Snow Patrol: Pushing the Possibilities
Paul Eastman, Simpson’s keyboard technician, holds a degree in music technology and has worked with numerous artists, including Doves, Bush and Massive Attack. He quickly found a snag with using Logic and the Mac for live performance: “We were having to manually close a song project on both the main and back-up Macs and then open the new one on both machines between songs. Sometimes, this couldn’t be done quickly enough, which caused embarrassing gaps between tracks”. But shortly before joining Snow Patrol’s crew, he began developing an application — called OnStage — to automate the process of shifting between songs during a live show using Logic.
Simpson explains: “OnStage lets me navigate my way through all the songs simply by punching a code for the song into a small keybox. Each song has its own code, which launches it on both Macs. The setup has had 14 months on the road now and it’s working really well”. The Macs are held off-stage, tended by Eastman, who will switch to the back-up machine should the primary Mac fail.
”I decided to use Xcode to create a basic interface to run an AppleScript that closes the previous song and opens the next one”, said Eastman. “It was my first experience of developing. I don’t feel like a programmer, but that’s the point [of Xcode], you don’t have to be one: you grab a button, drop it onto the interface and connect it to the instruction you need. I couldn’t believe how easy it was”.
Along with Snow Patrol, Muse, Doves and the Chemical Brothers now also use Eastman’s OnStage application with Logic for their live shows.
Stability matters in performance, making the Mac a natural fit for a working musician, notes Eastman. “I haven’t used a PC recently, but in my opinion they are more likely to crash — being Unix-based, Mac OS X is rock solid”.
These days, integration between live performance and computer technology is essential. “Gone are the days when you recorded a band and that’s what you got on the record. Nowadays there are so many sound effects and orchestras musicians need to figure out how to reproduce during live shows, it’s invaluable to get playback from inside Logic”, notes Eastman. Simpson agrees. “Our albums are built using lots of small elements. We can record live strings in the studio, then take the actual recording and put that into the live show”.
As Snow Patrol prepare for their next few months on the road, the reliability of the Mac, Logic Pro and OnStage mean they can focus on their performance. “I love playing live”, says Simpson. “Every show’s different. We’re totally excited, there are so many gigs this year”.
Snow Patrol are spending February, March and April playing 31 dates across North America, before flying to perform four dates in Japan and returning to the UK for a batch of festival appearances this summer.
