The Washington Post’s, David Rowell, talks in great detail about the overall evolving space, the competition, and Eyellusion’s significant contribution to the future of live touring shows. He spends time with Eyellusion’s CEO/Founder, Jeff Pezzuti, Ahmet Zappa, Wendy Dio, as well as Dio Band members Simon Wright and Scott Warren and Zappa’s Mike Keneally.

 

Then in 2012, Pezzuti, like millions of others, watched the Tupac hologram on YouTube. Immediately his mind began churning. “I started going down the list of rock artists” who could have a similar return, he said. A couple of years later, despite having little in the way of industry contacts but having done intense research and exploration on his own, he quit his job in finance to pursue his dream of creating musical holograms. He reached out to managers of artists who were dead or alive. “It wasn’t like I was going in with the solution, but I wanted to just talk about it and see if there was interest,” he said.

Wendy’s (Dio) motivation to partner with Pezzuti went beyond paying tribute to her husband. She saw the future of live music as revisiting the great artists and bands who started so long ago, since they were rapidly retiring or dying off. Sitting on a sofa at the Beverly Hilton, she argued that there had been so many important bands in rock, and that we didn’t have to let them go because they were no longer with us. “You don’t have another Led Zeppelin,” Wendy said. “You don’t have another Beatles. … You’re not going to have another Zappa, with his avant-gardeness and his craziness. All these people are icons.” Then she imagined what it would be to see the Beatles together again. “That’s not going to happen,” she said. “But in a hologram, it could happen.”

…And then, in the seconds after, the song winding to a close, the Dio hologram disappeared for the last time. The band gathered at the front of the stage, their arms around one another, and acknowledged the cheers. I thought it would have been cool to somehow have the hologram in the middle of that group, arm in arm, waving to the crowd. The fact that I even thought that — Why isn’t the hologram bowing with the others? — was, I supposed, my ultimate verdict on the show: It was real enough.

Click to Read More!

The post The Spectacular, Strange Rise of Music Holograms appeared first on Eyellusion.

A recent tribute concert dubbed The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa in Huntington, New York had all the markings of a concert by the rock iconoclast from nerdy fans geeking out about the night’s guitar players before the show to doo-wop intro music but with one marked problem: Frank Zappa died in 1993. The mustachioed musician at the center of it all, playing alongside erstwhile members of Zappa’s band, wasn’t a real person at all. It was a hologram.

To be fair, the apparition truly looked like an otherworldly version of Frank as it played guitar, adjusted its shirt, and wiggled its mustache. It sounded like him, too, since the audio came from an uncirculated 1974 live recording. It was enough of a spectacle that the packed house gave it a standing ovation. “At first, I felt a little sad,” a fan, Annelie Indilla, said after the show. “I got a little choked up for a second, because he’s not around anymore, but I just really liked it. It’s very unusual. It was very well done.”

…

But holograms have a unique growth opportunity. After seeing the turnout at their shows, the execs from both Eyellusion and Base think there’s room for a lot of growth, too… Eyellusion would like to expand how it presents its shows; Pezzuti’s dream is a David Bowie show that featured him in each of his guises, and he would also like to make it so he could potentially “stream” a hologram show in another country. Both companies have been in talks with representatives for living artists who want to expand their touring capabilities. “It’s infinite what we can do,” Pezzuti says.

Click to check out the full article!

The post Inside Music’s Booming New Hologram Touring Industry appeared first on Eyellusion.

TO ALL THE AMAZING DIO FANS:

Well, another tour in the books for Dio Returns, and the fan reactions have been incredible! We really made this show for the fans, and are so happy that everyone loved it! It is a true dream come true for me, as I watched this show develop over the last few years, slowly getting to where I envisioned it to start. Not all the way there yet…as there will be an even bigger, better show coming!

Thank you to Wendy Dio. For not only being an incredible person, but also for believing in me and the Eyellusion vision! Thank you to the band, Simon Wright, Craig Goldy, Scott Warrem, Bjorn Englen, Tim “Ripper” Owens, and Oni Logan. You guys delivered, each and every night. I couldn’t have been prouder! Thank you to Chad Finnerty and his team for bringing Ronnie back to the stage! Finally, thank you to the crew, and their countless effort in delivering the show each and every night across the U.S.! Thank you to Jizzy Pearl’s Love/Hate for opening each night! They brought it, in  a big way, and knocked it out of the park!

Finally, Thank you to all the fans! We were so happy that you all loved this show! It means the world to all of us! Thank you for the kind words, the incredible reviews, and the overall support! This was the first time in the U.S., and we are looking forward to going back out!

