We Caught Up With Reino After The Magical Weekend At Submersion | Festival Review
Written by: Dan Warren
Curation, Culture, Community. These are the three C’s that come to mind when I think of the pillars that make up Submersion Festival. Tucked away in the south-central region of New Jersey at the glorious Paradise Lakes Campground, Submersion returned to its sacred grounds for the third consecutive year. Once again, Submersion delivered in a big way with U.S. debuts, incredible takeovers, electrifying production, eye-opening art, and so much more.
The festival kicked off on Thursday with its pre party at the Woods Stage, featuring an amazing label takeover by Qualia Records (including artists such as Chmura, Comisar and others), an inspiring journey set from Ott., as well as additional late-night vibes under the iconic disco ball. It was beautiful to see all walks of life — new friends and old — congregate to the Woods Stage throughout the evening in a state of pure bliss. This year’s Woods Stage also saw the debut of a brand-new, scenic stage fixture behind the DJs, designed by one of our favorites, Focal Point.
Submersion’s official Day 1 got started on Friday at the Beach Stage with a Trip Hop set from Foxtail (VJ: Hindsight) and the constant thought of “We’re so back” echoed throughout the day. Known for bringing in some of the finest and rarest drum & bass talent that this country’s festival scene has to offer, Submersion delivered once again on Day 1 with legendary performances at the Woods Stage such as Shy FX, Makoto, and the U.S. debut of GLXY. The Intent Audio system deployed at the Woods Stage was going beast mode all afternoon into the evening.
The sun went down and Paradise Lakes Campground turned into a vibrant, mystical adventure. At the Beach Stage, fans were treated to bass-heavy sets by artists such as Supertask (VJ: Smudge) and Distinct Motive (VJ: Ivy Visuals) on the powerful Funktion-Ones. The late-night festivities included a memorable Philos Records takeover, headlined by Submersion-favorite Daily Bread (A/V set), with additional performances by Parkbreezy (VJ: Channel.3), Late Night Radio (VJ: Mezmer) and more dreamy vibes. Over at the Woods Stage, dubstep heads rejoiced during the insanity that was Caspa, Joker, Ternion Sound b2b Chef Boyarbeatz, and Torcha. What’s even more insane is that we got to do it all over again the next day.
“Super Bowl Saturday” as some called it got off to a hot start with one of the most legendary label takeovers we’ve ever seen, featuring the 1985 Music crew. Alix Perez, Halogenix, Monty b2b Visages and more brought their A game, leaving attendees speechless. Special shoutout to SP:MC, who not only hosted the 1985 takeover all day on the mic, but also made his U.S. debut later that night with a tasteful DJ set.
Over at the Beach Stage, the vibes were at an all-time throughout the afternoon and into the late night. There was truly something for every type of electronic music subgenre lover, such as Tunic’s “Vinyl Dub & Breakfast Set” (VJ: Quinndex) that kicked off the day, G Space & Friends (VJ: Focal Point), Kursa’s out-of-this-world “Live Hardware Set” (VJ: Hayley), as well as one of the most brilliant, technical, electrifying pairings from the entire weekend: Detox Unit and DR01D Visuals.
The music concluded on Sunday morning with Alix Perez’s second set of the weekend, his first-ever “Soulful Sunrise” set. As someone that has been fortunate enough to attend Submersion all three years at Paradise Lakes, I have never experienced anything quite as beautiful as this set. The range of liquid drum & bass was spot on, the crowd could not stop smiling and dancing, and the sunrise provided strong feelings of hope, gratefulness, and love. This was truly the perfect way to cap off this magical weekend at Submersion.
Whether it was musical and visual talent throwing down incredible sets, vendors displaying their art, apparel and food, or staff making sure everyone was having an enjoyable experience – EVERYONE brought something to the table this year. If you were ever on the fence about attending Submersion Festival, make sure this event is circled on your calendar going forward.
A few weeks after the festival’s conclusion, neuro.studio had an amazing opportunity to chat with one of the key players that brought Submersion’s Beach Stage to life. Tyler Reino, better known by his VJ alias, Reino, was tasked with the honorable job of putting together the DJ/VJ pairings. In our conversation with Reino, we cover the sets he participated in, what the process was like for curating the VJ schedule, his favorite pairings from the weekend, and more special moments from his busy 2024.
Check out the full interview below and be sure to support both Reino and Submersion by following them across socials.
