Born on the 25th of November 1981, Derek Vincent Smith, professionally known as “Pretty Lights”, began embedding himself into his music in eighth grade when he bought his very first base guitar. During his high school years, Pretty Lights ventured deeper into his music by both writing and producing hip hop.
Upon graduating from his Fort Collins, Colorado high school, Derek “Pretty Lights” Smith chose to follow in the footsteps of many high school graduates who preceded him by attending college. However, after his first year of college he was convinced that music was his calling and abandoned the college life to focus solely on music.
Not surprisingly, things were tough at first. In a 2009 interview, Pretty Lights revealed that he endured several years of financial struggle, barely getting by from one week to the next and oftentimes being looked upon as a foolish adolescent, chasing silly dreams.
However, on October 23, 2006, Pretty Lights launched his first full-length album entitled, “Taking Up Your Precious Time” for free download on the Pretty Lights Music label. This album was embedded with the Pretty Lights style of music which leans on digital sampling and touches many genres. The finished product is a synergy of glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples and was downloaded 5000+ times worldwide.
As could be expected, the “Taking Up Your Precious Time” project placed Pretty Lights on the map and in 2007 & 2008; he started playing late nights for popular acts such as The Disco Biscuits, Widespread Panic and STS9. During the summer months of 2009 under the name “Pretty Lights”, Derek performed at many major music festivals in the USA, such as Rothbury, Camp Bisco, Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, the 10KLF and Electric Daisy Carnival.
Today, Pretty Lights is still producing music which he describes as “Electro Hip-Hop Soul”. More specifically, Electro Hip-Hop Soul is a mix between elements of electronic based music which is combined with hip-hop beats and a splash of soul music.
