Sam Fender Spring 2022 Arena Tour

For Sam Fender’s latest arena tour, FRAY Studio used Notch to visualise the raw honesty of the artist’s music and lyrics to elevate his story.

Lighting and show designer Sam Tozer of Vision Factory issued FRAY a mood board that set a broad style for Sam Fender’s live presence. The look was raw and rough, as Sam’s lyrics burn with rare honesty and anger. The team wanted to bring these qualities front and centre to amplify his message where necessary.

They gathered as many references as possible and began to sort them into styles and themes, all without specific songs in mind. They continued building ideas, coming up with and refining particular looks by adapting them to fit the show’s screen template. Then, with the help of Sam Tozer, FRAY began assigning songs to said looks. With the approval of management, they began production. The turnaround was tight, but the style and intention were clear, so they were able to work quickly.

The final product was a success, receiving five-star ratings from Dave Simpson of The Guardian, who praised the personal nature of the show, and EJ Scanlan of TotalNtertainment, who admitted shedding tears as the visuals appeared on the LED screen during the performance’s emotional peak.

“The show incorporated some live camerawork and some animated content. With such a hybrid approach, as well as a strict colour palette and minimal textures, it would have been difficult to blend styles, but with the help of Notch, we were able to make the show feel unified and seamless. Notch also allowed us to make live camera projections feel less like conventional IMAG and far more like proper content.”

Finn Ross, Co-Founder & Creative Director, FRAY Studio

Additional press coverage:
The Guardian, TotalNtertainment.

Credits
Client: Sam Fender
Creative Team
Production Design: Sam Tozer
Lighting Director: Luke Avery
Video Design: FRAY Studio
Camera Director: Charlie Woods
Production Management: Nub Sound
Kit supplied by: Adlib
Video Programming: Ashley Ba

FRAY Team
Concept: Adam Young, Finn Ross, Letty Fox, Grace Arnott-Hayes, & Norvydas Genys
Animators: Adam Young, Letty Fox, Andrea Scott, Grace Arnott-Hayes, & Laura Perrett
Notch Design: Kira O’Brien