Leah Barylsky Featured On Camera and Stage During Rüfüs Du Sol Tour

Leah Barylsky served as the camerawoman for Rüfüs Du Sol during their Inhale/Exhale world tour, which sold 1.7 million tickets according to Billboard Boxscore.

Moving closely around group members Tyrone Lindqvist, James Hunt, and Jon George, Barylsky shaped the visual tone and pacing of the show.

“It’s my perspective, and what fan doesn’t want to be up there and have the opportunity to see through my lens?” she says.

Barylsky filmed band members from inches away while moving across the stage.

“Dancing with the band is how I approach it mentally,” she says. “I consider what I do more dancing than anything.”

The Inhale/Exhale tour included 98 headlining shows and festival dates over two years. As Rüfüs’ motion director, Barylsky joined the band onstage for 10 to 13 songs per show, roughly half the set. The physical role involved rapid movement to supply live feeds for the side-stage LED screens. Barylsky states that her Oura Ring failed to capture all of her activity, leaving her uncertain of her exact step count.

“It’s funny that when [the audience] sees her working, they want to know the step count,” says Rüfüs’ creative director Katzki. “I don’t think they fully understand what she is actually giving them. It is not only incredibly athletic and physical, but is a live interpretation of the music happening in that moment… People don’t understand how much it changes how you hear the music. It’s just someone shooting the show with a camera and running around, but there is second-by-second instinctive decision making. You feel it.”

Barylsky grew up in Hawaii filming weddings and local concerts. In 2017, she moved to Los Angeles when her sister took a job as a flight attendant. Through a mutual friend, she met Lindqvist, George, and Hunt while they were writing their 2018 album Solace.

“We were instant friends,” she says. “From there, it was just that I always had a camera in my hand.” Rüfüs and Katzki, whose real name is Alex George and who is the brother of Jon George, viewed a video she directed for another group and asked her to direct the video for the 2018 track “No Place.”

“So we did that together out in the desert,” she says, “and then they were like, ‘Want to come on tour?’”

Barylsky previously toured with the group for Solace and their 2021 album Surrender. The Inhale/Exhale trek concluded earlier this month at Austin City Limits and ranks as the highest-grossing and bestselling electronic tour in history according to Billboard Boxscore, generating $158 million in gross revenue and selling 1.7 million tickets.

The tour marked the first time the group utilized IMAG screens on the sides of the stage. Previously, Barylsky filmed performances to edit into social media recap videos. The IMAG integration allowed her to transmit live camera feeds directly to the displays.

She debuted the format during Rüfüs’ 2023 headlining appearance at Osheaga by filming the song “Surrender.” “We were just buzzed,” she says. “We were like, ‘This is such an evolution of the show.’” By Portola 2024, where the band previewed music from Inhale Exhale alongside a new production setup, she performed onstage for three songs.

“It wasn’t rehearsed,” she says. “It was very much like ‘okay, I’m going live now.’”

Following the release of Inhale/Exhale on Oct. 11, 2024, the band spent two weeks rehearsing in an arena in Beaumont, Texas. Barylsky and Katzki used this period to establish visual plans for specific songs.

“Leah is an artist,” says Katzki, “so we have another artist on stage along with the band. The camera is her instrument, and she is able to glide from one musical moment happening on one side of the stage to another seamlessly, at different heights and from different angles. And yet she does it in a way that allows for chance and finding something new in the moment.”

Barylsky tripped twice during the tour: once in summer 2025 in Poland and again at Austin City Limits during the performance of “Breathe.” “I fell on my knees in front of Tyrone, but the IMAG director kept my feed up and I instantly got up and kept going,” she says. “It’s honestly one of my favorite moments, because even if for a split second I was embarrassed because there were 70,000 people watching, I like that it reiterates the point that it’s live.”

Her favorite segment of the show involved passing her camera to Katzki during the transition from “The Life” to “Until the Sun Needs To Rise,” so he could take it into the pit before returning it during “Levitating” to simulate a floating effect.  

“So Alex is passing it up to me, and I’m exhausted at this point,” she says. “I have a minute, but it feels like two seconds. I’m on James’ left side, and then Alex is running back and forth really fast, and then when I come around to James’ side, he passes it back to me. By this point I’m about to pass out, but the adrenaline is so high. Just getting to work with Alex in that way, where we get to play and be kids every single night, it’s my favorite part.”

She tuned out the crowd during most of the set, acknowledging the audience near the end of the show during the song “Innerbloom.”

“When I turn the camera and Tyrone sings ‘I’m yours’ and the crowd sings it back, it’s just this really emotional moment,” she says. “I stand with the band and everyone’s just roaring. Even the days when I’m so exhausted or in a particular mindset where I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do the show tonight,’ that moment is always like, ‘Wow, this is your life.’”

Having been seen by an estimated two million people across headliners and festivals, Barylsky is occasionally recognized by fans in hotel lobbies. “I always say I wish the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter existed, because if it did, I would wear it. I’ve never intended to be part of the show in the way I am, so it’s been an adjustment. Not a bad one, but I never expected it would become what it has.”

With the tour completed, Barylsky has transitioned to backend duties such as editing before returning to film the group in the studio. Beyond the live shows, her most valued moments from the tour occurred in private.

“We’re around people all day,” she says, “but before the show it’s just John, James, Ty, Alex, and me. Everyone leaves, and we get 15 minutes to breathe together as one, and it’s really quiet.”

Depending on the evening, the group spent those moments laughing, hugging, or pumping their fists and chanting before walking out to the audience.

“It’s another moment,” Barylsky says, “that in a very opposite way makes me go, ‘I can’t believe this is my life.’”