Words and photography by Photon Obscura
"Light 'em up, T!" is a familiar phrase uttered by Joey Walker at some point during the course of most King Gizzard shows. In this case "T" is Terence Ankeny, and we sat down with him, in conjunction with kglw.net, to discuss his journey from Seattle bars to lighting director of one of rock's most innovative bands. I've been photographing Terence's work over the past few years, making a concerted effort to capture the many looks the visual presentation offers. This conversation gets into the particulars of his approach, including how his lighting complements Jason Galea's dynamic visual work.
11/8/24 Las Vegas, NV
In this multi-part series, we cover his improvisational lighting approach, known as busking, a new approach for Field of Vision's lighting design, and his newly formed solo project, Street Price.
As the series continues, we'll hear more from Terence on the realities of designing for ever-rotating venue sizes, how his design philosophy has changed over time, his work with other bands, and his favorite nights of light.
These interview segments are running first through kglw.net's blog series. You can also read the full interview at photonobscura.com, with additional photographs both there and on Instagram at @photon.obscura. Kglw.net is a volunteer and fan run site. If you would like to support us, we have a very limited amount of archival fine art prints for sale at photonobscura.com. All proceeds of these sales go towards our operating costs.
Let's talk a little bit about how you got into lighting design. What was your pathway to get here?
It was fully stumbled upon. There's a Seattle venue called Neumos - I started there in 2012 as a barback. At the time, lighting as a job had never even occurred to me. I started out wanting to do audio which seemed to make sense since I was playing in bands. The lighting tech at the venue asked if I wanted to check out the lights and I was like yeah, I guess? I tried and I liked it enough but was still sorta making money doing the bar thing and I didn’t really want to take a pay cut. My soul kinda felt like it was dying doing bartending only… so long story short… I took the chance on it. As time went on, the bar stuff just went away and it was all lights.
Did you have any formal training after you got started?
Not at all. It was just all on the job. I realized that everyone just wanted to do sound, so after a few months I just started emailing all the mid-sized venues in town like, hey, I do lights! And they were like, oh cool, you've got a job. That ended up working out really well and there weren't a lot of other people doing it, so I ran with it.
8/1/25 Forest Hills, Queens, NYC
Having no experience and being self taught is a hell of a way to get to where you are now. Well done on a gamble that has fully paid off… you've played in some bands as well right?
Since junior high, I've been playing music or in some type of band. I actually just did a show in Seattle with a new project that I have going on.
Congrats, that’s awesome. What's the setup?
It’s called Street Price. I’m doing electronic music on my own, and also a classic weirdo three-piece rock band with my girlfriend and another friend. It's still very much in beta.
As you learned lighting design, were there particular shows that you saw or lighting designers that you gravitated to or learned from?
Not so much - I've just been doing my own thing. I just really don't consume enough other light designers' content for inspiration. My favorite moments usually happen when I'm working a house gig or a festival and an artist or designer comes through and something jumps out... something like that. Everyone keeps sending me the Phish stuff and I'm like, I know that dude rocks, but I just don't really keep up with these things. He seems like he is on a different level. No one's really comparing us or anything. I am just really focused on my own things and haven’t had a whole lot of overt outside influence.
It’s funny that you mention that because having personally seen Kuroda light hundreds of shows really drew me to your work. My experience watching his evolution definitely helped me track your work more easily in real time. Sticking to your own mission is definitely working. The rave shows in particular really went next level with what you’re doing visually lately. Those seemed very fresh.
Joey and I are both really into electronic stuff and we saw Justice in Nashville when Bonnaroo got cancelled… that was actually a big inspiration and we were both like… maybe we should get weirder with things. For the rave stuff I've been able to get funkier and use bpms to sync some different things, so it’s been progressing.
Bullant, 11/6/24 San Francisco, CA
Terence fully stumbled into lighting design and has ultimately earned a spot behind the board for one of rock's most psychedelic bands. He's since developed an ongoing creative partnership with multi-talented visual artist Jason Galea, working together to shape the band's ever-evolving, psychedelic visual presentation.
So shifting over to KGLW, when did you start with KGLW and how did you get into that role?
I have been their lighting director since 2022. Jess, their tour manager, and I had a mutual friend that made the connection. I did that fall tour in '22 and everything since then. The job description was to assist Jason and do all the lights. Obviously, Jason has been doing the visual work for them as the main focus forever, but I am the first dedicated lighting director that they have had.
Let's talk about the creative process working with KGLW. How much creative latitude do you have in designing the show and who is involved?
I'd say it's free rein when it comes to Gizzard. Ultimately, I always defer to Jason and follow his lead. Jason is really open-minded, so I'm doing my own thing mostly when it comes to the lights. We do a great job of just riffing off each other and it really works well for us.
So what does it look like before a tour with Jason? Is there prep time or any vision discussed beforehand?
The short answer is basically no. When I'm building the design draft, I'll run it past Jason first, and he's just usually like, ok cool. He's the chillest guy and rarely shoots anything down. He couldn't really be any more hands off, but in a good way.
What's the prep look like once you get together and are on the road? How much discussion is happening on a night-to-night basis, and are you guys using presets for songs or a predetermined coloring or graphical approach?
There's really no prep at all. It's all improv when it comes to the show's visuals night in and night out. I'd describe what I'm doing as essentially busking. We are both quiet guys and good friends as well, so for us it is just all about being in the moment and going after it.
8/2/25 Forest Hills, Queens, NYC
It’s very impressive that you’re both just improvising the whole thing every night.
