In the best of all worlds, lighting designers don’t merely have relationships with longtime clients; instead they embark on journeys of discovery with them. Sharing these odysseys, they grow together in new, and often unanticipated ways, expanding their horizons and feeding off each other’s creativity. In the end, their collective their work, as well as their lives, are both enriched.

Jimmy Olasson knows this full well. For almost a decade, he and the award-winning heavy metal band Avatar have been pushing boundaries together musically and visually, as they’ve expanded their shows to include intensely dramatic theatrical elements. The relentless creative explorations have been challenging for Olausson, who handles production design in addition to lighting the bands shows, but he would have it no other way.

The adventure of climbing new creative summits was something he expected when he hooked up the Avatar. That happened in their native Sweden. At the time, Olausson was a 16-year old drummer for another band that shared the stage with his future client at a small club when he first met the members of Avatar. About seven years later, with some considerable experience in lighting acquired along the way, he asked the band if he could light one of their shows. They agreed and neither he nor his client has looked back since. They’re too busy enjoying the journey!

Avatar’s show are intense. They also run long, two hours or more. How do you keep up the energy level when you run their lights?
“For starters, just being on tour with Avatar is intense, not only the shows. But if there’s one thing that gives me energy during a show day, it is definitely the live show. It’s kind of ‘poetic’ in a way to see mine and avatars individual ideas and expressions merge into one, and together create something completely new. To see two completely different worlds collide and result in a synchronized mass of heavy metal is an amazing feeling. I love finding ways to improve my shows, and I love speculating on new ideas and concepts with the band on stage in front of me. When running their lights I very rarely think about time or how much time has passed because the whole reason I work with this is because of the two hours that I get to experience it.”

Given the length and intensity level of their shows, how long does it take you to decompress and chill out once the concert ends?
“Seeing that I have also embarked in a position as their production manager, I very rarely get to have time to decompress and chill out. Surely the time after the show is more chill than before the show. After a show, I usually go to my office, which I share with our tour manager Katie, and chat with her for a few minutes before diving into the emails again. Even though having way more work than prior taking on the PM role, I really like to have a good overview and control over each venue, and also set my crew up for success every night. With less surprises on day of show, the show can run smoothly.”

The band’s shows are also very theatrical in nature. Do you borrow any tricks from actual theatre LDs? How does the theatrical nature of their shows influence your design?
“When I first started to work with lighting my only influence came from metal LD’s and when our (avatars) production started to grow more and more I actually struggled a bit at first with finding a good balance between incorporating the ‘theatre’ lighting elements of the show and still keeping it metal. I think it also took some time for me to find myself as a lighting designer, find what I want to do, how I want to do it, and how I can accelerate and accent any emotions being put on stage for the audience.

“Nowadays, I honestly enjoy creating the theatrical looks more than the metal ones because that’s still something I am fairly new at. It is something that I really enjoy exploring and going to try to implement more in the future. Since I was a young kid I’ve been to theatres, and I often now go to operas and plays to find inspiration, but can’t say that I have a theatre LD that has influenced me more than others. I also want to keep that fine balance between getting to much inspiration, and not enough of it.”

How has working for Avatar helped you grow or change as a lighting designer?
“Honestly, if it wasn’t for Avatar I would probably still be working at a local club and doing part time bartender work! It’s been almost 10 years with this band now, and I feel that we have been growing together, side by side. They have opened up many doors and absolutely help me develop my skills as a designer and programmer. The biggest way they have changed me as a designer, and probably person, is to always explore beyond the limits and never stop pushing the boundaries.

“There will always be limits to what is possible and there are always a lot of variables when designing. What I’ve learned is to find creative ways to create more and get the designs and stages above what is expected by the variable boundaries given. Instead of trying to aim your end goal under the limits, you aim above and find creative ways to make it happen.”

Do you do any busking for Avatar shows?
“In the early days I busked all the shows with Avatar; and although I miss busking, I feel I can do more, and at the same time have more control over my intensities with timecode. Or I might just be bad at busking! One of the more important things for me when it comes to lighting a band is to have a high dynamic range between the darkest scene and the most bright scene, and I rather focus all my time during the show to perfect these levels. With that being said, I do busk sometimes but very rarely.’

The band owns some of its own lighting gear, so they must be attuned to lighting. What kind of input do they have in your designs?
“The band owns a lot of lights now.! When we started working with each other they had more input then now. I think we’ve just grown together so at this point, I don’t get much input in my designs. I know what they want, and they want what I create; so I feel we are very synchronized in our work. Of course we discuss the designs we put up for shows, but usually only for smaller tweaks. We work very good together and I really feel they let me ‘do my thing’, which is very important for me!”

You’ve done a lot of touring with Avatar. Do you have a favorite city or venue?
I love my home town Gothenburg, it always feel special to do shows there but there aren’t any really good venues here, in terms of lighting at least! What makes a venue good is the people that works there. The House Of Blues in Vegas is always great to return to, great rig, cookies, Drew the house LD always makes the days easy, and amazing house crew and hands. Same goes with Emo’s in Austin, my good friend Alex PMs that venue and is always a blast coming back too. I don’t think there are no bad venues (to a certain degree), but rather a bad mind set.

“You can always put on a metal show no matter if the stage is small, or how the load in situations, or that the venue lighting rig is not what you want it to be. You kind of determine the outcome of the show yourself — and as long as you have good shows, the venues will remain in your memory as something positive. I guess this is why I don’t really have a ‘favorite’ venue.

What do you like best about working for Avatar?
“The band members! They let me use my full potential as an LD and let me have the creative freedom to do what I do best. They also trust me, and the process of designing a rig and show, which really helps when trying new concepts and ideas. I feel included in the group, and I feel that we all work towards the same goal which is to put up a sick show!”