Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2019 | Page 35

Matthieu Larivée
By Andrew King
With a list of credits including Jack White, Panic! at the Disco, Just for
Laughs, and Canadian Music Week, visual design firm Lüz Studio has de-
veloped and delivered spectacular shows for some internationally-known
clients from its Montreal headquarters, and that’s not just the product of
good fortune; it’s the result of detailed planning and plenty of hard work
by a team of dedicated creative professionals captained by founder and
creative director Matthieu Larivée.
“I wanted to start focusing only on my own designs, specializing in
big rock shows,” Larivée tells Professional Lighting & Production about first
launching his own firm in 2012. “So I wanted to build the infrastructure
to be able to compete for those kinds of shows, but do it from Montreal,
where my family is and where we’ve got a great network of people to
rely on.”
As with many of his peers, it was a passion for live music that first
pushed Larivée into the production industry; however, his entry came
earlier than most.
Taking advantage of a co-op education program in high-school,
Larivée was sent to a theatre in the Montreal suburb of Laval. “My first
day ended up being a lighting day and not an audio day,” he recalls, “so I
was basically a roadie for whoever was performing that night.”
Following his term, he was offered and accepted a summer job. As
it happened, the theatre was on the campus of the vocational college
where he would study electronics. “So as a student, I might be doing a
load-in in the morning, going to class and doing some homework, and
then working a show at night,” he explains.
At one of those shows, he saw a technician wearing a “Crew” t-shirt
from a Rolling Stones tour and asked how he could get one. The answer?
“Join IATSE.”
As a union member, he started working in some of the bigger
venues in and around Montreal, then started landing touring gigs. He
developed his programming skills throughout that time and eventually
became IATSE’s go-to moving light programmer.
He met Yves Aucoin, longtime LD for Celine Dion, on a gig and was
soon offered an opportunity of a lifetime. “He was between two major
Celine tours and was pretty busy, so he took me on as his assistant,” Larivée
says. “That helped me really develop my programming while getting
experience from one of the best designers on all kinds of projects.”
That opportunity resulted in huge boosts to his professional
network and reputation as a designer and programmer. From 2000 to
2010, he was designing and programming as a freelance LD for some
big-name clients. One of those was Canadian Idol, which sourced a
Catalyst media server to incorporate more live video into its sets and let
Larivée oversee the programming and operation. Just like that, he had a
new skill for his C.V.
Arguably the crown jewel of his pre-Lüz career was designing
Chantal Chamandy’s internationally-broadcast show in front of
the Egyptian pyramids in 2007. Around that time, he also started
collaborating with Cirque du Soleil on various productions.
In 2011, his son was born, and between that and his increasingly
stuffed schedule, he had a bit of an epiphany. “I realized that it was going
to be really tough if I’m always one the road, so having people working
with me all the time – not just as assistants, but as part of a team –
would let us take on lots of projects but stay rooted in Montreal.”
Lüz Studio started winning jobs outside of Montreal and then set
its sights on the U.S. market. “I remember we did a proposal for an Avril
Lavigne tour, and management told me it’d be tough because Metallica’s
designer was bidding against us,” Larivée recalls. “That’s when I realized we
needed to get more English clients to start having an impact.”
Designs for Adam Cohen and Rufus Wainwright led to work with Foster
the People, Panic! at the Disco, and Jack White. Now, the team travels to L.A.
and Nashville several times a year to continue reinforcing their reputation.
“People usually love that we’re Canadian, but it’s still a challenge for
us,” he admits. “People that know us know we do good work, but we’re still
going that extra mile to be recognized.”
That said, their efforts are paying off. Larivée and Lüz are behind the
designs for The Raconteurs’ current tour; summer shows for Jason Aldean;
Billy Idol’s Las Vegas residency, which returns in October; and the Canada
Day 2019 festivities on Parliament Hill.
While Larivée is still focused on growing Lüz and its portfolio, he takes
pride looking back on some past projects. “The second Panic! at the Disco
tour was really special,” he begins. “We had a sold-out date at Madison
Square Garden which was a real milestone for us, and then Jack White, I’m a
big fan of his, so being able to meet him and talk about music and develop
a design was very special.
“Those were great projects,” he adds, “but what I’m most proud of is the
people here at Lüz who I’ve been working with from the beginning. We’re
always having fun and laughing and I love that. There’s a lot of pressure in
this job, so if you can make it fun and inspiring, that’s a big accomplishment.”
Andrew King is the Editorial -in-Chief of
Professional Lighting & Production.
Summer 2019 | 35