Yeah, we're not doing any presets or time-coding for any of the songs or shows. Saint Motel is the only artist I've ever done a time-coded show for. I designed the entire show and ran it for that one.
For those who aren't familiar - what's a time-coded show?
Totally - so as opposed to the busking (improv based) approach, a time-coded show is all programmed to parts of the song. It is kinda weird for me since that isn't what I normally do. Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging out until the end of the tune. On the other hand, Iron and Wine was a collaborative thing with Abby Portner. We had two days before the tour to work with the set design and figure out what I wanted to do. Honestly, I feel very lucky cause I've had quite a bit of freedom in every gig I've had which is not always the case. Sometimes you're just handed the rig and it's time-coded and you go there to make sure it works. I've been pretty spoiled.
The fact that you guys are both improvising the show, outside of a loose plan, when the band has made it clear they can incorporate so much improv at any time is interesting. Did the orchestra shows having a mostly standard setlist give any feeling of limitation?
No, but it was entirely different since they never play such a locked setlist. We still had room to make it different visually from night to night. One thing the band did to surprise the crew each night was not revealing the intermission song to us beforehand. It was blank on the setlist, so we had that coming at us as a surprise each night.
Can you describe a bit about what Jason is doing on his end?
He has a feedback camera pointed at the screen that just goes on forever… like the classic move when you point a camera at your TV screen. That is one of the sources that he has, along with all the videos that he has premade on the computer. He sends all that through a bunch of analog gear and then can switch sources as he goes. The infinity mirror is an OG trick and it's a bit limitless what you can do with it. He's got a pretty interesting and unique process.
11/3/24 Paso Robles, CA
One thing that I go through photographing you both - is that it is often tough to tell, live or when editing a photograph, where your lights end and his feed of them begin. The feedback pairing blends really well together and becomes pretty deceptive to the eye.
Specifically with your photos, on some of my favorites, it looks like I have 1,000 lights. It's sick. Those feedback looks are the biggest part of the collaboration. We're still working out the details, but for Field of Vision…I won't spoil too much…but we're working on some additional feedback presentations. I don't know quite how to describe it, but the lights will be coming out more...more in your... well, field of vision.
I'm curious which shows stand out for you as being your better nights?
I'd say Field of Vision day 2 really stands out. Jason and I were both immediately like, wow, that was one of the best shows we've done. Normally, I can never really be satisfied, but we were both like, damn, that was good.
Does the band have any input on how things look or are they just not even worried about it?
No, the only thing I'll really hear is practical stuff like 'don't put so much red and blue on the modular table cause I can't see the table lights.' When you're on stage the way it feels and the way it looks can be so disparate. They are very chill. Long story short, they don't really care… it's free rein.
For the rave shows in particular - do you see this as more of your time to dig in? The band has such an active stage presence and while Stu seems incapable of standing still, he does so more than usual during these segments and shows. When they are on the table, the lighting design becomes such a larger focal point and sets the mood of the show since their performative powers aren’t in full gear.
The Rave shows, or parts of the sets, are my absolute favorite thing to light with them. I relate to that music a lot, but also, when they're doing that, Brandon, the synth tech, is sending me bpm signals so that I can get pretty nitty gritty and lock in to what they're doing with the beat. I'm still busking outside of that, but the approach is somewhere between that and time-coded since the time signatures are a surprise and change.
11/1/25 Brixton, UK
I've noticed that you really lock in during those segments. You were incorporating lots of fresh looks for the rave shows last fall. When they mix the guitars and drums with the table, they seem unstoppable and at their full power. I think the lighting really adds to that as well.
I love the rock n roll shit, but the rave stuff is so fresh. Jason and I both really enjoy it cause it is just so new. It just feels like a time where we're all experimenting collectively.
As an aside, at the show in Brixton you had the tiny red lasers that you had timed perfectly for the drop into "Magma." It was honestly humorous and entirely awesome at the same time.
Haha, yeah those lasers did one thing at a time… either on or off. I couldn't NOT use them.
11/1/25 Brixton, UK
So where do we go from here? What's the future of the visual show look like?
Well, I've had mainly the same rig for all these shows that we've done the last few years. I'm looking forward to changing it up. I came up with a very different design for the NY and CO shows. I was told, "It's sick, but it's too expensive." So I'm kind of bound by that right now but have made some changes for the upcoming shows. I ultimately want to get it even weirder. I want to make the view look like a web where the truss would go OUT from the video screen. I didn't invent it or anything, but it's my take on it. It was just a lot of lights. What we'll have for the upcoming shows will be a modified version of our classic rig, but framing out from the screen and wall. I want to go for more quantity than variety. I want the challenge of having a lot of one type of light and experimenting with that as opposed to having a huge variety.
Sounds intriguing, we'll look forward to seeing this first iteration and how it evolves going forward.
8/15/25 Buena Vista, CO
With so few shows on the calendar this year, what do you want to hear the band play the most?
"Sense," on the table. The electronic version of "Sense" just really hits in a totally different way. I've been loving that one lately. Actually, I'd really love to hear "Catching Smoke." That would be sick. Not sure that will happen. Have they never played it live?
I don't think so, but I know where to look… So, checking KGLW.net confirms it hasn't been played. I guess we'll see what they've got in store soon.
This concludes the first segment of our chat with Terence. Our thanks from kglw.net to Terence for making this series possible. We’re all looking forward to being back in action in August. The full piece, and additional photos, is also posted on photonobscura.com.