As the sun shined through the massive square windows of a downtown Detroit hotel on Memorial Day, Grant Davis, aka VJ Culture,  is picking his way through a “delicious” vegetarian meatloaf. In the true nature of his role as one of the most sought after video jockeys in the game, he is quick to use nutritional visuals to describe (somewhat abstractly) how his job works. “The broccoli connects the wires to the meatloaf, which is the screen,” laughs Davis, “and here is me” — pointing to the mashed potatoes with his fork — “feeling a little mashed after last night.”

Davis was in town running visuals for the Red Bull Music Academy stage. Along with Red Bull, Davis has worked with prominent clients such as Facebook, Nokia, Apple, Beatport and even the City of San Francisco Entertainment Commission. When he doesn’t have a plate full of visual aids at his disposal, Davis describes his performances as a fine balance between “an artist, a technician and a performer” — combining the subtleties and wide range of entertainer’s responsibilities he must practice in order to “stay employed” and on top of the “weird dichotomy of trying to bring those three [elements] together.”

“People offer me chairs all the time, but I just can’t do [what I do] sitting down,” explains the Los Angeles-based Davis, a former communications disorders major who worked with the deaf before attending Burning Man, witnessing what would turn out to be a life changing VJ performance and began to piece together his successful career through a self-taught, driven and ambitious manner. “It is all about creating movement and motion. A lot of the time, I’m taking still images and giving them rhythm and breathing life into them.”

When it comes to showmanship, Davis is responsible for matching the music being performed on the stage with an appropriate image and acute timing — like during Z-Trip’s closing set on the Red Bull Music Academy stage on Sunday night, which Davis ranked as a “top 20 performance” on his end. “With a DJ who is mixing it up like Z-Trip,” who ran through a gamut of genres ranging from rock to hip hop, says Davis, “for me to keep up and chase him around his style while trying to fit the visuals is a huge challenge opposed to a DJ who stays in one tempo or genre.”

Technically, Davis’ duties often involve a couple of laptops matched with a duo of video drum samplers. While the equipment remains tangible for the average consumer, keeping up with the constant running of advancements in his field is another burden entirely — one that is often more challenging than exciting. “It is almost intimidating,” says Davis, “but I love keeping with the new technology and staying ahead of the curve.

“The exciting part for me is when I’m doing something that hasn’t been done before,” continues Davis, “or when I’m not just working with a rectangle screen, but literally creating content to work with different shapes, sizes, making it all sound reactive and working with the audio and lighting … bringing all the media outlets together.”

At the end of the day, when the band has performed their last encore and Davis is through doubling the impact of his performance through his stunning visuals, he is still inspired to connect with people through his past working with those unable to truly enjoy the vibes, tones and amazing beauty of music. “A kid came up to me on Saturday night,” recalls Davis, “and asked how we could get a job doing this kind of stuff and where I went to school. I explained I learned it all myself — completely self-taught. And then he asked who I worked for, and I told him I owned my own business. It really sparked a light inside with this kid, and he was pretty inspired” — forever leaving the question of whether sounds or visuals are more impressionable on an audience wide open for a future generations to be born within the VJ Culture.

Words by Ryan Patrick Hooper, photos by Joe Gall, additional photos by Dustin Downing