Director David Wilson’s Giving Us ‘A Lecture That’s Extra’ at The Barbican
Above: 'Cabaret' cover poster; Credit: Eric Kostiuk Williams, Instagram, @eric.k.w.
David and his crew will be performing together as the final presentation of the Playgrounds In Motion Festival 2024 happening at the Barbican, and his ‘Cabaret’ is part of a lecture series… but, David’s giving us ‘A Lecture That’s Extra’. A shockingly beautiful lecture that also doubles as celebration of queer culture, and an amalgamation of all of David’s work so far. But it didn’t appear in a vacuum.
The idea of doing visuals to music came from David witnessing the Chemical Brothers live at the Brighton Centre in 2005, so ‘Cabaret’ comes to us after a 20-year-long evolution. A student at Brighton University, studying illustration and having just learnt After Effects, David saw the Chemical Brothers’ show and thought “I can do this much better.” This gave the start of David’s animation creations, with intent for them to become visuals.
“Doing visuals in a live space went hand-in-hand with my drive to make music videos. I wanted to be immersed in the world of music and visuals, the visions music gave me and the safe world of drawing that I went into,” David continues.
Credit: Kamil Tomasz PawŁowski, Instagram @kapa.photography
Ever since those student days, David’s kept a folder on his computer with his creations. In his 20s, he used to volunteer as a DJ, and gave his visuals out to queer clubs and indie nights around Brighton. Once in London, he kept widening his network. “Some routes from university led to my invitation to do a VJ/DJ show at Latitude Festival in 2012!”
And in December 2011, David released a collection of his visuals in the form of an online advent calendar, the ‘Alternative Advent’. Each looping animation clip was soundtracked by a bespoke piece made by various artists, including Woodkid, battles, Caribou and others.
“Working in this way has always been woven into my career. Give me a screen, and I’ll have a lot of fun with it,” concludes David. So, today LBB’s Zoe Antonov sat down with him to find out more about his techniques, what will transpire at the Barbican, and more.
You can buy tickets to the Playgrounds In Motion Festival 2024 here, or only to David Wilson’s ‘Cabaret’ if you scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Evening Access’.
Above: Shot from 'Cabaret'; Credit: Kamil Tomasz PawŁowski, Instagram @kapa.photography
LBB> Tell me about the Playground Festival in 2012 and why it was a formative moment for this project as a whole.
David> Leon van Rooij, the director of Playgrounds Festival, has always been a huge supporter of my work. Playgrounds is the most fantastic motion-graphics lecture festival that happens in the Netherlands every year (and now in other European cities). Back in 2011, I was invited to be part of a New Directors panel with Matt Lambert and Champagne Valentine (Geoff Lillemon and Anita Fontaine). When I turned up to the festival, I was almost immediately thrown on stage to be part of design studio Hey Hey Hey’s ‘LIVE’ title sequence for the festival.
By the end of the festival I was witnessing David O’Reilly and Fons Schiedon present a talk about the weird and wonderful films they’d found on the internet, including ‘Pterodactyl Porn’ (think people in rubber suits and exposed genitalia) on the big screen in the main auditorium.
It became apparent very quickly that this festival embraced and celebrated risk taking.
The demographic at Playgrounds is mainly students, and Leon has this playful drive to push against the default, and encourages others to do the same.
Cut to 2012 when I was invited back to present my work as a solo in two separate presentations. The first, I did as a default speech, but the second (which was later at night in a smaller studio theatre) saw me present a 15 minute speech before throwing a 30 minute dance party: an abridged version of the Latitude Festival set. This didn’t have much forethought, it was more a call from within myself to make something exciting for me to do. My wonderful friends DANIELS (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert) and Mikey Please, who were also speaking that year, got on stage and started dancing, encouraging others to do so, and by the end, the whole crowd was moving.
This moment from 2012’s festival logged in Leon van Rooij’s head.
Credit: Kamil Tomasz PawŁowski, Instagram @kapa.photography
LBB> Since 2012, how did things turn out? Where did the project go afterwards?
David> After 2012 I didn’t pursue a show anymore. It was a lot of work that I loved doing, but it didn’t really have a place for the energy I was putting into it.
I still kept my finger in the pie of doing visuals, curating the visuals for Hercules and Love Affairs’ 2017 tour. This included bespoke work by myself, Andrew Thomas Huang, Matilda Finn, Bertil Nilsson, Ori Toor, Gary Card, Johnny Shew, In/Out and Patrick Church.
The visuals for my own show sat on a hard drive. However, I still kept up the practice of archiving. After every music video project I did, I would dissect up sections of loopable components, especially if these involved animation.