That’s all for now. Follow Eyellusion on Instagram and Twitter…You NEVER know what you will see posted about the future (Could be sooner than you think!) – Jeff Pezzuti (Eyellusion’s CEO)

The post THANK YOU FROM DIO RETURNS!! appeared first on Eyellusion.

LA Weekly writer, Brett Callwood, looks at the evolving Hologram touring industry and how Eyellusion has pioneered a new way to deliver live music to fans! Brett sits down with Eyellusion CEO and founder, Jeff Pezzuti, as well as Chad Finnerty and long-time Dio Manager and widow, Wendy Dio.

The company (Eyellusion) was founded in 2015 and officially launched in 2016,” says CEO Jeff Pezzuti. “The idea came from me being a massive music geek for my entire life, seeing hundreds and hundreds of shows, and after the Tupac hologram in 2012, I just assumed that somebody was going to do what I was thinking about doing, and it never happened. I gave it a couple of years, and when I still didn’t see the movement that I was expecting, I decided to take the bull by the horns and make moves. We launched our first version of Ronnie James Dio in 2016. We did another version of it in 2017 and toured Europe. This was the first time with live bands, doing anything at this level. Now, with the brand new tour, it’s not only about the hologram, it’s about the overall experience.”

“I love to get people’s impressions of what they think they’re gonna see and what they see,” Pezzuti says. “It’s always the same thing — a lot of kids who never got a chance to see Ronnie but heard about him through their parents. Or the other direction — they saw Ronnie in the ‘80s but hadn’t seen him since. People who want to go back in time as well. You have all these stories, and at the end we’ve had many standing ovations. I hate the idea that it’s just the hologram; what makes us special is the show creation. It’s how it flows. The set list, the live vocals, the visuals, Ronnie, all those elements come into play and most that have seen the show understand that and are super stoked about seeing it. We as a company have spent a lot of time and money to create this.”

Click Here to Read More!

The post Charge of the Light Brigade: How Hologram Technology is Changing the Music Industry appeared first on Eyellusion.

Consequence of Sound’s, Greg Prato, came to review Eyellusion’s “Dio Returns” show at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, NY.

All in all, “Dio Returns” was a fun night. And on a personal note, I learned something that I was not expecting: An old friend of mine attended the show, and brought his two sons, who were too young to have seen Dio perform back in the day, and he had told them shortly after Ronnie’s passing that it was always his wish for them to see him perform. Now, metalheads old and new have as close a chance of once again experiencing a Ronnie James Dio performance, with the “Dio Returns” tour.

Click here to Read More (And See Photos)! 

The post Live Review: Ronnie James Dio Returns to Long Island… as a Hologram (6/9) appeared first on Eyellusion.

Revolver Magazine’s, J. Bennett, had a chance to sit down with Eyellusion’s Director of Creative Development, Chad Finnerty, to discuss the real secrets behind the new Ronnie James Dio hologram.

The Dio hologram was created by a Los Angeles–based entertainment company called Eyellusion. They debuted an early version at Germany’s Wacken Festival in 2016; a second version did the aforementioned Euro tour the following year. The version that’s about to tour the U.S. is the Dio hologram’s third incarnation. For Chad Finnerty, Eyellusion’s Director of Creative Development, it’s the culmination of years of hard work. “To say the least,” he says with a laugh. “I’m literally shipping the last of the files today, which is very nice.”

Click Hear to Read More! 

The post Secrets Behind the Ronnie James Dio Hologram! appeared first on Eyellusion.

Associated Press (AP) reporter, John Marshall, Came to the Dio Returns Press debut on May 26th. John had a chance to speak with Eyellusion CEO, Jeff Pezzuti, Wendy Dio, as well as the Dio band!

 Images of explosions, fire and dragons stream across a massive digital screen set behind a band playing the opening chords of Dio’s “King of Rock and Roll.”
The screen switches to an apocalyptic scene of nuclear power plant smokestacks spewing against a molten-colored sky. The center section goes dark and flames appear, transforming into an image familiar to fans of hard rock/heavy metal music: the diminutive figure of Ronnie James Dio.
The singer died nine years ago, but advances in hologram technology have made it possible for fans to watch him perform and hear his voice with a live band in the “Dio Returns” tour.

“It’s something that we want to do for the fans that never got to see Ronnie and the band or want to see them again,” Dio’s widow, Wendy, said. “This is a show, bringing Ronnie back and the memories, but also the band.”

Wendy Dio first had the idea of a Ronnie hologram when she was approached by Eyellusion CEO Jeff Pezzuti in 2015.…

“It’s the closest thing you’re going to get from the original,” Pezzutti said. “There’s nothing closer, really. You want to create some of the excitement from back then.”

