ETC recently had the opportunity to sit down with Marc Janowitz, owner of E26 Design and lighting designer for the band My Morning Jacket.
Marc stopped through ETC’s backyard during his 19th year of touring with the band, and we were able to catch him before his show at The Sylvee in Madison to pick his brain on the show's design, how the band’s lighting has evolved over the years, and his decades of experience on Hog consoles.
Marc joined the My Morning Jacket Team in 2006 and has since turned their show’s design into a living organism that grows and adapts with the band. When asked about his approach to designing for MMJ, Marc said, “I like to start by creating a cocoon of light for the band to be enveloped in that feels intimate.” From there, Marc adds a variety of effects to encapsulate the emotions the music evokes. For example, a ballad will often feature more understated, delicate lighting on each performer, while an upbeat rock song features more strobes and lights moving more sporadically. In addition to his emotional movements and comforting light cocoons, Marc is always experimenting with new ways to manipulate lighting, with the latest rendition of the tour featuring a series of mirror balls and fixtures hidden behind special paneling to create a vintage fixture effect.
For the last 5 years, Marc has run My Morning Jacket shows off a Whole-Hog 4-18 surrounded by three Master Wing 4’s and a MiniWing 4 that’s been running strong since 2006. This setup provides Marc with over 50 playback faders at any time, allowing him to operate as a “working LD”, taking pre-made portions of the show and constantly adjusting different aspects to fit the venue, stage, and energy of both the performers and the crowd. Marc has been designing with Hog desks since he first got in front of a Hog II in 2001. According to Marc, he loves the fact that he doesn’t have to understand coding or math to create the looks he wants on stage. “I am a designer and I like to finger paint with light, and with the Hog family, I am able to create the design in an artful way without having to think too hard about programming languages.