In a recent interview, Pretty Lights (otherwise known as Derek Vincent Smith) has confirmed his use of a live band which accompanied him on his upcoming album, A Color Map of the Sun set for release on July 2nd, 2013.

According to an interview with Rolling Stone:

“Smith is now hand-picking musicians to take out with him on a fall tour, which he looks forward to as a way to break up what he sees as the limitations of his previous stage format.

The concept of producer as performer is the boring-est thing you can think of,” he said. “That’s why producers and DJs have developed this scene where everyone is trying to bring the biggest video wall or projection map and the most lights. This production war is essentially what it is, this battle of the video walls. I I’ve thought long and hard about that. And my conclusion is for this album, I cannot and will not tour as a producer-DJ.”

With other acts having already merged the worlds of live musicians and DJ/production onstage, he wants to bring his own unique spin to life. “I don’t want to do it like every other producer-gone-band has done it, where they produce all these records that sound incredible, then they form a band and go on tour, and they make their band try to recreate their production. It never works – it always sounds like it’s lost a massive element of soul,” he said. “What I’m planning on doing is to have a band but still perform as I normally do, and it’s full-on production accented by live musicians. I use the live band to mix, so I go out of a track into a band playing a live break, and then transitioning into electronic production. It’s rock and funk and soul segueing between hip-hop and dub and electronic music, so it’s this multi-genre journey through live and electronic music.”

In the live interview, taped and given by Renman Live!, Pretty Lights discusses how he organized his upcoming album, and how he conducted his fellow musicians in their assistance on the album. You can hear the entirety of the interview (and trust us, it’s worth the watch!) below:

Pretty Lights has confirmed an upcoming Fall Tour, presumably in support of the album, but as of yet has not released the dates. You can catch him at one of his upcoming festival dates, listed below:

06/29: Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest06/30: Rothbury, MI @ Electric Forest
07/05-08: Calgary, Alberta @ Badlands: Stampede Music Festival
07/18-21: Thornville, OH @ All Good Music Festival
08/03: Toronto, ON @ VELD Music Festival
08/04: Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga Festival
08/09-11: San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands 2013
08/10: Squamish, BC @ Squamish Festival
08/16-17: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
10/25-27: Asheville, NC @ Mountain Oasis
10/26-27: Las Vegas, NV @ Life is Beautiful Festival

Pretty Lights’ new single, “Around the Block” featuring Talib Kweli can be seen below:

And you can see the “The Making of Pretty Lights’ New Album: A Color Map of the Sun,” an exclusive documentary by THUMP,  below: