitheater in Clearwater, Florida thats literally 5500 people. What we deployed in Chicago versus what we’re deploying in Louisville or in Washington DC is super different. We have to pack the same truck every night with the same gear, and then pull it out in a certain manner where we can build this thing quick enough, so we’re constantly strategizing what to put at the end of the truck and how things fit together. It’s definitely this constantly evolving thing. I think we have like, eight or nine versions of the rig, so just figuring it out, I’d say is the biggest challenge.
Q: For the Louisville show, you said that you guys were only using a quarter of that rig. What pieces did you decide needed to go and why did you choose those pieces for the smaller rooms?
A: In Louisville, one of the big limitations was power, so it wasn’t just what we could fit. That comes directly from Tyler. We had a conversation very early on about what his priorities were production-wise, and if things needed to get cut. It’s a video wall behind him, those lighting towers, and then that cabin is a huge piece of it. We’re constantly trying to push the limits of what will fit into these smaller rooms and get as much bang for our buck as possible and deliver as much of the Moonglade show as we can.
Q: It sounds like Tyler is very involved. Do you see that as a collaboration mostly, or do you see it more as “this is his vision, and it is our job to put that on?”
A: I view Something Good as a prism: all we do is capture light and refract it. But the input- is coming from the artist, or the brand, or the client, or whatever it is. And Tyler definitely has a very vivid vision and imagination, so it’s definitely a constant communication. We want him to be happy, it makes us happy too, to put on a badass show. That one in Chicago was amazing, and Tyler afterwards was like, “that’s the show.”
Q: The Louisville was the last stop of five consecutive shows. How do you manage the stress and the workload of going for so many consecutive days and essentially having to do the same tasks each of those days?
A: That’s the thing, it’s not. Each thing is totally different. There is some overlap, but each is very unique. We’re dealing with different production managers in different venues and different stagehands of different skill levels, or loading the truck onto a dock or down a ramp and through the front of the venue, or upstairs in some places. So it is different each time, but I think it comes down to the crew that we have. There’s 15 people on that bus, and everyone gets along. We joke around, but support each other and help each other out. I call it the world’s friendliest team of assassins.
Q: You said this was the first big production for Something Good. What kinds of things have you learned from this tour and how your company works, and how each of your productions will go going forward?
A: So much, it’s been a tremendous learning experience. And I think there are small things, from the way we’re saving receipts for expense reports to the much larger things. But in general, it’s just brought a lot of clarity to the organizational structure and structure for growth that we want to have for people involved in the organization. Structurally, the way I view Something Good as this creative agency where growing the careers of these different techs and production professionals and creatives, that’s the business that we’re in. We’re not just renting gear to clients and sending people out to build stages. That model of empowering people and giving people opportunities and growing folks through this pipeline of touring has been reassuring to me, I feel like what we’re doing is working.
Q: Can you tell people your name and how they can find you and your company?
A: My name is Jack Sabbath, I’m the founder and co-owner of Something Good along with “Frenchie” Jeremy French. I’m on Instagram at @shotsofjack. somethinggood.world is our portfolio and website. If anybody wants to work with us or chat with us or do anything, we’re all pretty open, enthusiastic folks, and we love to nerd out.
Q: What kinds of services do you guys offer right now?
A: Comprehensive creative direction & production design for touring artists and festivals. We also do large scale event consulting. We partner with festivals where we’re doing everything from site ops to box office to artist relations. One thing I’m really excited about is getting more into branded experiences, corporate events, conferences. We’ve got a lot of folks with experience in that world too.
You can read about Of the Trees in Louisville, where we met Jack Sabbath, on the Glasse Factory website here.
Lighting & Stage Design: @christianjackson.jpg
Visual Creative Director: @alecmaassen
Tour Management: @day.of.davon
SOMETHING GOOD CREW:
Production Management: @frenchie1218 & @mistagatti
Lighting Director: @bkbarrett
Lighting Tech: @malik_leverette
VJ / Front of House Video Tech: @nebulazur
VJ / Stage Video Tech: @shotsofjack