Pretty Lights

BIOGRAPHy

Pretty Lights is the musical vision of the ultra-versatile Colorado based producer Derek Vincent Smith. At a time when music lovers from almost all subcultures and genres are finding common ground in the basic form of bangin’ beats, Pretty Lights is giving the people what they want: electro organic cutting-edge party rocking beats that fill venues with energy and emotion and send dance floors into frenzies. And the people are responding. Pretty Lights has given away more than three million free album downloads to date. Reviews for the 55-date 2012 “The Illumination Tour” were stellar: “Smith wowed the crowd with his Crayola-colored set of lasers and his ever-present grin of pure joy as he danced along to his own tunes,” said SPIN while Rolling Stone called him “wildly unique and talented.” In another innovative partnership, Pretty Lights teamed up with Bassnectar to put on a two-day “BassLights” event in December 2012, marking the first-ever electronic music shows at historic Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA. Pretty Lights closed out 2012 with two intimate shows at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom. A brand new Pretty Lights album is due out in 2013. “I’ve completely switched up my process of producing and composing. It is being created from all originally composed samples off of self made vinyl and all analog modular synthesis,” says Smith. “It’s prolific, conceptual, consistent, yet extremely diverse, and a real substantial piece of music you can sink your teeth into.”

Career Path

2006Released the debut album 'Taking Up Your Precious Time' as a free download, establishing the radical free-music model that would eventually result in more than three million total album downloads.
2008Released 'Filling Up the City Skies,' the double album that expanded his electro-organic sound and earned him a devoted following on the jam-band and festival circuit well before he crossed into mainstream EDM.
2012Co-headlined the two-day 'BassLights' event with Bassnectar at Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA, the first electronic music concerts ever held at the historic arena, with Big Gigantic, GRiZ, A-Trak, and Gramatik on the bill.
2012Closed the '55-date Illumination Tour' with two intimate shows at New York City's Roseland Ballroom; SPIN praised his Crayola-laser set design while Rolling Stone called him 'wildly unique and talented.'
2013Released 'A Color Map of the Sun,' his first album built entirely from self-made vinyl samples and analog modular synthesis, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album.
2018Stepped away from touring and recording, entering a five-year hiatus after a Red Rocks Amphitheater performance that marked his final show of the decade.
2023Ended the hiatus with the 'Soundship Spacesystem Tour,' opening with three sold-out nights at Denver's Mission Ballroom alongside longtime collaborators Michal Menert, Borahm Lee, Alvin Ford Jr., and Chris Karns.
2023Completed 27 total tour dates across nine cities plus festival appearances at Suwannee Hulaween and Cascade Equinox Festival, confirming that five years away had only sharpened audience hunger for his live show.
2024Headlined Bonnaroo alongside Fred again.. and FISHER, performing a second sunrise set that drew some of the festival's largest crowds and marked his return to the top tier of outdoor festival billing.
2025Launched the inaugural Yahn Dawn festival, his own multi-day camping event in Buena Vista, Colorado, presenting a curated lineup around his live band performance at Meadow Creek.

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