At the center of bass music lies the bass drop, an explosive force of low-end frequencies and deep vibrations that aren’t just heard but physically felt. Sending shockwaves through the body, this release of energy can induce movement, flip a friendly smile into a grimacing bass face, and simultaneously launch you into the ether.
But, in a live setting, the bass drop doesn’t complete the story. Throw lasers into the equation, and the whole experience begins to shift. Slicing through the darkness, lasers rip through reality, twisting sound into light, vibrations into visible energy. When paired together, the bass drop and lasers form a synergetic relationship, turning an already visceral moment into a multi-sensory experience where colors, sound, and light intertwine.
For Bill Loftus, better known as Laser Monkey, that intersection of sound and light didn’t just ignite a deep fascination for laser design but ultimately revealed his calling.
“I honestly got into laser design to impress my friends at ‘living room raves’ that my wife and I would throw in our house in LA,” he explained in an interview with The Daily Frequency. “I wanted to get something special to entertain everyone with. Lasers were the first, and coolest, choice.”
If you have ever heard of the butterfly effect, you know that one decision could significantly alter your trajectory. That desire to impress his friends would have a rippling effect, steering him toward a creative obsession that would later define his identity as Laser Monkey.
“The choices were clear. Buy a cheap toy laser from Amazon that spazzes out in the corner of your room, or spend 4x that and get a professional-quality laser that could be controlled with software and synced to music. Once I realized that lasers were something that could be artistically controlled, it became an obsession. I never looked back.”
Today, Laser Monkey owns an award-winning laser design company and is one of electronic music’s most respected names in the game of lasers. From working with artists like Liquid Stranger and Illenium to running lasers for venues like Red Rocks and festivals like Dancefestopia, Loftus doesn’t just curate visual spectacles, he creates worlds.
But when asked about his impact on dance music, he stays humble.
“It’s hard to say. To be honest, I’m not even sure how impactful my lasers are outside of industry people, or ravers that really pay attention to that stuff. I’d like to trick myself into believing that people notice all the subtle details that I put into some of my work, but at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure most people are just stoked that lasers are on in general,” he laughed.
Still, he doesn’t take any of it for granted.
“I certainly never thought I’d be working with the best producers in the world, or that Laser Monkey would evolve into what it has, that’s for sure.”
What separates Laser Monkey’s work is his ability to reflect the emotion and structure of a track in real time, creating an immersive, synchronized experience that amplifies the artist’s sound.
And, much like the live experience itself, it all starts with the music. Long before any beams hit the crowd, he listens.
“The only ‘standard’ process I have for designing lasers for a new track is this: I listen to the music a few times over and imagine what I would think the lasers would look like. Once I have a final concept in an idea form, I kinda just work backwards from that.”
That vision stays rooted throughout the build, even as the details shift and evolve along the way.
“There’s definitely a lot of tweaking along the way, but generally speaking, I know what I want the lasers to look like before I even get started. I appreciate the comment that it ‘amplifies the artist’s sound,’ because at the end of the day, that’s all I’m trying to do. Turn their music into light.”
Regardless of the genre, that mission to transform music into light remains the same.
For instance, melodic sounds call for a more fluid approach, where laser cues stretch into sweeping, atmospheric patterns.
“Lasers are capable of doing so much, and the melodic chill stuff is so fun to me. For melodic projects: the emphasis is more on creating beautiful undulating laser cues where all the ‘magic’ is inside that one look, and that single look might get played uninterrupted for minutes.”
But when the bass gets heavier and hits harder, the pacing shifts, becoming sharper, more rhythmic, and tightly synced to the drop.
“For heavy dubstep, the emphasis is less on the specific laser design and more about finding ways to structure many laser cues into a track in a meaningful way. A couple years ago, I had a dubstep artist preview my lasers and say, ‘Wow, I really like how you are accentuating the snare hits with lasers, and then when the snare changes, the lasers also change with it.’ In that scenario, it was less about the laser cue I was using to hit the snare sound and more about the dynamic use of multiple laser cues to give the audience a visual representation of the song evolving. Obviously, it’s not either/or, laser design and timing go into both, but in general, the dubstep tracks are more about timing.”
Even with such a defined process, Laser Monkey resists the idea of leaning into a signature look. Each show is built from scratch, even if a few trusted cues return from time to time.
“My process of creating cues and working in timeline-based workstations is unique to me, but I try to approach each track fresh. There are definitely laser cues that I recycle and use almost every set, but I try not to lean too heavily into one signature look or style. There are some ‘noises’ that I have laser cues for, and I use them every time I hear that specific noise. These are generally simple cues that are used sparingly. At the end of the day it all comes down to how my brain views the music. I might do one thing for a track, where another laserist might do something completely different, so maybe there is an inescapable element of individualized style there.”
But laser design isn’t just creative, it’s deeply environmental. Outdoor venues bring their own set of variables, and no stage demands more adaptation than Red Rocks.
“The setting is massively influential on how I approach a show. Red Rocks is notoriously windy, and lasers are completely invisible without particles in the air. Generally, a baseline humidity and dust will give some appearance to the lasers, but really you want haze or fog from professional atmospheric equipment for lasers to really pop. So, I spend a LOT of time trying to figure out how to properly position hazers at any outdoor show. Leading up to big outdoor shows, haze or fog is arguably all that I’m thinking about, seriously. I’ve done a bunch of Red Rocks shows and I’ve only had really good haze once or twice, it’s a real bummer.”
While Laser Monkey has become a fan favorite at venues like Red Rocks, it’s festivals like Dancefestopia where you can see the full unhinged Laser Monkey experience.
“The lasers at Dancefestopia, on the other hand, have been ripping great the past couple of years. The owners of that fest can confirm that I’m a haze fanatic and I place them everywhere, which is not an option at Red Rocks. Artistically, the only thing I can do to help with this problem is simplify my laser content and fill the space with tighter/brighter beams. At the end of the day, it’s mostly just up to the wind gods.”
As fans, we stand in amazement, marveling at the storm of swirling colors and tunnels of light bursting in perfect harmony with each drop. What we don’t see is the process behind such an immersive experience. During the show, Laser Monkey makes it look easy, but the work that goes on behind the scenes is complex and grueling.
“On the operator side, it’s really hard to zone lasers at some of these big festivals. We have to zone the lasers at a safe distance above the audience, and sometimes all you have is a small tent way, way back to terminate lasers on. If you go one click down, you hit the audience. If you go one click up, you hit an airplane. It’s really time-consuming and stressful. On the vendor side, it can be very physically demanding. Thousands of pounds of gear needs to be positioned correctly, often by using ladders, climbing truss, or going up on a scissor lift. And I’m terrified of heights, so I never enjoy it.”
But once the bass drops and the crowd erupts as lasers fire off into the sky, that stress disappears.
“Hahaha, I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t a total serotonin release! Again, I think 90 percent of the crowd’s energy is just being stoked that lasers turned on at all (lasers are just awesome in general, regardless of what you do), but it’s impossible for me to press a button and instantly hear thousands of people cheer and not feel something.”
Through it all, Laser Monkey’s work goes well beyond a burst of lasers. It’s an artistic expression defined by connection. It’s not about the spotlight, it’s about the moment. It’s turning music into light.
“At the end of the day, it’s fun to share my work with such a cool fan base of people that appreciate what I do. I couldn’t ask for a better job.”