Cut to 2023 and I get a message from Leon van Rooij asking if I would be up for doing that ‘party thing’ that I had done 11 years ago, but this time at Here, the new venue that’s part of the Outernet in Tottenham Court Road, as part of a newly evolved and expanded version of the festival called Playgrounds InMotion.
It took a bit of coaxing from Leon for me to rise to the challenge. I didn’t know if these files still worked, I didn’t know if the VJ software I used (Modul8) would still run on my laptop, and I certainly couldn’t remember how to link Modul8 to Ableton Live, which is what I needed to do to run the show.
Credit: Kamil Tomasz PawŁowski, Instagram @kapa.photography
But, the venue was too spectacular to resist.
I remember asking Leon “But what if the computer goes wrong?” I was aware the show was being made in a very wobbly way involving me triggering the majority of the clips live. And Leon responded by simply saying “... Then we’ll applaud!”
That was all I needed to hear. I announced the show as a retrospective called ‘Closet’. I had the amazing Dude Chung design the poster. I wanted this show to be a spectacle. For it to be fully immersive. Having been working in commercials for many years, I took the opportunity to look back at my work, and pick out what felt the most authentic to me, to remind myself of my voice and have it in a one hour show. This wasn’t just a megamix of my work, but a journey into re-finding and strengthening my voice as an artist.
I was given a small budget by Leon and that got me excited to spend it. How to ‘level up’ even further – and that’s where the performers came in. How could I present Arctic Monkeys ‘Do I Wanna Know’ but in a way where it felt like we were IN the video? Answer: have a pole dancer!
Credit: @nachtschaduw_official on Instagram
How could I bring my love of cabaret into the show, like I did with my film ‘Deep Clean’ (2019) and use it as a collaborative opportunity? Answer: a collaboration with Wet Mess and the filming of their spectacular piece ‘Burlesque’.
How could I bring my love of cabaret into the show, like I did with my film ‘Deep Clean’ (2019) and use it as a collaborative opportunity? Answer: a collaboration with Wet Mess and the filming of their spectacular piece ‘Burlesque’.
A ritualistic element naturally came into the process. I found that I wanted to manifest a death of my ego to make space for play. The opening part of this show saw me walk on stage in a big, black, inflatable suite, soundtracked by Sebastien Tellier’s song ‘Oui’. Standing in front of the crowd as ‘the inflated ego’ before unzipping the suit to reveal a more playful pink inflatable version. Within the first five minutes I wanted it to be clear to the audience that this was playtime.
Credit: Kamil Tomasz PawŁowski, Instagram @kapa.photography
LBB> Tell me about the evolution of the project from a party to a lecture-party.
David> ‘Closet’ was a hit. This was thrilling for us all.
From a personal standpoint, there’s a big pressure on seemingly every music video director to move into feature films, TV or commercials. As if that’s why we got into music videos. It doesn’t seem to cross people’s minds that some of us got into music videos because we are fixated on creating visuals in response to music.
To have made a longform piece of work – an hour-long show as a live experience that was immersive with a light show and performance that changed the energy in a room and got people dancing – felt like a huge thing for me. This felt like the version of longform that I’d been pining to make.
Leon immediately commissioned the show to travel to Rotterdam for the next InMotion festival the following month, but also with overnight bookings from other festivals including OFFF in Barcelona, Ciclope in Berlin, and Us By Night in Barcelona.
Above: Shots from 'Closet'; Credit: Nathan Dobbelaere, Instagram @nateconcertphotography
We very quickly realised the unique event that Playgrounds Festival had incubated had flown the nest. Leon was determined for me to provide a new show, different to ‘Closet’, for the 2024 edition of Playgrounds InMotion, and had the budget to fund the development of it.
A lot of carrots were dangled in front of my face, including being co-curator of this year’s InMotion (which I am). So, this year’s festival at the Barbican is so much more for me than just the ‘Cabaret’ show. It’s seen me bring on friends like Dougal Wilson, Becky & Joe, Megaforce, Tom Brown and Jenkin Van Zyl to give presentations at this year’s festival as well.
The biggest hurdle for the new version was how we could make this new show work in the 2000-seater concert hall of the Barbican. Previous shows had all been stood.
However, for my presentation at OFFF festival, I had been asked to make a fusion between a lecture and a show because that venue was also seated. At first I pushed against the idea, but when I realised that this was the way it had to be, I realised that it worked! So, the concept of ‘A Lecture That’s Extra’ was born.
The next challenge was how do I do a sequel to a retrospective!? ‘Closet’ was the amalgamation of a career’s worth of work!
