When indie hero St. Vincent takes to the stage, she wields a personally designed angular guitar against a backdrop of dazzling crimson. As the beats of electro-rock track ‘Sugarboy’ immerse the room, the ecstatic crowd screams its adoration of a performer who NME has described as “the closest thing our generation has to David Bowie.” The Grammy award-winning star is so center stage that the band beside her wear faceless masks that only accentuate the 35 year old American’s striking profile.
But the band creates her sound as much as St. Vincent herself, and Daniel Mintseris is a co-star of each show — which he opens with a swooping synth-line played on the Seaboard RISE 49. Daniel has been central to the live shows of Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) since 2011, when he first became involved controlling the band’s drum and guitar outputs in real time. “I was a long time fan of her originality and compelling music, and it’s been fantastic working with her since,” he says.
On this year’s Fear The Future tour, Daniel’s Seaboard RISE is center stage. Its lush, atmospheric sounds help to recreate the technicolor electronic stylings of MASSEDUCTION — St. Vincent's latest album — and reimagines Annie’s older rock-oriented tracks (like ‘Rattlesnake’ and ‘Birth In Reverse’) so they match the same sonic palette.
Despite his technical prowess and reliance on cutting-edge gear, Daniel was a relative latecomer to the world of synthesizers. Trained as a pianist from a young age, he only began to play with electronic controllers in his twenties. Even now he doesn’t collect a huge amount of gear. “I keep my set-up slim on tour and prefer to push the gear I have to its full potential — or even beyond its intended use,” he says.
Daniel uses just a Seaboard RISE 49, two traditional keyboard controllers and a few favourite software programs (including Ableton Live) during his performances. “The kind of expression the RISE provides is a Holy Grail for keyboard players,” says Daniel. “I’m over the moon about how much control the RISE gives me to shape sound as I play. It’s taken previous innovations like ribbon control and aftertouch and put them into one intuitive surface.”
Daniel describes how it’s been rewarding to push the boundaries of the RISE and discover new ways to play. One trick he mentions is holding a two-note octave and bending your fingers just a little to create expansive and atmospheric textures. “Equator is fantastic for creating custom sounds too,” he says. “With a little work I’ve learned how to incorporate my samples and build up my own preset library.”
Daniel is touring Europe, Asia, and North America on a global St. Vincent tour that started with her celebrated Coachella performance in April. The band also recently played Austin City Limits in the US and Later... with Jools Holland in the UK.
Touring has its challenges, he says, despite the band’s intention to make each night’s setup “bullet-proof.” Before one gig in Belgium an airline lost half the band’s gear, causing a stressful period of improvisation until the gear returned at the last minute. But there have been fantastic, memorable moments too. “A few years ago in Seoul we opened with a song called ‘Rattlesnake’. After my solo intro and Annie’s first verse the audience showered us with glow stick rain. It was completely unexpected!”
Daniel has some advice for anyone aspiring to take their stage performances to the next level. “Be thorough. Explore what each piece of gear has to offer deeply. It’s always more than you think. Find unique sounds — or if you’re a songwriter, unique structures. Take that as far as you dare. Annie Clark is so inspiring because she takes things all the way.”
Get tickets to see Daniel alongside St. Vincent on the global Fear The Future Tour. And remember that you can get an e-Gift card towards your next gig through Ticketmaster — including some dates of St. Vincent's 2018 tour — when you buy a Seaboard RISE or BLOCKS until July 15th.
You can also take Daniel’s online course — focused on how to perform with Ableton Live — here. Hear Daniel Mintseris’ improvised piano and electronic album Æ (2011)
