The Upful LIFE Podcast -100: DEREK VINCENT SMITH [of PRETTY LIGHTS] ~ A Pod Thru Life Fantastic vol.1 ~

September 15, 2026 B.Getz

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Episode 100 features an exclusive, deeply-intimate conversation with Derek Vincent Smith, co-founder & mastermind behind the kaleidoscopic multimedia sound-art collective/project Pretty Lights. Easily the most requested guest for the show all-time, this wide-ranging, beautiful breaux-down marks the first official DVS interview in over a dozen years. This milestone episode serves as the inaugural sesh of an ambitious, multi-part retrospective series with Derek: A Pod Thru Life Fantastic.

0:00 – ep.100 teaser/intro
3:15 – Hulaween hype sesh
4:45 – Fete du VOID blast
6:15 – Suwannee Amp Jams III
7:45 – Shoutout YAHN DAWN wknd!
9:45 – The Upful Update
11:45 – Introducing DEREK VINCENT SMITH
17:30 – CONVERSATION w/ DVS – vol.1 [133 min]
2:30:45 – Afterglow & PL Acknowledgements
2:34:00 – Celebrating 100 Episodes!
2:38:00 – A *deep bow* to my Beloved
2:42:05 – Thank You Mom
2:45:00 – ViBE Junkie JAMZ

After a half-decade of virtually-silent seclusion spent far away from the spotlight, music industry machine, and its cascade of temptation, DVS famously re-emerged in August 2023 to pilot a bombastic modular live band on the triumphant Soundship Spacesystem tours. Following years of real-time onstage improvisation, empowered research and development, plus a few personnel transitions, July 2026 saw the sudden arrival of A Trip Thru Time Fantastic. The first three constellations (or EPs) reveal a quiver of 15 unicorn compositions, the initial drop towards a massive forty-five track studio document. The sensational record represents the first new (studio) statement from Smith & Co. since the shapeshifting avant garde of 2013’s Grammy-nominated A Color Map of the Sun.

Upful LIFE host B.Getz first profiled the producer for JamBase during his meteoric underground rise in 2009. Sixteen years on down the number line, Episode 100 pulls back the curtain on one of the most enigmatic minds in modern music culture. Vol.1 of the mini-series traces the exhaustive realities and suffocating pressure of Pretty Lights’ rocketship to EDM fame, splintered collaborative partnership & heart-filling reunion/rebirth with high-school bestie/PL co-founder Michal Menert, debilitating battles with substance abuse and then the rollercoaster of medicated-assisted treatment, onward to meeting his life partner Uma, the spiritual and healing journeys they embarked on together, a deliberate choice to literally disappear at the height of commercial success, and various impactful realizations uncovered whilst working towards rediscovering his creative purpose.

DVS is swiftly keen to discuss “To Stream or Not To Stream”, he loves on the Pretty Lights bandmembers: Menert, Borahm Lee, Alvin Ford Jr., new turntablist/longtime homie & behind-the-scenes PL contributor Dave Najarian aka ’96’, frequent special guest/ vibe curator Mikey Thunder, & numerous peeps offstage who stay steadily making things pop.

We get into the nuts and bolts of “Swirl Science”, unspool the architecture of PL’s cutting-edge live performance framework, get the 411 on Derek connecting with Rick Rubin and the seminal “Shangri La Sessions“, then juxtapose the brilliance and modus operandi of two PL albums thirteen years apart.

The convo digs into Derek’s nascent pioneering of giving away music for free on the internet – and subsequent subversion of standard streaming ecosystems, & how/why it worked like gangbusters; later reprising such shrewd tactics in the 2026 landscape via PL-OS. To close out vol.1, the big man passionately explains his recent embracing of the next generation of electronic producers, many whom he clearly inspired; as they creatively reimagine the PL sonic blueprint and trademark sample-collage style.

An unprecedented window into Derek Vincent Smith, from embryonic ambitions, wrong turns and shortcuts, to building a spiritual path and becoming a husband and father, to reuniting with soul brother Michal Menert and conceiving/manifesting a state-of-the-art audio-visual laboratory known as the Swirl Bridge..

As per ‘The Upful Way’, A Pod Thru Life Fantastic eschews standard Q&A interview formulas to deliver a fluid, soulful, and trusting conversation between DVS and B.Getz. For nearly 2.5 hours, enjoy the musical musings and raw reflections of an innovator who walked away from the limelight only to return an evolved version of self, and did it ALL entirely on his own terms.

SALUTE 100 EPS!!!

yes indeedy,

-bg

— Cover art by Trey Hebron

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