MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — Brace yourselves, headbangers. The moment you’ve all been waiting for is finally here…the world premiere of Excision’s Paradox Stage. The long-anticipated, sensory-overloading stage will debut in front of a sold out crowd at Myth Live Event Center in Maplewood, Minnesota on Friday, December 11th, 2015.
As many of you know, Excision’s previous ‘Executioner’ stage was more than over-the-top, providing some of the most innovative production the world has ever seen, featuring 100-150k watts of PK sound and enough projection-mapping visuals to give you an experience like no other. Excision used the ‘Executioner’ stage for his 2013-2015 tours across North America. This unique 28 foot stage was based on a three-dimensional surface model, where Heavy Industries designed the framework for the stage built in 12 modular sections that could be assembled and disassembled with ease using a roto-lock system.
The actual Paradox Tour will not actually take place until January 2016, so Excision claims the world premiere as “our biggest beta test ever” in a tweet this past Monday:
Minneapolis at Myth sold out. Mpls + Chicago stoked to show the new stage to 9000 people for our biggest beta test ever haha
— Excision (@Excision) December 8, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
In an interview with Billboard, Excision discuss some more in-depth Q&A regarding the Paradox stage. Read the full interview detailing the new production below.
What inspired you to build the new Paradox stage?
For me, spending such an insane amount of money on production every year isn’t as much a business decision as it is a creative one. I felt that we had done everything we could do with the Executioner and rather than do the same show for a fourth year it was time for something new. Over the last few years we’ve been tracking all of the things we wished the Executioner stage could do, and we’ve rolled every one of them into the Paradox.
How will The Paradox be different from your past stage designs?
This is the third stage we’ve built, all with the same core team, so we’ve learned a lot about what works, and what doesn’t. I can tell you it’s an LED-based setup, and that it’s modular depending on venue size. It was designed to match the intensity of my DJ sets as I don’t think the previous stages could really keep up. Other than that you’ll have to wait and see.
Who did you work with to help develop the stage?
We are working with a structure and engineering team in Maryland, as well as a mechanical engineering team in Nashville. The planning and design of the stage, many years in the making, is 100% my own crew that I’ve had since the beginning. I am very lucky to tour with such smart, dedicated and hard working guys. Out on tour earlier this year, one of us would have an idea and we’d get together after the show and build it into our design. It started out with a simple concept and slowly grew into the monster it is now.
Your new tour consists of more than 50 performances across four months. How do you prepare for such an ambitious tour?
Over the last few years my approach has completely changed. With such a grueling travel schedule it’s extremely hard to fit sleep in. When you’re flying 3-4 days a week it’s mainly about trying to squeeze in as much sleep as you can between the late gigs and the early flights. But the upside is you usually have the weekdays to recover.
On a bus tour, you get to avoid the airports and sleep a full 8 hours, but you’re usually playing gigs almost every day to cover all the extra expenses of doing your own production. It becomes more about fitness and making sure your body can physically do it. Last year, playing over 200 gigs in the previous 14 months I had a bit of a wake-up call. I developed some serious lower back issues and am still dealing with it on a daily basis. Luckily, I was able to avoid any career-ending consequences by cutting down my gigs to a more manageable 100 per year. I’m only human and not a super powered robot dinosaur from outer space, but I’m proud to now be in the best shape of my life and tour the world rattling bones and melting faces for many years to come!
The Paradox is all packed up and currently being transported from a secret location to the sold out MN/CHI shows! pic.twitter.com/NXBpDg1oL9
— Excision (@Excision) December 9, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
—
Written by: Electric Feels Staff