STS9 Discusses Its First Live Album Ahead of 34th Red Rocks Show

If only Wassily Kandinsky were alive to listen to Chromalight, the first live album from STS9, which was recorded during the jamtronica band's Red Rocks performance last year. It was practically made for synesthetes, or those who experience synesthesia — a neurological processing phenomenon in which one sense prompts another — and the abstract expressionist was famously known for painting his experience of sound. We now know Kandinsky had chromesthesia: the sound-to-color form of synesthesia for which STS9 named its album. If the artist were still around, there's no doubt he would create a masterpiece that would do the music justice.

Instead, you'll just have to experience the colors through the music itself. Chromalight is the culmination of the months upon months of innovating, studying and planning that STS9 put into the 2023 Red Rocks show. While the members hadn't intended for the concert to be released as an album, fans' reception to the show convinced them that it had to be shared with the masses. "To have that incredible feedback, of people saying, 'I've never seen that' — it all came together in this holistic thing we had to share," says drummer Zach Velmer.

"We were just really excited about the concept and the theme that we had last year," adds guitarist Hunter Brown. "We had the best experience performing it and sharing it; we just wanted to capture that and share a bit wider. It was a big moment for us.

"Everything on the album, that's the first time we've ever played it," Brown says. "And we'd written most of it in the months leading up to Red Rocks. So it's a big force of creative energy that culminated in that work." Brown, Velmer and the rest of the band — bassist Alana Rocklin, percussionist Jeffree Lerner and synth/keys player David Phipps — put at least nine months of planning into their annual Red Rocks shows; this year's concert, on Saturday, July 20, will mark their 34th performance at the iconic venue, after a stop at the Ogden Theatre the night before. (Tickets for the Ogden show went on sale at 8 a.m., Thursday, July 18.)

"We're going to do something a little different," Brown teases, noting that "these are our only two shows we're playing in Colorado all year."

Even with so many shows under the band's belt, the awe-inspiring nature of the venue hits the musicians just as hard today as when they went to Red Rocks for the first time, in 2003. "We fell asleep on the floor in the dressing room upstairs because we had flown in the night before; we hadn't slept, and we were so exhausted," Velmer recalls with a laugh.

Since then, the stop in Morrison has been a highlight of their year. No two STS9 shows are the same, but as with the band's individual songs, each concert is meticulously structured and curated. For the Chromalight show, STS9 took inspiration from the light art of James Turrell and began studying commonalities between light, color and sound. The experience of synesthesia, Brown says, was "exactly" what they were trying to evoke through the performance. (And, as a synesthete, I can affirm that they nailed it.)
"Since we started the band, we've been playing with and interested in the idea of the natural connection between soundwaves and lightwaves," says Brown, and the the members began exploring how to "harness that to create a bigger impact," he adds.

"I think light and sound are so intertwined," Brown continues, "and it goes back very far, how long people have been talking about trying to find this natural connection between the two: Is there a color that pertains to C, or D, or F flat? And what would that be? That was the impetus. ... How can we use that to heighten the effect of our music?"

The resulting Red Rocks concert was a revelation. After weeks of practice in the studio, every element of the live sound, from each instrument to the sampler, was synchronized to the lights, creating an experiential event that became emblematic of a new height for the band. "At the end of the day, it was an experiment," Brown says. "The journey was the best part by far. Seeing that connection where the music was creating the rhythm of the lights and the colors of the lights, that was exciting."

"The feedback, as well, was equally informing," adds Velmer. "People were enamored by what actually did happen, especially with the idea that the music we were playing was created in reference for this intention. It was an overall successful experiment, to say the least."
The inspiration from the show lingers, and provides an exciting new direction of expansion. Chromalight "really opened up the floodgates," Brown says. "It was the first time we let the concept really inspire the music in a real way. And not only that, but the music is inspiring the lights, the lights are inspiring the music. ... It opened up a whole new realm of possibilities of how we approach creating music, sharing music, making an experience that taps into something natural."

"It was kind of beyond anything that we could have imagined," Velmer adds. "It was so in sync with color, with sound, in a way that we had we had never really experienced before, or gone down that kind of rabbit hole of possibility."

And now STS9 has the daunting task of topping that show. But even after almost thirty years, STS9 still uncovers new concepts through music while maintaining its foundational ethos of uplifting, soothing sonics that make listeners feel as though they are gliding through lavender clouds into outer space. The band has been tightening up its plans for the upcoming Red Rocks show, and the members confirm that they have something just as fresh and unique in store for audiences this time.
"We look at Red Rocks as a really special show," Brown says. "We're doing something different that we haven't done over the last few years. We wanted to switch it up again, and we're incredibly excited."A new album is also "right around the corner," he adds. If it's anything close to Chromalight, it's sure to open a new realm of experimentation. It will also be full of color — the band has found its niche in that.

As Kandinsky wrote in Concerning the Spiritual in Art: “Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

And Red Rocks is about to get incredibly colorful.

STS9 plays the Ogden Theatre, 935 East Colfax Avenue, 8 p.m. Friday, July 19, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, 6 p.m. Saturday, July 20 (tickets are $59-$200).