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BRING ME THE HORIZON: SURVIVAL HORROR TOUR Core members of Bring Me The Horizon’s audio team reflect on the band’s first UK tour post-lockdown, a feat proving that ‘live music still conquers all’.
Words: Jacob Waite Photos: Conor McDonnell
Following the release of their latest EP, Post Human: Survival Horror, Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH) and their new-look touring team hit the road for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic with a dynamic and sustainable live production. As the dust settled on a successful run of shows in the UK, TPi checked in with core members of the audio crew to reflect on mixing live music with fans in attendance, setting up a sound system ideal for mosh pits and digitising studioquality outboard gear while on the road. Advancing for a tour post-lockdown brings an additional layer of challenges for bands, production management and venues to consider when it comes to navigating the shifting goalposts associated with curating a safe and COVID-19 secure environment for live music. For Queensland, Australia native and FOH Engineer, Jared Daly, “simply getting out of the country was challenging,” he said, adding that he was eventually able to arrive on UK soil a week-and-a-half before production rehearsals took place. Two COVID-19 officers were brought into the camp during pre-production and toured with the band and technical production crew. Mandatory PCR and LFT was the order of each
day, with specific bubbles created for each department – all of whom always operated in masks, with hand sanitiser aplenty and a closed-off backstage. “I had a particular route for my journey to FOH, which minimised the number of people I came into contact with, in the audience, who were not a part of the touring bubble,” Daly said, detailing the precautions put in place to ensure the safety of the performing artists and technical production team. The FOH ‘cage’ was completely locked off, with no external visits other than touring engineers within the bubble. “It took some time to acclimatise, especially when we were communicating with local crew and venue staff while loading the trucks with masks, but we found our way around it,” he said. With his home country still grappling with the Delta variant of COVID-19 – Australia is, in his words, “half in lockdown” – getting back to the UK meant guaranteed work for the first time in 18 arduous months. “It was strange hearing the volume of a PA for the first time in a long time – especially coming from Australia, where half of the country is still in lockdown. The first show at Hull’s Bonus Arena was a surreal experience,” Daly said, speaking
with a sense of disbelief. “It was great to be surrounded by screaming fans, enjoying live music again, but it took a few shows to acclimatise to the experience and volume of the crowds.” Daly mixed on an Allen & Heath dLive S5000 paired with a DM64 mix rack. The FOH rig comprised two Mac minis, one running Waves SuperRack and a second running third party host, LiveProfessor. The outboard rack to his right comprised an SSL Fusion, a Waves MaxxBCL, an Avalon VT-737, paired with a Neve 5045 and a Bricasti Design Model 7. “The final stage of my mix lies here with the analogue rack,” Daly said, pointing out the size of the impressive, studio-quality gear. “The band has a sustainability goal they want to reach to lower the footprint of their touring, so on this tour I’ve added my own personal Universal Audio Apollo X4.” Daly put an Avalon VT-737 in bypass after the first show, harnessing an Avalon VT-737 plug-in through Apollo X4. “Next year, that analogue piece will disappear and I’ve also got a Bricasti reverb as a plugin session within the Live Professor session, which is an emulation, so that will also go,” he said, explaining how he is starting to put more and more elements of