Hailing from Leeds and having made his name in Nottingham art and music, Brendan O’Melia, aka Metempsychosis Lights, is one of our city’s most creative minds in stage lighting and visual art. His work has featured in live music shows of many genres, from trance to space rock, in venues from Liquid Light to The Angel. Here he speaks on how he built himself such a unique career.
I am originally from Leeds/West Yorkshire and came to Nottingham 24 years ago to study a Masters in Fine Art MA ADAPT (Advanced Practice and Theory), part time, in Derby. After getting the Masters I decided to stay. My background is as an expressive painter. I switched to work in narrative based audio-visual installations but always had a painterly or expressionistic approach.
I set up Metempsychosis Lights after seeing and being inspired by space rock band Hawkwind, supported by Ozric Tentacles at Rock City 19 May 2003.
I had a smoke machine left over from being an Alternative DJ in the 90s at the legendary Le Phonographique Nightclub in Leeds, and then started acquiring analogue effects projectors. I was inspired by lightshows from Fruit Salad Lights and Chaos Illumination. I came up with the name Metempsychosis Lights, relating to the transmigration of the soul. It is also a spacey track by early Steve Hillage band Uriel, (on their album Arzachel).
The early shows with my friend Scott, were for a band called The Henry Road, mainly at Junktion7, but I did various other venues in the East Midlands, including The Orange Tree for Audio Massage where I started working with music promoters I’m Not from London for a lot of their early shows and have done ever since.
These early shows for The Henry Road were very spontaneous with Scott and myself up on stools at the back switching over the effects in real time. In those days we had 16mm film as well as Oil Wheels and other Optikinetics effects, strobes, smoke, anything we could use.
I had a smoke machine left over from being an alternative DJ in the 90s at the legendary Le Phonographique Nightclub in Leeds, and then started acquiring analogue effects projectors.
I worked as a lighting engineer for over ten years for a trance night at the club Blueprint. The night eventually moved to The Maze after it closed. I did lights for many events at The Maze including Sublogik, Muzika! and Brouhaha (until it closed in 2019). I also worked with Trancedance (Ascension) at The Marcus Garvey Ballroom, then as Earthdance London from 2014, and was part of their crew for several years.
I have been working with video through a space rock band called Lord Ha Ha but did not start working seriously in video until lockdown, when there was opportunity to create visuals for live streaming. Since then I have done videos for Karma events, Derby Dionysus Festival of Psychedelia and The Black Barn at Off the Tracks Festival for the last two years.
I’ve also done widespread, panoramic analogue projection for my occasional event Psychedelic Renaissance.
There should be various gigs for 2025. Look for the name on any promotion or online discussion: Metempsychosis Lights.
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