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Lighting Designer Germán ‘Tiffy’ Castellanos was already involved in live music when he left high school, having taken his first steps in the music industry as a drummer, and this is where he quickly became interested in lighting and its huge potential as an expressive medium.
This is how Tiffy’s career as a lighting professional started 22 years ago.
“Rock music in Mexico has been booming for about 20 years, but before that it wasn’t possible to make a living out of it, and there were not nearly as many concerts or international artists visiting like now, so that sensation of seeing a band playing live was wonderful to me,” he recalls.
His first design was primarily using PAR 64s at a small Mexican rock club called Rockotitlan in Mexico City.
One thing led to the other and little by little he began increasing his knowledge and learnt about and experimented with the many moods and emotions that can be enhanced and produced through lighting … even with simple fixtures.
“I thought about creating different environments all the time to suit different styles of performance. I had to teach myself as - even today - there is no formal career or training in Mexico for anyone wanting to study lighting”, he explains.
For the last five years, Tiffy has been working with well-known Mexican alternative rock band Café Tacuba and has more recently had the chance to try out some different Robe products as the brand has been gaining traction in Mexico.
On the recommendation of Café Tacuba’s Production Manager, LED Project’s Sergio Serrano, since the end of last year, Tiffy has been using Robe’s Pointe for their shows.
Constantly interested in the creative angles and how to generate completely new, different and ‘left-field’ experiences for the audience, Tiffy considers himself to be a bit of a ‘rebel’.
“I haven’t used gobos for the last 10 years,” he states emphatically, “It didn’t matter which fixture people were recommending to me … I just didn’t use them, I don’t like them. Anything the rest of the world uses, I will never use!”
However, when he saw The Pointe – the first time was in a simple video – he was immediately impressed with the fixture’s size, speed and . gobos!
In Café Tacuba’s shows, Tiffy used the Pointes sparingly and only to create impact in certain songs.
“The first songs feature only basic lighting … and then, when I first fire up the Pointes we get a real WOW factor”. He explains that he mainly uses two gobos, and when these are introduced to the scene, the audience again gets a big surprise! “It is vital that a fixture has features that can be utilised to transmit ideas and create a memorable show”.
Talking about technology and the investment that this can bring to rental companies, Tiffy highlights the importance of having good quality fixtures and full support.
“If I were an investor, I would really make an effort to have some Pointes in my stock as I can see their potential. ‘Quantity’ is not quality and I think Robe has a product here which can blow away most of the market with high brightness, good gobos and of course excellent service”.
Over two decades of a varied and successful career, Tiffy has worked with many of the most important artists and bands in Latin America, including Molotov, Juanes, Ana Gabriel, Cristian Castro, RBD, Caifanes, Alejandra Guzmán, Café Tacuba and many others.
Today, he continues designing lights for numerous artists but tours only with Café Tacuba.
He is currently working on the Las Lunas del Auditorio Awards ceremony in Mexico City which celebrates the most highlighted live shows staged in the country over the last year.
“This will be another perfect setting to optimise the Pointe and all the functionality it has to offer” he concludes.
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