NS: First off, congratulations on the amazing job you did with curating the visual lineup for Submersion this year! Tell us a little bit about what your role was at Submersion and how that came together. When did Submersion pick you to be in charge of curating this lineup? Had you been in talks with them for a while?
Reino: Thank you for the kind words and having me here, Dan! This was actually the second year in a row that I’ve been the VJ coordinator for Submersion. This all started as a result of my involvement with The Rust Music through the years and, with their involvement in Submersion, I was able to get started in that role last year. That was really my first time working with the festival in a capacity like that, so it was definitely a big learning experience for me.
Going into my Year Two, I definitely felt a lot more prepared with doing that. So as far as when did the conversation start for planning this year? I guess you could say it started as soon as last year’s event ended … it started out as just loose talks here and there, but it really started to ramp up once the music was booked and the schedule was made. It’s really nice to get to work with this team one time a year on a beautiful site like that. It's really fun.
NS: What was your process like for identifying and selecting the VJs for this year’s festival? How much time did you have to put the visual lineup together once you got the greenlight from Submersion?
Reino: The process for putting the VJ lineup together started a couple months leading up to the festival. It was mostly just throwing ideas around and such, but everything was more solidified closer to the actual festival. There are a lot of different factors that can go into something like this. Sometimes a musician will want to bring their own VJ, for example. And then, obviously, finding the right VJ for a specific set.
Listening to music from the artists on the lineup is a big part in helping me figure out which VJ to pair them with. And for the VJs themselves, I’m just living on Instagram following various VJs and seeing what content they’re putting out. In addition, there are also all of the VJs that actually applied to perform at Submersion. I had to take those into consideration as well. For certain pairings, I really tried to do something different. Like last year, we had Liquid Light Lab, which a lot of people loved. That was something that our scene wasn’t used to seeing, you know?
It also really helps when the VJ is into the musician’s stuff. So you mix all of that together, and then you want to also consider the flow, as well as giving the VJs multiple sets, but not doing it where it’s one set right after the other. I wanted to make sure the schedule was laid out in a more organic way that flowed really well. That was really the main goal of putting the VJ schedule together.
NS: Tell us a little bit about who you were paired up with at this year’s Submersion! Had you performed with these acts at any point prior to that weekend? What was your experience like working with these artists at the Beach Stage?
Reino: On Friday, I was part of a VJ back-to-back-to-back that included myself, Channel.3, and Diethylamide – we collaborated together for the pheel., Danny Grooves and Foxtail set. Much like the musicians’ set, where it was like “Hey, let’s show up from different states and do something cool.” We pretty much did the exact same thing on the VJ side. I took in the camera feeds that we had up there on stage and threw those into Synesthesia, then sent those to Channel.3’s analog rig where he was creating looks with them, and then we brought it out to Diethylamide as the final output and effects.
Foxtail was actually my first VJ set ever back in like 2018, which is really crazy to think about. I don’t think I had been paired up with him since that first show. I have actually VJ’d for pheel. a few times, most notably at this year’s Sound Haven on the UFO mainstage. That’s definitely one of the most memorable and fun sets I’ve ever done. I’ve also never been paired up with Danny Grooves before, but I love his music and was really stoked to have him there performing with us.
I also had a solo set on Saturday with Face Plant’s side project, Sky.Lab, which is more of a downtempo project. It was my first time performing with him and I had never gotten a chance to see Sky.Lab, either, so it was great to not only experience that set, but play a part in it. There was a lot of great synergy between myself and the lighting and lasers teams. Everybody just worked really well together which came from communicating everything in the moment.
NS: What were some of your favorite Producer/VJ pairings that you got to see at the Beach Stage? Were there any sets that unexpectedly blew you away?
Reino: This is tough because I genuinely want to say everyone haha everyone truly crushed it. If I had to narrow it down to some of my favorites, one of the sets that comes to mind immediately was that Hayley and Kursa live hardware set pairing. Hayley does an incredible job at what she does. She does a lot of film and photography, then takes those and creates these composites and collages, which is such a different style than everyone else. Kursa’s live hardware set was also very out of the ordinary and he was really excited about being paired up with Hayley leading up to the set, so I felt really good about this pairing and even better once I actually saw them performing together.