“We wanted him to be himself,” said Wright, who played with AC/DC in the 1980s. “We wanted it to feel like it’s him, it captures his spirit when he was on stage and I think they did a great job with it.”

The post Ronnie James Dio to tour in hologram form appeared first on Eyellusion.

LoudWire’s, Chad Childers, came down to the Dio Returns press sneak peak in Los Angeles on May 26th! Chad got a chance to see what the Eyellusion team has in store for the Dio fans in 2019, and he was very impressed! He also got a chance to sit down with Eyellusion’s CEO Jeff Pezzuti, long-time Dio manager and widow, Wendy Dio, and the Dio Band!

The general consensus among those in the room was that the visual presentation went way beyond what was expected. During the preview, not only did we get Dio’s stage moves, look and vocals, but the technology allows Dio to be surrounded by some of the most trippy concert visuals that you’ll see. There are proper nods to Dio’s recording past, with plenty of visual pyro, smoke, dragons, demons and more that you just have to experience for yourself. From the performances we were allowed to see, there are also some pretty cool coordinated efforts pairing Dio’s stage moves with Simon Wright’s drumming. Simply put, it’s a visual feast for the senses, and with technology ever changing, could even evolve further in terms of what can be presented in the future.

As the technology is still somewhat new, there may be misperceptions about what this show is, but Pezzuti assures that they are all in to create an experience. “If we’re going out with a big show, let’s make it as fucking rock and roll and metal as we can make it and incorporate all of it,” says the Eyellusion chief. “It’s a bold move to try to change an industry that’s pretty much stuck in the mud when it comes to doing something new. So to go out in a live music setting and create a new kind of entertainment, it’s difficult. But when you see the results and you see people coming, even when we went out with this in 2017, the last three shows were sold out and we were averaging around 15,000 and they were coming based on what they saw on YouTube, which didn’t look anything close to what it looked like in person. This show is 20 times bigger and more intense and better.”
He continues, “You want to create that excitement again, something nobody’s seen, because at this point everybody’s seen everything. You’ve got the same bands coming out every summer doing the same show and a lot of those bands aren’t even changing the sets. So this is a new way to do something different, create a new buzz, and when you see the show you can see how much effort went into it.”

Click to Read More! 

The post We’ve Seen the Ronnie James Dio Hologram and it MUST Be Experienced! appeared first on Eyellusion.

TO ALL THE ZAPPA FANS: 

We wanted to thank EVERYONE that came out to one of the Bizarre World of Frank Zappa shows in both the US and the UK. We, at Eyellusion, couldn’t be more proud of both the show and the responses from all of you! The show was welcomed and adored by thousands of fans, and we know there are plenty that still have to see THIS show! From the opening moments at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY, the excitement never left! We couldn’t wait for the next show, the next town, to see the fans faces, and the standing ovation at the end of EVERY SHOW! A special shout out to Ahmet Zappa, for his overall creativity, desire, and love to create this “first of it’s kind” show! It’s a spectacle from the intro to the closing notes of Camarillo Brillo! Also, to Chad Finnerty, for creating the “real” Frank Zappa hologram. Truly must be witnessed in person! The band were on fire every night. Wanted to thank Mike Keneally, Robert Martin, Ed Mann, Ray White, Scott Thunes and Joe Travers for truly killing it! The most difficult music to perform was welcomed by this incredible band of ex-Zappa players and they made it look easy every night! The crew, led by Tour Manager, Chuck “Anton Levey” Randall, worked their asses off each and every night! Thank you to all of them for helping us achieve our vision and delivering “the show” each night! Finally, all the fans..thank you for ALL the kind words about the BWOFZ! The show was made for fans of Frank, New and Old, and we are just getting started. With more surprises in store for the future…we will see you up the road! Music is the Best! –  Jeff Pezzuti, Eyellusion CEO

The post THANK YOU FROM THE BIZARRE WORLD OF FRANK ZAPPA appeared first on Eyellusion.

Billboard magazine’s writer, Bryan Reesman, discusses the upcoming, highly anticipated, Dio Returns tour, which features the brand new Ronnie James Dio Hologram, with Eyellusion’s Director of Creator Development, Chad Finnerty, and legendary drummer and Dio bandmate, Simon Wright.

 The 17-song set consists of seven tunes sung by the Dio hologram — the rest feature Owens and Logan separately or together — and encompasses material from Dio’s lengthy career, including his earlier days in Rainbow and Black Sabbath. “We’re trying to keep it as interesting and exciting as we can for people,” says Wright.

Click to Read More! 

 

The post ‘It’s All About Ronnie’: Inside The Dio Returns Hologram Show, Set For Late May Launch appeared first on Eyellusion.