Inside Installation 85
An exclusive interview with Jason Robb, Program Coordinator for the Madison Scouts
Jason Robb, well known BOA and UIL designer, as well as Program Coordinator for the Madison Scouts, graciously agreed to an interview about the Scouts’ 2022 Production, “Installation 85”.
The Scouts program features
Infinite Iridescence - Daniel Montoya Jr
SaturdayNightLights: So let's hear a little bit about the program. What's kind of the vision that y'all have been going for?
Jason Robb: The Program is entitled Installation 85, so we have made an art installation on the field, so there's going to be four corner pieces and a center piece with some supporting imagery that we came up with. The center piece of the installation is 20 ft by 20 ft and 15 ft tall, and it's on the center of the 50. It all sorta revolves around that.
So everything for the aesthetic is really 80's, iridescence, and very bright. A big thing for us is branding, so it's bright colors, like neons and blues and iridescence. One of the things that we're doing is trying to come up with a full aesthetic that is going to be trying to create [it's] own space competitively, because you know one thing is that these brands are competing about 20 to 25 times a year, and so if you look at marching band and go through Grand Nationals and [BOA] San Antonio and you list out the design teams, Ryan George is probably writes for 5 to 15 top bands every single year. In Drum Corps, the [design] teams are pretty much one off, so trying to figure out what we want our brand to be creatively, and still fits with the overarching arc of Madison's personality. So, our team, I wouldn't say that we're young relatively, I would say that we try and be relevant to the popular culture space.
So the basic idea is the music first and if we listen to top 20/top 100 Billboard charts, it's very 80's and 90's culture, so if you listen to the Weeknd, the Weeknd sounds like Michael Jackson.
SNL: Yeah absolutely, there's a lot of that inspiration there.
JRobb: What we want to try and do from an aesthetic standpoint is come up with something that is new and exciting and fresh, but it's very cultural to the students, because what are they finding? So when we were going through and trying to find things that we like, [for example] our opening of the show is a Tyondai Braxton remix and then Daniel [Montoya Jr.] does his thing, but it's very new and exciting but also has a hint of the past, like of the 80's.
The second tune is directly from Risky Business but it still has that really cool vibe of what we're trying to do. So as we were starting to put the show together, we were starting to center around a visual aesthetic that we like, like the neon's, and I knew that I wanted the corps to be in white, because you know, white pants have been synonymous with the Madison Scouts almost for the duration of their history, and trying to lean on what we are as a design team and what we like, because you know if we look at the individuals on the design team like Josh Wendt, the things that he creates on his own, they're very edgy and modern and contemporary, you know you look at Tykeem Rainey, what they do at Reagan, it's a very contemporary, it's almost like a cross between contemporary and modernist. I think that sometimes people misnomer the name contemporary, contemporary means that you're living in the current period, and modernist is someone that's forward, so we're trying to be living where we are.
So as we started building music and an aesthetic, we were just trying to figure out what the crux of the production was going to be, and so you know we had a couple different ideas and we actually started building the show just based on what we liked, and the different effects we're able to do, and what do we want the field set-up to be, and what music do we like, and we centered in on that we were straddling kind of a neo-era 80's/90's type of cultural thing, trying to pull in, like right now in fashion a lot of pulls in from like Indian fashion or like from Dubai fashion, and that area of the world. Like the places that are super high fashion right next to a really [poor area] and those things kind of mesh sometimes. So when we were going through it and deciding what we wanted to do, we came in on the idea of an art installation. I'm really into immersive experience art, like I really enjoy going when I travel, I really try and hit [all the museums] and that was easy for me to identify with.
So we started talking about creating this space influence and art installation inside the field, and so the gist of the show is that there are these structures that are inanimate, that's where our focus is at the beginning, and the corps starts in four corners. The field is set up into a prop in the center and a prop in those four corners, and as we start the production, we're split in those corners and the focus of what's going on is the props, and as the production goes on you realize that the whole field is part of this set up, and we want the kids to become part of the experience, so as we've gone through and we kind of taken through the production, we have these four corners and there's a prop in the center and we're (the corps is) very very secondary to what's happening and we're kind of existing in space, and then by the end of the production we're fully immersed in this space and so we do that a couple different ways with four rooms in the corners with color guard around the form, in the second production we start entering the center prop, the third production we start passing through and creating our own spaces, the 4th production we start passing through the walls of the prop, and by the time we get to the fifth production, we basically re-cover the field and we become the installation.
If you look at the props and the set up, it's very ethereal, we're very confined, there's like a definite separation of where the props are, where we are in the set pieces and like what the art installation is going to be. The corps is wearing white and neon orange, the color guard is wearing bright purple, pink, whatever seems like a good [combo]. The props are completely iridescent so there's really good separation from the all the elements on the field. Through this whole production, it's not integrated, it's very very segmented, and so when you see how our drill builds, the color guard, and the horn line, and the battery are very much confined in their own space, we don't integrate a lot. We don't enter any of the props, we're separated down in these corners but we don't ever enter the center prop, and so there's a lot of separation, we're getting a clear boundary of like, we were supposed to be and what we're doing.
