In a new interview with Live Design magazine, Phish lighting designer Chris Kuroda talks about working with the band, and some of his recent collaborations and side projects. Kuroda, affectionately dubbed CK5 by his fans, is the sole member of Phish’s crew to remain with the band since their formative days in the 1980s.
You can check out his cover story via Live Design.
In it, Kuroda talks about his long-standing relationship with the jam band: “I’ve been here more than half my life, and in many ways, my entire existence is Phish, which is good and bad at the same time… It’s been all-consuming, and there are times when I feel like I’ve been here too long, and there are times when I feel like I can go another 26 years… There really is no out for me, the way it’s all gone for the latest 26 years and the way I’ve established myself out there. I can’t just say goodbye.”
On his collaboration with Susanne Sasic: “She’s very artsy and asymmetrical, and has a much more theatrical vision… Instead of this big looking, symmetrical thing that I’ve always been doing, we got her involved and came up with last year’s version of the show. That gave us a new direction.”
On working with Justin Bieber: “Everything was different. Instead of just writing a giant palette of stuff like I do for Phish, where you can grab and access whatever you want at any given moment, that tour was structured from start to finish.”