This is where Leon encouraged me to work with cabaret performers more. The jewel in the crown of ‘Closet’ was Wet Mess’ piece ‘Burlesque’. So, I was encouraged to bring more jewels!
The ritual aspect of ‘Closet’ is amplified in ‘Cabaret’. The lecture part of the show states where I am in the current stage in my career, acknowledging a life full of accomplishment, what inspires me, and dream projects I would like to achieve in the future. The turning point comes when I act out my own death on stage and a funeral is held in my memory before the audience. This huge narrative rug-pull allows us to go ‘David Wilson Heaven’ where those dream projects come to life in front of the audience’s eyes, incorporating a run of cabaret performances at break-neck speed. The intention is to create a stimulation overload.
Credit: Linda Stevens
LBB> What are the main messages you'd like to convey to audiences through your shows?
David> The queer community is strong. We’re a natural part of the human ecosystem. Always have been, always will be. ‘Cabaret’ sees a community of queer performers that love each other and celebrate each other’s work, being given the opportunity of standing on the stage of one of the most recognised cultural centres in the world (the Barbican).
Queer work will always butt up against the mainstream, so to be given this stage and headline position at the festival is huge. Queer joy is for everyone.
LBB> Tell me about the relation you see between music videos and cabaret and how you showcase this in the show.
David> To me, cabaret and music videos are siblings. Cabaret acts are impactful, visual and subvert expectations.
Whether performed in front of three people in a living room, or 2000 people in a concert hall. In the standard cabaret act, there’s a short narrative that lasts approx five minutes, mostly performed to a piece of pop music. To me, great cabaret pushes the form further than music videos.
The amount of creativity overflowing from the drag/cabaret scene is staggering. The work is often produced fast-paced, and has a freedom that’s removed from marketing strategies and pop artist branding.
When I see cabaret I see an alternate reality for myself. One where I’m not behind the camera, or creating through pen and paper, but instead creating in real time.
I see a kinship between cabaret and music video, and this show provides a space in which we can play together.
Credit: @nachtschaduw_official on Instagram
LBB> How do you cast the talent on set with you? Is it a challenging process?
David> It’s the easiest process ever. I am fanatical about the London drag scene. All the artists you’ll see on the stage are absolute idols for me.
It started with me reaching out to my two favourite cabaret artists: Wet Mess and Harry Clayton-Wright. I asked if they wanted to create something with me for this show at the Barbican. They both said ‘yes’ and brought onboard Ms Sharon LeGrand and Titty Kaka. All of whom are TITANS of the alternative London drag scene. You are getting real A-list talent in this show.
We’ve created this show together, including two brand-new pieces: ‘Wet’, ‘Sharon’ and I have created a song together in collaboration with Michael Lovett (Nzca Lines / Metronomy). Harry Clayton-Wright, Titty Kaka and I have created a sequel to ‘Deep Clean’ (2019)… Hold onto your hoovers!
LBB> Tell me about what people should expect from your next show and why it was important for you?
David> Please erase this interview from your mind. Come to the Barbican show expecting a standard talk from a motion graphics festival. Especially if you’re bringing a friend that knows nothing about what’s going to happen. If you overhear anyone talking about the show being a cabaret with performers, spread the rumour that that’s not happening any more and I’ve had to strip back the show. The more of the audience we can surprise, the better.
Above: Shots from 'Closet'; Credit: Nathan Dobbelaere, Instagram @nateconcertphotography
LBB> What are you most excited about when it comes to the show and do you expect any challenges/how are you prepared to overcome them?
David> I am thrilled that we have the platform to share each other’s talents together. Our excitement to work together is palpable. I feel so much more prepared for this show than I did a year ago. I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with the fantastic Titty Kaka, who is not only performing, but has been an integral part of programming the whole show to run from professional stage show software for this specific purpose. This means I get to enjoy the process way more, and has freed me up to push the show, which now includes a piece with live camera work.
LBB> What do you hope people take away from the show?
David> A handbag, a jockstrap, and a pair of tear-away trousers.
LBB> And what is in the future for this project?
David> In the last 12 months I have developed two tourable shows: ‘Cabaret’ (the lecture/cabaret), and ‘Closet’ (the dance party).
I intend to take both shows to different venues, globally, both with the show’s current artists, but also opening up the process to incorporate working with drag/cabaret performers local to the area, for us to create work together.
Who knows where else it may lead. From a place outside of personal work, I see it as a calling card to extend my work with musical artists outside of music videos and into live shows.
Big, arena concerts need big visuals. The majority of audience members in big pop shows are watching the screens. Music video directors have an important place at the table of how live shows evolve in the next few years, both in creating content, but also in devising the live camera work on stage.
