Ask You In Gray is an electro-pop duo who is located in Portland, Oregon and performs at local venues throughout the state and occasionally along the West Coast. The two-man band uses custom internal MIDI-porting from Ableton Live to ShowXpress for their shows. Read on and get to know more about Ask You In Gray.

1. How did you come up with the name of your band?
We talked a lot about what the name should be and what it should mean — we ultimately decided it shouldn’t mean anything. One day I misunderstood someone talking and thought they said, “ask you in gray.” I was wrong, but we kind of just stuck with that name.

2. How many members are there?
Ask You In Gray is comprised of two members: Nick Wichman (lead vocals, synthesizer, co-producer and light tech) and Trey Tatum (backup vocals, double synthesizer and also co-producer). In regards to our music production process, we both carry similar weight in terms of composing beats, synth hooks and lyrics.

3. What type of music do you play?
We are a high-energy electro-pop band who gives homage to the 80s genre by describing our music  as, “new wave electropop.”

4. What CHAUVET® fixtures are included in your setup?
As a two man, self-contained pop show, we have to make the most of the gear we have. We currently utilize four SlimPar 64 wash lights to create backlighting. We chose SlimPar 64 because of its incredible brightness, super-slim mobility and totally awesome affordability.

Aside from our lights, the real power of our shows comes from our custom internal MIDI-porting from Ableton Live to ShowXpress. We create synchronized light shows with our back-tracks that run seamlessly and flawlessly from Ableton Live. We are capable of drawing out our light shows with MIDI notes and are certain it will play perfectly every time — it’s awesome.

5. Are they permanently installed somewhere or do you set them up for each performance?
We mount our lights to speaker stands, so setup is easy and takes approximately 10 minutes.

6. Complete this thought: A show without lights is like…
A show without lights is like…a nap.