Matthew Butler

Credit: Matty Vogel

Lighting Technician

Keith Urban / Justin Bieber / Post Malone

CHANGEOVER: Talk about who you are and what you do in the industry. 

Matthew Butler: My name is Matt Butler and I’m from Maine. The last thing I was doing was being the lighting crew chief for Keith Urban and we were just about to start doing a big Vegas residency. We had just finished up a whole summer and then the pandemic hit. Once that happened, I ended up doing concrete constructions for a couple of months before finding a job with the current company that I'm with climbing, fixing and building cellphone towers. It’s definitely been an interesting change. 

How did you originally get into the industry?

I went to Full Sail in Orlando and ended up making some really good connections while volunteering through a few different venues there, such as the House of Blues and University of Central Florida. From there, I ended up getting a recommendation for a job through Full Sail, which was like a big theatrical tour seeking a lighting tech going international. It was all I had for a lead. It was a cool little kid show that went to Southeast Asia and I ended up meeting some really cool people there. The lighting designers on that program really liked me so they were able to help me get a job at VER. I worked there for a few years and then eventually VER got bought out by PRG and have been working for them since.

What’s a typical day like on tour?

Most days you're starting early and getting off the bus around five or six o'clock in the morning to begin your routine, whatever that might be. We head into the venue and see what we're dealing with for the day. Trucks start dumping and, maybe an hour later, get all the gear and start building the whole show. You spend a few hours really busting your butt to get the show ready to go and making sure everything works. Then we would have some lunch, hopefully, if we’re lucky. The afternoon is spent tweaking and dialing things in before maybe getting a break for dinner. Then we do the show. When the show is over, we start breaking it all down and work pretty late into the night. As soon as we are all packed up, we get on the bus to head to the next city and then do it all again the next morning a few hours later.

What is a lighting crew chief responsible for during a show?

I'm responsible for implementing whatever the lighting designers design for that show. I’m making sure that we're putting forth our best effort and that everything they design is incorporated into every single show. Depending on the venue, I have to adapt the show. My job is to oversee the entire lighting install. Depending on certain situations, I might be involved with the rigging for that show as well. Typically, a lighting crew chief has to deal with everybody's power and making sure everybody has the right power as well as enough power. We should be involved in the preproduction process with sorting out power at venues beforehand, and making sure that when we show up to a venue that they have all of our power needs. It's a pretty substantial thing that most people don't realize. Your typical concert will require the same amount of power that might be required for a dozen houses all day, every day, and that's just for that couple hours for the show. It's insane how much power we draw. We typically have a few guys on our crew and we'll also get local stagehands to help build all of our lighting. Typically as the crew chief, you don't want to get too involved in one little project. You need to see the big picture and be able to manage with other departments. You need to make sure that you're sharing the space and everybody is able to get their stuff set up on time and manage how that flow is going.  

Credit: Matty Vogel

Where were you when COVID-19 hit and how has that affected your career? 

I was actually already home, surprisingly. We were in the middle of doing a Vegas residency, so we had done four of our shows so far in 2020. We were just on a little break waiting to go to the next show, which I think was in a couple of weeks. We all got the phone calls and emails that there were no more shows for the foreseeable future. Then, of course, that got followed up with another email saying that there were no more shows until who knows when. It's just been a big question mark since then. We just started it in January of 2020 and were home in February. That's pretty much when things started happening. We had some shows scheduled at the end of March so those didn’t happen. We didn’t know what was going to happen. Then, for the foreseeable future, everything was canceled. It wasn't just us, of course, so I immediately started having to look elsewhere for work.

What have you been doing since everything shut down?

I started working with a cell phone tower company called Wireless Construction up in Maine. We build, maintain and install new cell phone equipment across New England. I climb cell phone towers pretty much every day, and it's definitely different. I’m very thankful for the job and the shop is only 15 minutes from where I currently live.

Talk about what sound you miss from tour, such as the bus door closing or the chirp of your radio. 

Definitely being the first person walking into an arena in the morning and it's dead quiet. There’s nobody else in there. I’m a pretty early riser so I miss getting up and having that absolute silence and see it turn into complete chaos. I miss that sound of silence early in the morning. I miss that first cup of coffee in the morning and chatting with all the guys. You smell out catering. That's how you get there in the morning. You walk into the venue, have no idea what direction to go so you just sniff it out to find where catering is. I haven't been traveling much out of state but another thing I miss is coming back into the state of Maine, where I live, after being gone for so long and smelling that air. I miss that feeling of coming back and getting that first fresh breath of air in Maine.

What are you looking forward to the most once you get back on the road? 

Probably just seeing all of my friends from all over the country. We’re in a weird brotherhood and can go a year, two years, five years without seeing somebody in this industry. When you see them again, that friendship is still there. Definitely just seeing all the people and also that first blackout when we're starting a show. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. One of my favorite things is hearing the excitement of the audience when we are about to start a show that they spent so much time looking forward to. I can't wait to get back to that atmosphere of being in the crowd and feeling the electric vibe as the crowd roars for the first time. I can't wait.