Enigmatic electronic producer Pretty Lights, real name Derek Vincent Smith, has broken a five-year silence to announce the 2023 Soundship Spacesystem Tour. The extensive outing, due to stretch from early August through early December, will feature 27 total dates in nine cities, plus festival appearances at Suwannee Hulaween (10-/26–10/29) and Cascade Equinox Festival (9/22–9/24).
The string of concerts—the first live Pretty Lights shows since a pair of 10th anniversary live-band performances—will feature familiar musical collaborators Michal Menert, Borahm Lee, Alvin Ford Jr., and Chris Karns. The announcement also promises “musical and visual special guests.”
Pretty Lights heralded the news on Tuesday morning with a two-minute video posted to his long-dormant social media accounts. In the sci-fi-stylized announcement video, Smith borrows a verse from the country classic “Highwayman”, written by Jimmy Webb and popularized by Johnny Cash with The Highwaymen. Through a cosmic web of vocal effects, he sings, “I’ll fly a starship across the universe divide, and when I reach the other side, I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a Pretty Light again. Or I may simply be a single drop of rain, but I will remain, and I’ll be back again.”
The video goes on to rattle off the various stops included as part of the tour. In a later post, Pretty Lights revealed that each of the cities listed would host multiple-night runs of concerts. Stops include Denver, CO’s Mission Ballroom (8/6–8/6), Dillon, CO’s Dillon Amphitheater (8/10–8/12), Atlanta, GA’s The Eastern (8/24–8/26), Philadelphia, PA’s Franklin Music Hall (9/14–9/14), Brooklyn, NY’s The Brooklyn Mirage (9/29–9/30), Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed (10/19–10/21), Pelham, TN’s The Caverns (11/3–11/5), San Francisco, CA’s The Warfield (11/9–11/11), and New Orleans, LA’s Mardi Gras World (12/1–12/2).
Related: Pretty Lights Details Three-Day Music Festival At The Caverns
The tour poster, designed by Leif Podhajsky, Mike Tallman, and Michal Menert, bills the shows with various tag lines and names—PL Live in Dub, The Fantastic Pretty Lights, Live From The Swirl Bridge—but does not go into detail about what they mean or their significance to the production. Listed visual collaborators for the tour include LazerShark, Anti-Alias, and Volt Peaking.
The long-awaited Pretty Lights tour announcement arrived alongside a message from Derek Vincent Smith in which he hints at even more news to come. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time and am immensely grateful to be healthy and happy and surrounded by amazing people,” he wrote. “I feel recharged and more ready than ever to launch a new vision of PL music and live events. Can’t wait to share everything that’s coming. … It’s a new dawn and I can’t wait to see you all again shining bright.”
Many fans are hoping that these hints point to new music from Pretty Lights, who has become increasingly selective with his official output in the last decade. Since the release of his acclaimed 2013 LP, A Color Map of the Sun, the only new Pretty Lights music has come in the form of a brief 2014 EP, The Hidden Shades, and a pair of singles, 2017’s “Strawberry Letter 23” flip “Rainbows & Waterfalls” and 2016’s mellow “Only Yesterday”.
Watch the Pretty Lights Soundship Spacesystem Tour announcement video, check out the tour poster, view a list of tour dates, and read the full message from Derek Vincent Smith below. for more information, head here.
PL :: starship ANNOUNCE
[Video: Pretty Lights]
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram