Alex Gagnon

Lighting Programmer / Lighting Director

Seven Lions / Steve Aoki

CHANGEOVER: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do in the music industry.

Alex Gagnon: I’m a lighting programmer and director. I go on tour with various artists and program their shows, as well as run them while on tour. I'm 100% freelance. I've worked with companies in the past, but I've noticed that as a lighting director, it's just easier for artists to contact me directly. Right now I have a primary artist and I've recently transitioned from five years of country music. In the last two and a half years, I've been working in EDM (electronic dance music) so that was a pretty huge change.

My primary artist is Seven Lions. We do mostly arena tours and shed tours (amphitheaters), but it's all EDM music so it’s a DJ. It's totally different than my Toby Keith days where I had ten people on stage. The lighting was a huge reason why I transitioned. As a lighting director, and where I'm at now as opposed to where I was five years ago, I don't necessarily get on the deck anymore because I'm programming, directing, and working one on one with artists and my creative teams. Since I'm less on the deck and more at the console with the creative directors it just makes more sense for me to be freelance and not be with a company.

I like to stick with artists as long as there's still potential with them. With country music, I didn't really find I was artistically where I wanted to be. I had some connections in EDM and wanted the biggest shows possible. It's had it’s own challenges with learning new genres. There's no people on stage since it’s a DJ and it's a different way of running a show. With all of that, I have to say that I've never been more happy to make that transition because five years in country was kind of hard because it's not really my flow but it's been a great transition.

At the beginning of 2020, I was actually on tour with Steve Aoki. That’s the last artist that I was actually on tour with. We were in Chicago and got sent home. It was crazy and nobody knew what was happening. That was March 13th. We were two and a half weeks into tour and I was like, what is going on? I was still programing and it wasn’t even a month into tour and I was working so much at the beginning of it and not paying attention to the outside world. It was really just a huge shock and thought OK, what do I do now?

My primary artist, Seven Lions, is great and has been keeping me busy. I learned video and started running part of the video for our live streams with his record label people. We did a drive-in show at the end of June in 2020. We were one of the first people to ever do a drive-in show and it was terrifying. It was really crazy. I have been fortunate that I have had some gigs and my artist is loyal to me. I'm really thankful for that.

How did you get into the industry?

I started working at House of Blues in Orlando when I was 18. I started as a stagehand and then, after being there for less than a year, they threw me on the lighting console. I ran with it. I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to do lighting. I worked really hard and at 19 I started LD’ing at House of Blues. I spent three and a half years there and then started doing tours soon after. I think I was 20 when I did my first fly date gig. By 21 I was touring pretty heavily. My first artist that I ever really did a full club tour with was Matisyahu. I spent two and a half years with him and my career just took off from there.

You definitely work in a male dominated industry. Do you feel this hinders you or does does it drive you to want to succeed?

That's a tough question. I don't think it's what drives me to succeed. What drives me to succeed is actually how I work in my community. I love my job even more than my life. I spent 300 days a year gone for almost ten years. I try not to think of it one way or another because everyone struggles. I don't think that it helps or hinders me. I think if it does, it really depends on the tour or who your artist is. When I worked in country, that was a challenge in its own being a woman. I've noticed, like in lots of other genres, it's not as uncommon. I really don't think that it hinders or hurts. You're there to work, you do your job and you work your ass off. You're respected by the right people anyway.

When COVID-19 hit, how did it affect your job and what have you been doing since the shutdown?

I was on tour when this happened and we got emergency flown home. Honestly, my natural thought was, “OK”, without really knowing or grasping what was happening because I was on tour and was working so much. I didn't really have time to think about what a pandemic meant. In my head I was thinking it was going to be three or four months. I had been going so hard for so long that I was thinking that maybe a break would be good for me. I never spend longer than a month at home so I had a lot of time to think about what was happening. Will I have to change the direction of my life? Where am I going to go from here? I had to be patient. Like I said, my primary artist has had my back. I've learned how to do video, so I learned how to use Resolume and co-run video for live streams. I learned a new skill. Work is far and few between. I've had maybe six gigs since March 13th, whether it's commercial shoots or a drive-in. I guess what it's mostly affected is my sense of community. My best friends, my family, they're all on the road. We don't necessarily all live in the same place. I went from living with ten dudes on a tour bus for years to going home and being completely isolated. I love my job and I miss getting artistic and miss the sense of community. It's been hard on all of us. Going from something so stimulating in life to nothing has been a huge challenge. 

Since you've been learning the video side of things since COVID, do you feel the direction of your career may shift a bit when things do come back?

Not at all. I love lighting through and through. I think a lot of lighting directors also know video. Sometimes you can do a tour where you can run lighting and video from the same console. It's a nice skill to have but I definitely don’t see myself strictly becoming a video person. I miss my console so much. It's been crazy not to have that be a part of my life anymore. 

Let’s switch it up with some fun. If you had to choose between the sound of a load bar being dropped in a truck or the chirp of a radio which sound do you miss more? 

The chirp of a radio. The banter there is good. I just love the connection to my team and getting it done. It gives you a sense of needing to be somewhere. Where's my day sheet? Where's my radio? I would definitely say I could go without the load bar sound. That’s a really awesome question.

Finally, which sound do you miss the most from tour?

The start of a show. The house is quiet. The lights are out. It doesn't matter how many times you've done the show, it's the calm before the storm and everything washes out. You hear that first “he's on” on the radio that first time at the top of the show. There’s nothing like it even if I've been on the same tour for a year. It doesn't matter what show it is, or where it is, that beginning of the show is chilling in the best way.