The power of community is one of the greatest aspects of the electronic music scene. The ripple effect of inspiring creativity is a powerful force that can change lives at a moment’s notice. It’s a story as old as time. A young fan sees a musical act so good it dramatically changes the course of their life. Maybe it even sparks the creative nudge needed to break out of the 9-5 matrix and follow their dreams. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Lance Patrick, also known as Pants or PantsingtonTheThird.
Patrick first saw Pretty Lights in 2011, after randomly finding the legend during an Electric Forest sidequest. It blew him away and planted the seed that eventually led him to dive into the world of electronic music and DJing. In 2014, he started learning the basics and attempting a music career; however, nothing really manifested over those first few years. The passion fizzled out. In 2017, he took a step back and continued to follow the corporate 9-5 path. Coincidentally, Dereck Vincent Smith, the mastermind behind the Pretty Lights vision, also took an extended hiatus from the music scene in 2018, right around this same timeframe.
Pretty Lights Return
Still not feeling fully fulfilled in that life, Patrick’s creative muscles were shocked back to life with the 2023 return of Pretty Lights. In the long-awaited return, Pretty Lights emerged from the five-year hiatus with a brand new evolution. A new lineup of band members, increased visual production capacity, and the introduction of the Lucid Stream, a place where Pretty Lights fans could livestream every single tour date. Patrick quickly became obsessed with the newly formed version of Pretty Lights and proceeded to embed himself within the community in any way possible.
“At that time I was just getting into Jam Bands,” said Patrick. “ So, I was getting into Billy Strings and String Cheese, and really starting to appreciate the magic of Jam. And the way that Pretty Lights combined their style with it and built a whole system around it was just mind-blowing.”
Rustified Clips
For Patrick, it ignited a new level of creativity both for audio and visuals. With this newfound passion, he first started making visuals and short-form video content of the Lucid Streams.
“After that first tour, I was thinking about nothing but Pretty Lights and trying to get my friends as obsessed as I was, which quickly became futile,” said Patrick.
What started as a way to express his love for the work of the Pretty Lights team quickly scaled into its own separate endeavor. He first started sharing clips on his personal page and quickly realized there was a hunger for this type of content. So, he made a dedicated clip page called rustifiedclips and started posting on there. Since then, the rustifiedclips page has amassed nearly 5,000 followers and has become a consistent fixture within the Pretty Lights community.
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Who is Pants?
Patrick was born in Michigan but has just recently become a Colorado transplant, moving just outside of Denver. The name Pants came from a childhood nickname his sister gave him and eventually stuck. He kept this as he became more ingrained in the Pretty Lights community. As for PantsingtonTheThird, this comes from a late-night session of username selection on the Pretty Lights Family Discord. With Pants unavailable, a few syllable changes, and Patrick landed on Pantsington the Third. A name that eventually became a community leader and organizer within the PLF Discord and the broader community.
“I started hosting couch tour replays within the Discord to allow for continued interaction in the off-season,” said Patrick. “This most recent one was called Full Swircle, which was really cool because I got to work with the actual crew and Derek himself on that.”
While already fairly active in the community through all of these fan endeavors, there was also an opportunity to showcase his music project. It was all about timing, said Patrick. He happened to be ready to get back on that wagon when there was a perfect opportunity.
Connecting with Mikey Thunder and the Chill Train
After fully immersing himself in the Pretty Lights community and cranking out creative ways to share lucid stream clips and work with visual graphics, Patrick also felt the itch to get back to DJing and making music. During this time, Mikey Thunder, a longtime Pretty Lights collaborator and friend, had joined in on a cool new project on Twitch.
After noticing downtempo music had become a rarity, Mondokoosh, who is also on the Yahn Dawn lineup, launched a Twitch raid train event called The Last Train Home featuring DJs from six different countries. A Raid train event is a coordinated community gathering where multiple streamers take turns broadcasting and progressively raiding the next channel in line to share viewership, network, and support themes or charities. Mikey Thunder played all three and said, “What if we kept doing this? It’s good for our souls.” And thus the Chill Train was born, featuring mellow, dreamy and hypnotic music from Pretty Lights Family DJs every Sunday.
“It was kind of an open invite from anyone in the community that wanted to join,” said Patrick. “So myself and a couple others, Mithridates and Hyperspace Sky, we all joined the Chill Train around the same time. And I think there was a built-in community to help us grow and get the confidence to not quit.”
Within the Chill Train, Patrick was able to comfortably move back into the DJing space and have a built-in community of support from the get-go. He also saw an opportunity to bring live visuals into the Twitch platform.
“It’s usually just a DJ standing in front of a camera, and there is not much else going on, said Patrick. “So when I am watching Twitch, I’m not really seeing anything too exciting. And that’s one of the things I love about watching Pretty Lights streams; there are some awesome visuals happening at the same time as the show.”
So, that was a big driver in him hopping on the Twitch wagon. It’s really been a case of a rising tide lifts all boats, said Patrick. Everyone in the community just wants to help each other out, and in turn, it makes everyone better.
What separates the Pretty Lights Fanbase
Pretty Lights was a pioneer in the electronic music scene, and their legacy has shaped the lives and sounds of many of today’s current artists. Many of those same fans who have been following them for nearly 20 years now have grown and evolved right alongside the project itself. And with that comes a certain familiarity and respect for the music scene as a whole. There is still a level of “PLUR” at the Pretty Lights show, and the importance of the music and the experience is still at the forefront.
“Going to a Pretty Lights show is hard to beat,” said Patrick. “Even if you take away the music, the crowds are amazing. If you look to your right and left, there will probably be people that would help you through just about anything.”
The Pretty Lights Family is a deeply connected community that has thriving interactions on everything from Discord and Twitch to Facebook Groups and in-person meet-ups. There is a true sense of family that is not necessarily reciprocated in every artist’s fanbase. And for that, thank you to the people that have continued to build this community up and make it a welcoming and beautiful experience for all.
What’s next for Pants?
Well, chiefly, he has officially been added to the YahnDawn lineup and will be playing with the Chill Train on Sunday, Sept. 20. An insane career milestone for any artist and especially exciting for this longtime fan.
“When I sit back and reflect on my history with Pretty Lights, how I went from just a hardcore psychopath fan to ending up on the lineup is still pretty mind-boggling to me,” said Patrick. “It’s very surreal.”
Patrick just recently moved to Colorado and has officially become a resident of the bass music capital. The sense of community and artists helping other artists is what drove him to move. While he doesn’t have a definitive goal yet, Pants is open to taking his career to the next level.
“I’m really trying to be intentional about where I go from here,” said Patrick. “As for music, I am excited to be in Denver. I have started to collaborate with a lot of other artists here. A lot of producers who are a lot better than me.”
At one point, Patrick plans to release actual music, and that’s when he will decide which direction he wants the project to go. For now, it’s just a lot of having fun and living in the moment.