Honestly, the Kursa beats set with Hindsight was another one of my favorites from that weekend. I really loved all of the custom content that Hindsight created for that set. Ivy Visuals with Distinct Motive was phenomenal. They have actually worked together in the past, so I knew this pairing felt right when I was putting the VJ schedule together. Ivan is incredibly talented and is one of the most well prepared VJs I’ve come to work with. Ozwvld was also great, paired up with Thought Process. I was actually working the cameras during that set and sending the different views of Thought Process, Foxtail and Osis to Ozwvld, so it was really cool to play a little part in that set.
Another set I really liked was Recycled Textures with Peekaboo. That set was a bit different from the others because Peekaboo had only his own content that we were tasked to play. There was a lot of good communication between me, Recycled Textures, AJ who was our lights, and Thaddeus on lasers. I was telling them when to bring down the lights and black out the screen for certain moments, and then when to bring them back in. I think we all had a lot of great synergy during that set which again, came from communication in the moment.
NS: I understand that you were also in charge of curating Late Night Cartoons at the Beach Stage on the first night as part of the Pre Party! What types of cartoons were you playing?
Reino: Yes! That was a really fun way to kick off the Beach Stage. Without going into too much detail, there was a good mixture of nostalgic late ‘90s/early 2000s cartoons as well as various trippy YouTube shorts. I really enjoyed hearing everybody’s reaction when a new episode or clip started playing. One moment it would be like a weird, dystopian future YouTube short, and then next thing you know we’re jumping right into Spongebob or Courage the Cowardly Dog.
NS: How would you rate your overall experience at Submersion and working with so many different teams?
Reino: It was really special. I don’t do this type of stuff full time, so it’s really nice to come together once a year to put on a festival like Submersion and see how all of these different teams work together. Huge shoutouts to everyone that made this happen, from production, to operations, to artist hospitality, to design, to transportation — there wouldn’t be a giant disco ball at the Woods Stage or a Submersion sign in the water or sick sets all weekend without the efforts of these folks. Everyone had a great attitude and did their jobs really well.
I love the Submersion experience and I’m so happy to be a part of it. My part is honestly so small compared to all of the larger logistical things that go into throwing a festival like this one. Everyone was incredibly helpful throughout the weekend. If I needed something, I knew there was someone close by that could help me. It really does take a village.
NS: Outside of Submersion, you had yourself quite the Summer! Tell our readers a little bit about what you were involved in throughout the second half of the year. Are there any specific moments or sets you played this year that really stick out to you?
Reino: This past Summer was incredible for the Reino project! I think my favorite moment is still the set I did with pheel. on the UFO stage at Sound Haven. That was definitely the biggest one for me.
Another cool moment that comes to mind is ZiP Visuals’s Transcend Lab event in Brooklyn. For those that don’t know, I actually developed a VJ controller that controls Synesthesia using TouchOSC. At the ZiP show, all of the visuals were projected onto the walls of The Chocolate Factory and I was pretty much controlling the visuals for a section on the wall on my tablet device from the dance floor. We even had people in the crowd joining in on the fun and it was awesome to see the look on their faces as they were creating their own visuals. It was a last-minute type of thing, but I think it was very well-received at the event. Big shoutout to Matt for curating such an amazing night!
That controller has definitely taken me to some incredible places. It’s the biggest project that I’ve worked on and I’m still making updates to it. I actually had an opportunity to bring that controller to the Orion Amphitheater for Datagrama on Friday night of the Tipper & Friends event, which took place over Labor Day Weekend. I wasn’t billed for that show, but it was still a massive moment for me. It was really cool to add that to the show because the controller is not a visual itself, but a tool that helps enhance the visual spectacle altogether. It was an honor to have someone like Theron from Datagrama working his magic on that controller during Tipper’s uptempo set. It felt like the controller and I had finally made it.
NS: Is there anything else our readers should know about you or the Reino project? Do you have any cool events coming up that you’re able to talk about?
Reino: I do not have any upcoming events scheduled as of right now. Submersion was pretty much my last big event for the year and a great way to conclude festival season. That being said, there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to in 2025! Expect to see some new Reino sets with a lot of new content.
If you want to stay up-to-date on the Reino project, the best way is to follow my Instagram @reino.exe or connect with me on Discord. I think it’s also worth mentioning that I have some stuff available for purchase in the Synesthesia marketplace as well as a couple of Synesthesia x TouchOSC tutorials on the Synesthesia YouTube page where I break down all of the ins and outs of the controller.
