Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Pavlovsky

Hi Steve, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

I started doing liquid light shows 16 years ago. It was just another creative hobby at first, but I soon realized that people were responding way better to my work with this, than towards anything else I had done. I decided to take it more seriously, as I felt the positive energy from my audience. I just kept going, little by little, learning everything I could and making sure to learn from the times when things didn’t go well. Little by little, I added different elements to my live performance, leaving in the things that worked and taking out those that didn’t. Eventually I started adding things outside of performance work: still art, video art, tutorial videos, and eventually a store. I work in a very archaic, niche field, so the diversified approach to it has worked out in the long run. When something doesn’t work in one area, there are things that still work in another. So they all even out in a way.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

No, definitely not. For every 100 things I try, maybe 10 work out if I am lucky. For instance, when I was first booking shows for myself, I would write dozens and dozens of venues and music festivals, with only a few replies, and of those, replies, only a few landed gigs.

I would say the most difficult struggle in my career, was maintaining a regular day job to help support and fund my work while it got it’s legs. I did this for 13 1/2 years. It was actually easier at first, because my artwork and business wasn’t as serious as it is today, so the stakes weren’t high and it was just above the hobby level. But as my work got more serious, it became increasingly difficult to have a regular day job and put all the effort and time needed into where I was headed. My day jobs and artwork weren’t related, so it mentally and emotionally felt like I was living a double life. I don’t think it’s good to live a life where you aren’t whole as a person.

There were many times where both areas suffered, because I can either be all in or not on something, and when I am not, things don’t go well. My attention was all over the place. There were also many times where I could see opportunities that were just out of reach, and it felt like the thing that was supporting me (a regular job) was also the thing that was holding me back. It was very difficult to make sense of that.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I work with Liquid Light Shows and Analog Visuals for live music shows. I use real liquids and other analog effects that I perform with in real time, along with music. No two shows are ever the same, and I perform as if I am a member of the band, except with visuals and light.

I’ve worked in some high profile situations, including Madison Square Garden and with legendary musicians that include members of Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and Allman Brothers. I’ve also extended my work outside of the concert arena, to work on film and TV production. I’ve worked on the Electrical Life of Louis Wain with Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, on The Offer for Paramount +, and recently had my work featured in the new Brian Eno documentary. I’ve also done some work with intuitions like the New York Public Library (they had a big counter culture exhibit) and with Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (performing in their planetarium). I recently helped work on a show for a big immersive LED dome called Cosm, which is opening in LA this summer.

The artform I do is rooted in psychedelic light shows of the 1960s. Back in those days, rock & roll was still starting out, and modern concert lighting hadn’t been invented yet. It was a very experimental era culturally, and the techniques for lighting music events reflected that. Artists would use all manner of improvised lighting devices, including overhead projectors, slide projectors, film projects, and other tools to create an explosion of color and motion on stage. Legendary bands like the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers, and The Doors would all have these light shows accompany them. Most light shows back then had a team of people doing the work, performing together as an orchestra of light along with the music.

It was quite a popular artform at the time yet it waned as rock & roll got bigger, and venues, productions, and cultural norms changed. It still stayed around, yet remained underground minus some select shows. The light shows were also poorly documented during their heyday, and a lot of the information about them had been lost or was harder to come by as years and decades went along.

I started doing these light shows in the later 2000s, in part because I was attracted to the immediacy and simplicity of using analog methods to produce a light show that works with live music. Yet I soon realized just how archaic it had all become, and how close we were to loosing a lot of the knowledge and awareness of this artform. I began talking to anyone who was still doing them, and tracking down those who used to do them. I also read everything I could about them, and watched whatever was out there on the internet. Along with using this knowledge in my own work, I also began putting it out on the internet for other people to see. I thought that the best way to help a dying art was to bring awareness to it, so that more people would get involved and keep it going, and even help it continue evolving into the future.

I soon found that people responded as well to my efforts to bring the knowledge out, as they did to my live performances. I could tell that the energy and interest was there. So I kept going, eventually getting to a point where I started selling some of the harder to find tools to do liquid light shows. Finding tools like good oil dyes and the right shaped glass were often as hard as tracking down information on how to use them. This was another barrier that could be removed.

When I started in 2007, I would say there were maybe 20 active shows in the US who took it seriously, and perhaps another 10 – 20 in other countries who still did them… Now in 2024 there are hundreds of analog light shows around the world. My store has has shipped 2,500 orders to every continent except Antarctica, and my YouTube channel has received over 1 million views. Most of those light shows have seen at least one of my videos, and possibly even bought something from my shop. I get emails and comments all the time from folks who say I helped them get into the artform. I’ve also seen some incredible work from people, that goes way beyond whatever basic I may or may not have informed them on, and it blows my mind where people are taking things.

Being able to help take something which was a dying art and bring it back out to the world is what I am most proud of. Seeing the scene go from a few dozen artists to hundreds is amazing to me. It bring me joy not only knowing that people are finding creative outlets and being able to do something that give them a sense of purpose, but also knowing that all the work of those who came before me has not gone unnoticed.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?

Success is a Venn diagram of three things: persistence and hard work, luck, and the help of other people. Of those three things you only have control over one. The persistence and hard work part. But by taking care of that, you can influence the other two. The more work and situations you put in, the higher your chances are for luck paying off. The more work and persistence you put into things, the more people will want to vibe off that energy and help you.

Never stop. Small things turn into big things if you just persist. Learn from what goes wrong, and incorporate what goes right. Being adaptable is key. Be like water that flows and keeps finding it’s way into things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://liquidlightlab.com/home.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liquidlightlab/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiquidLightLab
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LiquidLightLab/featured
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7380451/

Image Credits

Primary image credit is “Lena Galperina for Cosm”. There are also two similar photos (identifiable by the harp and classical musician) which have the same credit.. I will email Jenn the details.