Pretty Lights
From Fort Collins
Popularity
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About
Also known as: Derek Smith
Pretty Lights is the project of Fort Collins producer Derek Vincent Smith, originally a duo with Michal Menert before Smith took the reins solo. Rick Rubin once called him "the face and voice of the new American electronic music scene," which gives you a sense of the scale of what he built by blending hip hop, soul, trip hop and electronic production into something that felt genuinely new. His live shows became a spectacle in their own right, featuring LED towers designed to look like a glowing cityscape. A huge part of his identity is giving music away for free through his Pretty Lights Music label, which also releases work from artists like Gramatik, Break Science and Michal Menert. His 2013 album A Color Map of the Sun was a turning point: instead of sampling records, he recorded original sessions with live musicians in Brooklyn, New Orleans and Denver, pressed them to vinyl, then chopped those up with modular synths. That record landed a Grammy nomination for Best Dance and Electronica Album.