In the preshow, there's a lot of choreo.
SNL: That's the name of the game in DCI right now.
JRobb: Right. So the [opener] is actually a Philip Glass piece that we kind of rearranged, and a lot of people won't recognize it once the hornline comes in, because it's pretty much an original piece by Daniel, based on the Glass.
We also have the largest color guard the Scouts have ever marched so we want to make sure that they're at the core of the visual design making sure that they're integrated, but if you notice at the start they're not integrated and very much segmented. So as the show goes, we become more and more integrated here, we're trying to communicate that we're able to enter the space and become a part of it. So if you notice, during the first production, we're not anywhere near the inside of the prop, so as we go we become more and more integrated.
The tagline that I say is that at the beginning of the show we're entering the installation, and by the end of the show, we are the installation. That's kind of the crux of immersive art is that you become part of the work and that everyone takes in their own version if that makes sense. This just provides us a vehicle, and a time, and a place of where we are, where we want to go, and what we're trying to communicate, so you have night time, it's a very current period, and it's trying to communicate us experiencing this ride together and that's very open ended, but you know it's an art installation. I found this quote this morning, from Olivo Barbieri, one of the first immersive artists and he wrote "I wanted to represent the world as a temporary art installation continuously changing. I wanted to consider it unreal and unfinished, judge and transform it, a possibility that only art gives us." and that's kind of the idea of an art installation is that it's not a painting on the wall, it's a place that people can experience in their own way, and it's always going to change because people are in it.
"I wanted to represent the world as a temporary art installation continuously changing. I wanted to consider it unreal and unfinished, judge and transform it, a possibility that only art gives us." - Olivo Barbieri
That's like the super long-winded way to explain, like it's an art installation on the field. The 85, we're living in the mid-80's, that's the music texture. It's also the 85th version of the Madison Scouts, so it all kinda locks in together, but you know it's not inward, we're not doing anything from the past, it's just how we want to communicate what we're doing.
SNL: So there was a lot of great stuff in there about the props you're using and visual design, can you tell us a bit more about the music design? How did you find a lot of the source music, because you're using a lot that hasn't been heard by a lot of people.
JRobb: So when I'm programming specifically, I do marching band very differently, I think melodic memory is one of the strongest tools you can use to tell story so if I for instance, I did this when I was at Cedar Park, Evan VanDoren and I, and Justin Sullivan who's with Hebron now, when we were planning the Cedar Park 2015 show, we started the show with The Barber of Seville, because we were doing an opera show and I wanted you to immediately think of Bugs Bunny because the beginning of the show was supposed to represent comedy. So you hear like [The Marriage of Figaro Overture] or using things from Bugs Bunny and instantly, most people have seen "What's Opera, Doc?". Drum Corps is different, like it's 22 [performances] maybe? And we're adjudicated so often that it's important, we understand the medium allows people to see us along and take it to a different representation, also it's a world class activity where on the judging sheet it's "pushing the boundaries of what's possible" so we wanted to find things that that familiar but new.
So I think that everything we're doing has a good melodic content in terms of things that we feel good about. I mean there are things in our show that people will have heard before. I mean some of our music is in soundtracks and in Chess and different things, so I think it's a good blend of things that people have heard and things that people may have heard, I'd say in the canon of things that people have heard, it's popular music adjacent. It's definitely not all familiar.
SNL: I mean, if you've been on Tik Tok within the past 6 months it's impossible not to have heard that cover of “As The World Caves In”, yeah.
JRobb: So that's the next thing, is that I would explain that's how we found most of our music, and then you know one of my big things with the design team was can we find something that is relevant to youth popular culture and like Tik Tok or Instagram reels and so like 1.8 billion reels on Instagram and three billion Tik Toks with “As The World Caves In”, so using that and pairing it with you know, Dolan Sipes has I think 17 followers on on Spotify and the whole beginning of the ballad is his stuff. So I think that as we go through and we present that material, we wanted definitely have like a good array of things that are, y'know Philip Glass is a staple, same thing with the closer, “34 Klezma”, the beginning of our closer, Madison played that in 2018, so all those things in that big melting pot, is easy for us to draw on this, the first playlist had maybe 600 tunes on it and it's my job to go through and strike things out as we start narrowing things down. We're very collaborative, I definitely don't feel like I operate as the artistic director, I feel like the seven design team members are very collaborative.
You know, yesterday, we were in an office, me, Noah [Bellamy], and Daniel, and Tykeem Rainey, who's the color guard coordinator comes in and has a music idea, and so me and Daniel listened to it, and it's great, I mean it's from Tik Tok, and and so like we're going to look at it musically and it's like that's how we operate, where everyone can contribute to everything, and it's not pushy but it's like you know Tykeem is a visual choreographer, so if he can suggest music ideas, then it helps the visual. Noah Bellamy has two college degrees in Jazz Performance, so like if he doesn't feel good about the musical pacing, Daniel is gonna adjust it. So I feel like it is collaborative in both directions. But that's kind of how we find it, it's just a lot of listening, I mean I'm listening to Spotify for hours a day, and between the seven of us, most of the music was suggested between Daniel, Josh, and I, but we all kind of have input, it's how we go from what we want to what it's going to be.
