Yovozol

yovozol.com

I got started doing light shows after discovering camera feedback using my camcorder.

Out of sheer curiosity and fun, I did my first "show" in mid 2018 by plugging my camcorder into the in-house projector at a local dive bar during my friends' band's set.

It was there I coincidentally met Psensibil, the only serious light show artist in Kentucky at that time.

We connected that day, and ever since then I evolved into a more serious artist with his advice and lots of my own experimentation.

My biggest influence was my own curiosity. I had no idea people were doing similar things regularly in far away LA or other big cities, and so I figured out nearly everything by myself.

My other most immediate influence was and is Psensibil because he was the only other person doing visuals in my state.

Gradually I formed friendships with other lightshow artists on social media, but none of them have had as big an impact on my performances as my mentor Psensibil.

The first band I worked with was my friend's band Sour Cream. For the first year I only worked with local Lexington bands such as Johnny Conqueroo and People Planet.

Later on as I got better and more confident, opportunities came up to do visuals for bands such as Sugar Candy Mountain and Frankie & the Witch Fingers, which turned out to be some of my most memorable experiences.

Inevitably I have collaborated with Psensibil a few times. I have also worked with Darling Lucifer once, but for the most part I do visuals just by myself.

The name Yovozol is just my last name spelled backwards. I think it sounds and looks cool. I've been doing shows under this name since late 2018, with the only significant gap being the spring and summer of 2020 obviously due to COVID-19...

I now resumed doing visuals at the venue where I currently work: The Burl, which has found a way to do outdoor shows (and where it is fortunately easy to project visuals outdoors).

I've come a long way with my process. Every show for the first year was very experimental, having the bare basics of analog glitches. Some of my first shows were just me scrubbing through cowboy western VHS tapes on broken VHS players.

I was never afraid to try something for a show even if in hindsight it seemed kind of dumb...

My first projector was a hefty Panasonic projector at a little less than 4k lumens. Now I use an 6k lumen Optoma projector that has amazingly bright and clear image quality.

Over the past couple years I've solidified a process that uses digital videos and effects for source content, which are further manipulated using circuit bent video hardware and mixers.

You can watch a "rig rundown" of my process here: https://youtu.be/77Jy3HeUcD0 .

Camera feedback has always been a big part of my shows. I like to think that my camera work sets my shows apart from other artists who use camera feedback just as a static backdrop or with very little dynamic movement.

Over time I have been looking at ways to be more conceptual with my visuals rather than purely aesthetic. To embed meaning or associations into my visuals is a difficult but rewarding challenge.

This approach definitely works for some bands and not for others. Some of the most creative work goes into finding and setting up source videos.

For big shows I ask for setlists in advance, and I will have one or more clips for each song, so every song looks different from the last.

My website https://yovozol.com/live-visuals and my youtube channel https://youtube.com/yovozol have a lot of recordings of my shows.

A full playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVXeP7jCqoaES5HTH-4ODdamL3EDv9xq6

Michael Lozovoy - October 2020