Pretty Lights is the musical vision of the ultra-versatile Colorado based producer Derek Vincent Smith. The name comes from a Pink Floyd poster that read "Come and watch the pretty lights!"

At a time when music lovers from almost all subcultures and genres are finding common ground in the basic form of bangin' beats, Pretty Lights is giving the people what they want: electro organic cutting-edge party rocking beats that fill venues with energy and emotion and send dance floors into frenzies.

In high school, Smith focused on producing hip-hop beats, but was introduced to the rave scene by artists like Aphrodite. After high school, Derek attended The University of Colorado at Boulder, but decided to drop out during his freshman year and focus instead on his music. In the summer of 2009, under the moniker Pretty Lights, Derek Vincent Smith and Cory Eberhard played at many major American music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Rothbury, the Electric Daisy Carnival, Camp Bisco, and at the 10KLF. These shows were followed by a multi-city tour of the United States in the fall of that same year.

In 2010, Pretty Lights played at the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, the 2010 Marchone Music Productions Illumination Show in Nashville, the 2010 Evolve Festival in Nova Scotia, Movement 2010 (the Detroit Electronic Music Festival), the 2010 Starscape Festival, Camp Bisco 9, Nocturnal Festival at Apache Pass, Texas, the 2010 Electric Zoo at Randall's Island in New York City, New York, the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and the Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco, California.

In 2010, Smith replaced Eberhard with Adam Deitch as drummer, debuting at Red Rocks on August 7, 2010.

Smith's music is the byproduct of digital sampling and crosses many genres, forming a combination of "glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples." Pretty Lights' sound is generated by synthesizing samples and organic beats using the monome and the Akai MPD32. Smith uses these digital controllers to program the music production software Ableton Live 8.

His latest album, A Color Map Of The Sun was released on July 2, 2013. Pretty Lights uses the help of Brooklyn rap veteran Talib Kweli in the album's hit single, "Around the World." The densely layered single combines elements of hip-hop, soul, dubstep, New Orleans jazz and 1990s big beat into a simmering, party-ready bouillabaisse.

Musician, DJ, Music Producer, Electronic Music, International DJ, Music,