SNL: Absolutely. So Jason, you have a bit of experience with the Scouts, you marched there, you taught there. What is it like to be able to make your mark on a corps with this storied history?
JRobb: Humbling, I would say. Like, a lot of times people say if you want for it, then you're not right for it, and it's not that I don't want this, it's a lot. It's a lot of, I don't know if stress is the right word, it's a lot just because you know there's a lot of people that care about it, a lot of people that have opinions about what they want it to be, and what I can do is create just good solid structure, and then also try and build something that is parallel or in line with what our brand has been. It's a very powerful brand, you see the fleur-de-lis, you see green and white, you see that, and there's a lot. So like, I mean we're wearing white, almost like a Creamsicle orange this year because of the [aesthetic] so trying to figure out something that aligns with the really creative products that's parallel to the brand is important.
I'm also the marketing director for the Drum Corps, so as I go through, and we're doing social media, things like that, I'm very cautious but like really big into branding so it's like trying to figure out how we can create content, that is you know supporting to the brand, like how do we work that stuff in, I think it's important and so I do get to do a lot of work with a lot of different organizations, and I'll tell you there's a way to it, but I have to, and I am excited about it, yesterday we had a full uniform dress rehearsal for our actual dress rehearsal, seeing the members come off the field all excited, like yeah, I'm getting high fives from different performers because they like the show so much, it's rewarding but I'm mostly concerned with helping guide the design team to create a product that's going to give us a competitive vehicle to go to where we're going.
I think one of the things that is a misconception at least, this is just my opinion, I don't think this is [fact], I don't consider us to be artists, like I don't think we're creating art, I think we are designing a product that has a function. So like, if you design a chair, you can make a chair that has four legs, a bottom, and a back that's really ugly, or you can create a chair that's beautiful, and has artistic elements to it. So I think that my job as a pageantry designer is to design a vehicle that allows the performers and the educational staff to showcase their talents and what they can do, and I'm hoping that it takes on artistic elements, and that's been the focus of what we're doing. In terms of my history, I've been with this drum corps for about half my life, I mean off and on since the fall of 2001, [so I'm] just trying to make sure that we do the best job we can to create something that's going to be a vehicle for Madison's success.
SNL: Absolutely, and dovetailing with that last question, what's it like to get to have your first [competitive] performance in front of the hometown crowd?
JRobb: It's exciting, it's also nervewracking, I mean it's early, but I'm trying to do the best job that I can of just focusing on what I can control, and letting the rest play out for itself. But you there will be people that will like the show, you know there will be people that won't like the show, and then if I did something more conservative, less out there visually, it would be the other way. So I try to focus on what I'm doing, but I just want the corps to be able to come out and feel supported from from the hometown, you know, and I think that's what's really exciting. There's people who's lives revolve around this, and for them to all be able to come in, and you know Midwestern drum corps is awesome right because you have the Cavaliers, the Colts, the Bluecoats, well the Bluecoats aren't at our first show but the Blue Stars, Midwest Drum Corps are all around that intersection of Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, up to La Crosse, down to Iowa, but they're all so close and last summer, we kind of stayed with the Midwest Combine, and so I feel like those drum corps have such a tight knit fan base, they all root for each other. So if we turn to last year, Colts, Cavaliers, Phantom, Blue Stars, we were pretty much all together, and we all kinda became fans for each other, and it was like we were rooting for each other, so we had this kind of collective Midwest fan base which is really exciting, so it's less exciting that we get to start with our home show and more exciting that we get to start with that group that we toured with last summer because we all decided to do drum corps, we all decided to do it together, and those organizations have built tight knit relationships through the last three years, which is exciting.
SNL: That's definitely something that had to happen with how difficult a lot of things have been in a lot of ways, it's really great to have those connections. So, a couple more questions for you. First of all, are there any parts of the show that you're excited about developing further as the season goes on?
JRobb: As the show goes on and as things are developing, it's interesting because it's the dovetail of getting better at being a drum corps, and then also producing it so it's fully designed. So right now I would say that would definitely overproduced versus over clean, like, we're trying to get the show to be produced the right way. We've been learning for 3 weeks so we're not high on excellence right now so I'm excited to step back a little and let the production step off the gas a bit and just get going in terms of how we kind of get better. I do feel like we're very produced right now, I'm excited to see the next two weeks progress more in terms of excellence, and just letting the caption heads clean, because we've been doing so much learning if that makes sense.
SNL: And then if you had to pick one moment in the show you're most excited about right now, what is it?
JRobb: Ah, that's hard. Hm. Part two is really cool, its like a different take on the percussion feature, it's more of an indoor drumline show ballad, it's really cool. The second part of the show is really new and exciting, and it's got some time for it to all get clear, with like the electronics and balance and everything. Movement two, the whole percussion feature is like a ballad/percussion feature, it's gonna be really awesome.