If you’ve been keeping up with our recent posts, you’ll know that stage design and visuals are absolutely core to the Twisted experience. We wanted to share a bit more about the wizardry involved in mind-melting visual projections, so we caught up with Alon Hammer AKA REM ahead of his debut set in Aotearoa this Twisted. Alon told us about his journey to becoming one of the most respected VJs in the world, what it takes to perform on festival stages, and even shared a little wisdom for aspiring artists in the crowd…

“I was a pretty heavy geek at a young age and got into the digital world early on, I started building my own computers at 11. I was also obsessed with movies and wanted to be a filmmaker, so I started tinkering with editing and After Effects super early on and eventually started to write and make my own movies. I went on to study film, by which point I had already been playing around with some forms of video art, messing around with Resolume and basic motion graphics, but it was at my first time at Mo:Dem festival in 2015 seeing Delta Process play when I was truly inspired to take my art to the next level. I taught myself how to projection map and found myself a mentor (well I guess we found each other) – massive shout-out to Dorian Natan Masterdamus.

In Israel in 2015 visuals were not such a big deal, especially in the underground scene, but by that point I had been promoting and producing massive underground parties for some time and knew everyone, so the moment I showed them what I could do it just took off. With the help and expertise of Dorian, our joint passion and my connections and trust within the scene, we basically took over the Israeli visuals scene from 2015-2019. We must have played over 150 parties in that period of time, maybe more, and I started to get my name out there and played many festivals in Europe, including Mo:Dem!

Playing Mo:Dem in 2018 was a VJ career highlight for sure, not just because it was an honor to play at my most beloved festival, but because it was my first time using Touchdesigner and real time visuals in a professional setting, which I had just learnt the previous month in Romania. That experience gave me the confidence and inspiration to pursue the form of generative real time 3D visuals that is both my signature and what I love to play. 

Another massive highlight was performing with my now wife who is a dancer, where she wore a motion capture suit and manipulated the visuals live while dancing on stage. We did about a dozen shows and those were all incredible. 

This is kind of sappy, but in the pandemic I did a VJing course in Hebrew which was an intro into a few different techniques and some history and theory. I charged around $50 for a 12 hour course which was pretty cheap, I just wanted to do something to keep my sanity during lockdown. A bunch of the students from that course went on to pursue visuals, and at Boom festival 2022 I ran into one of the students from the course, Rotem Mor, who had just played his first European festival. It was awesome meeting him in person, he was fully inspired by the course and started a collective with another student from the course, Yochi Sudri, called 'Project Gamma'. Since that Boom, we have played together at some massive festivals and he even came and joined me at Mo:Dem last Summer. 

At the same Boom, maybe a day or two or five after running into Rotem – time is an illusion at Boom – a guy who I didn't recognize told me that he had also done my course and that the course files were being passed around and "pirated". It hit me that the course I did in 2020, not even 2 years prior, had been influential enough that it was now being passed around through word of mouth to young aspiring artists all over the country. That was the real big ‘holy shit’ moment, how such a seemingly small action can have a massive ripple effect, inspiring people has always been a huge goal and one of the biggest gifts I could ever receive!

Since I moved to the US in 2022 I have been working almost exclusively in the virtual production world. My ‘day job’ went from being a VJ and performing at events and festivals to creating virtual environments for movies and television, which evolved into supervising shoots and operating the stages and eventually into building and designing studios and custom solutions for virtual production. Thankfully I still get to tour in the summer around Europe and VJ my heart out, and every once in a while I get to perform in the US – shout-out to Datagrama for having me out to Tipper and Friends earlier this year!

On one hand it's kind of rad to be back in the film industry which was my first love, but it's also been a growth experience as I'm not as much of an "artist" as I once was. I've come to understand that for me, it's about creative output and scratching the itch to solve problems. Whether that problem is the creation of a real time visual, projection mapping a stage, or designing a UI/UX for a virtual production stage, it's all solving a problem using creative energy. Once I realized that that's what makes me happy, I was kind of freed from the burden of considering whether I was an artist – but I still consider myself one, I think we all are to some degree. 

Performing visuals for electronic musicians at festivals is a super unique skill, you need to have a really good understanding of not only music progression, beat matching, and musical genres, but also color theory, composition and abstraction. On top of that, festivals are extremely chaotic places with many moving parts – you have to be able to adapt to anything at any moment and still deliver a kick ass show. It's one of those skills that you can really only learn by doing it over time.

I think the importance of visual artists on festival lineups has already started to shift. In the US bass scene, the visual artists are on the bill and just as important as the musical acts. In Europe, most festivals nowadays will have a VJ timetable or at the very least a VJ lineup. And back home, there is no party without visuals, the VJs may not always be on the line ups or on the flyer but the crowds know who is VJing and what styles they like – the awareness is just insane relative to what it was just a couple years ago. 

If you have any interest in VJing or visuals or projection mapping, come to my workshop at Twisted, and if you're reading this and won't be at the festival hit me up with questions, I answer everyone. Also I have a podcast where I interview visual artists and have them showcase their techniques and workflows, it's awesome and it comes out weekly – check out @thevisualcast on YouTube and Spotify/Apple music.

In terms of wisdom for aspiring artists: find the itch and scratch it in a way that's healthy for you and others around you, figure out what that good way path is and be true to yourself on it.

This Twisted will be my first time visiting New Zealand – I lived in Australia for about a year and a half and my biggest regret was not making it over to your side of the Tasman so I’m super excited to finally visit, it feels like it’s been a long time coming. My wife’s mum was born and raised in New Plymouth, so I can’t wait to meet that side of the family and have them meet our son.

As for performing, I'm so fucking excited. I'm counting down the minutes, no joke. I have some pretty insane shit up my sleeve and the stages are absolutely stunning this year, plus the talent pool of local VJs is super impressive, you're all in for an absolute mind melting. I am over the moon excited to be bringing some new creations to life and am humbled and honored to be able to do what I love for such a supportive and clearly awesome festival family, massive shout out to Daniel Aston and Edward Taylor for reaching out, dealing with my shit and being super supportive and professional, and I would be remiss not to thank reminds jermaks AKA symmetric visions for recommending me and making the connection. Also massive deep gratitude to Dee and the TF team for entrusting me with this honor, thanks so much for having me out and thanks for the interview!!!”

Huge shout out right back at ya Alon, we’re stoked to have you throw down with us this New Year’s! And a massive thank you to all the VJs and visual team at Twisted, you guys are amazing and some of the hardest working cats out - you don’t wanna miss what they’ve been cooking up this year, it’s going to be next level.