Technology is great… when it works. But when it doesn’t, there can be no hiding place, particularly if you’re up on stage performing in front of thousands of people and a global online audience.
Spare a thought then, for Grimes, who has been forced to apologise after her Coachella set this weekend was plagued with technical problems that threw it into chaos.
“I want to apologise for the technical issues with the show tonight,” the star Tweeted, following her performance on the Sahara stage on Saturday night. “I wanted to come back really strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself - to save time this was one of the first times I've outsourced essential things like rekordbox BPMs and letting someone else organise the tracks on the SD card, etc. I had a bad feeling beforehand not having run everything through the CDJs myself and though I flagged it I wasn't insistent.”
As her on-stage problems mounted, Grimes explained to the crowd that “This is insane - all my tracks are double the tempo and they’re like… I’m trying to do the math but they’re kind of unmixable.”
Thinking on her feet, she added that “The rest of the mixes are going to be a bit crazy,” before going on to clarify that “the rest of the set isn’t mixes, but it will be fun.”
Elsewhere in the set, Grimes told the crowd: “Just don’t blame me - it’s not my fault. Well, it’s partially my fault. But not entirely my fault.”
Grimes #Coachella malfunctions pic.twitter.com/nrKZqgm65FApril 15, 2024
It’s not clear exactly how this happened, but Grimes attempted to explain her predicament in her Tweet. “The CDJs were showing me BPMs like 370,” she wrote, “so I couldn't even mix manually by ear and the front monitors were off so it was literally sonic chaos on my end trying to guess how stuff was sounding for you guys.”
Seeking forgiveness, the star has assured fans that her return performance at next weekend’s Coachella will be “flawless”, and that she’ll take personal control of everything.
“I will not let such a thing happen again,” she promised.
I want to apologize for the technical issues with the show tonight. I wanted to come back rly strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself - to save time this was one of the first times I've outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm's and letting…April 14, 2024
