Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2019 | Page 22

22 PL&P
Dog Blood at Buku Music + Art Project in New Orleans
By Andrew King
It started with a few simple sentences: “Every-
one’s show feels the same: full blasts of everything.
Nothing is unexpected or unique. Everything feels too
digital.”
Those were the first words of a basic show concept PDF
that Miguel Risueño, aka Mike808, quickly threw together to
share with one of his higher-profile clients. That client was Dog
Blood – the on-again, off-again side project of EDM superstars Boys
Noize and Skrillex – who were in the initial stages of prep for a pair of
highly-anticipated festival dates at the Buku Music + Art Project in New
Orleans and Ultra Music Festival in Miami in early 2019.
Risueño is the CCO (chief creative officer) and production designer with LA-
based Production Club, a specialized and international team of creative professionals
that designs and produces one-of-a-kind shows, parties, and other experiential events.
Projects they’ve realized include acclaimed activations for brands like Amazon and Intel,
and mind-melting spectacles for artists like The Chainsmokers, Zedd, and dozens more.
It was a chance meeting at an L.A. restaurant between Risueño and Sonny Moore, better
known as Skrillex, that sparked the Dog Blood/Production Club collab for these high-profile dates,
and their creative direction not only strayed from EDM’s typical over-the-top opulence; it turned it on
its head for some truly raw, undeniably compelling results.
Risueño and Production Club are the designers behind Skrillex shows going back several years, including the
artist’s now-iconic spaceship DJ booth motif that premiered in 2012. That led to the team being tapped for the
first-ever Dog Blood performances back in 2015, and all sides seem to be operating on the principle of “if it’s not
broken, don’t fix it.”
Still, their impromptu dinner meeting was a welcome twist of fate that set things off on the right note. “We started just
to talk about life and Skrill was like, ‘We gotta start talking about doing something for Dog Blood,’ and was playing me some
music from his phone,” Risueño recalls.
The next few hours found the two kicking ideas around while Risueño got an enviable first taste of some new tracks.
“Both Alex [Ridha, aka Boys Noize] and Skrillex are amazing musicians, and I love what they’re doing together,” the designer shares.