Lit UP By T: Part 2

In Part 1, we caught up with Terence Ankeny on his path from Seattle bars to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's lighting rig, and how his partnership with visual artist Jason Galea shapes their nightly, improvised show. Now that the band has concluded the run of US shows for 2026, we continue the conversation by covering the venues that have stuck with him most, his work outside KGLW, and how his design philosophy has evolved over time.

In this part of the series 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.

Terence Ankeny’s new lighting design at Field of Vision in Buena Vista, CO on 8/16/26.

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Terence Lights Up Athens, Greece

Part 2: At the Speed of Light

The band has hit so many milestones recently, not just creatively, but venue-wise as well. In the four-year period that you've been with them, were there certain venues that were milestones for you?

Definitely the Gorge. I know it sounds like an easy answer since it's the biggest venue they've played, but being from Washington that was important for me. I grew up going to Sasquatch and it's just an iconic place for me. All my friends were there and there was this moment where I thought it actually went really well… so it was just a great time for me personally.

The Gorge Ampitheatre: 9/14/24

Anything outside of the Gorge that struck a chord for you?

I honestly didn't really have a bucket list or anything. Red Rocks was obviously very cool. There was this place in León that was hundreds of years old. It was a bigger but similar setup to Bulgaria. You know how the FOH in Bulgaria was way above the stage and you're looking down on the stage? It was like that. I'd say Bulgaria was more iconic and picturesque… but also from that Europe tour, I would say Athens was incredible.

I agree with your take on the Lycabettus Hill venue. I wasn't quite expecting it to be that great. I was really focused on the Ancient Theatre in Bulgaria, and Lycabettus Hill was easily one of the coolest venues I’ve ever seen. The walk up and down the hill was desert on one side and forest on the other. You were lighting the rock itself during the show. The views from all over were just outstanding. Mountains. Ocean. You name it. Incredible.

Yeah, I hadn't been to Athens before. I think it just hit me in a great way. The experience of the shows, the venue, and the trip itself just aligned perfectly. The band and everyone were out on one of the islands for a while and had some extra time to just unwind on that one.

I was curious because I was personally really psyched for the Royal Albert Hall show and just couldn’t wait to get into the venue for the first time. You're pretty chill in general and after the show you just said, "How was it?" I kinda cracked up because it was incredible and I was like damn dude this is a major life accomplishment that you were very nonchalant about. You also absolutely crushed it that night which made it funnier.

That one does stand out to me because I grew up watching the Led Zeppelin DVD. One of my first impressions of shows, before I was even going to shows, was really watching them play in that room. I don't put a whole lot of weight on those things, but that one definitely wasn't lost on me. I try not to put too much weight on that stuff, unless it actually lands on me that way. For instance, the Sydney Opera House was super fun. It was almost more beautiful from the outside, but I was like, ok, yeah, that was fun… but those are the ones that really stick out.  It’s not wasted on me. What a dream to be able to do this. 

The Royal Albert Hall: 11/4/25

So many times I've seen you move to and from drastically different rooms from night to night. Thinking back to Fall '24, you went from the LA Forum to the Rady Shell to the Regency Ballroom — - all very different rooms, rigs, and capacities. This past year you had Manchester in the production space, to Brixton that held 1k, and then the next night you're in the Royal Albert Hall. What happens creatively for you when you're moving through different rooms?

I'm building for the big shows and then remove things for the small ones. I end up working backwards down to the small ones. It's mostly a matter of removing things and scaling down to what design fits. You clone a lot of the rooms and remove things from the base files for what will correspond to a new room. Plan for the best and work with what you’ve got available.

Was it tough last summer going from the Orchestra configuration to rock shows? I noticed that you were using the same light counts and then in different configurations for each type of show.

Yeah, every day was a bit different on that tour. The orchestra is massive so we had to really account for that in the way we designed the stage to easily go back and forth and accommodate two very different looks. 

Do you feel less pressure going to a small room like Brixton since you were self-taught in that sort of environment?

Well, more lights are more fun so big rooms get the edge, maybe. I guess there's a lot of asterisks there cause sometimes scaling the small rooms is a great challenge as well.

Beyond traveling the world with King Gizzard, Ankeny found time to step into very different rooms altogether with other gigs. This includes a recent run with Iron and Wine that flipped his usual approach on its head. Terence also works regularly with Saint Motel, Band of Horses, and still lights shows in Seattle at Neumos.

What other bands have you been working with during your time outside of KGLW? I heard you recently lit the Go Kurosawa show in Seattle. How was that?

That show was killer. I would do more of that. Outside of KGLW, I have regularly done tours with Saint Motel and Andrew McMahon’s various bands. Otherwise, I am currently doing the Iron and Wine lighting while we have a bit of a break in the action with KGLW. We just wrapped up the first leg and hit the road again this fall. 

How's it been doing the Iron & Wine tour in contrast to what happens with KGLW?

Honestly, it's been a great palate cleanser. This is the first really mellow tour that I've done, and I got to do some things that I don't normally do. If there were strobe lights, I didn't even touch them. I found zero moments for a strobe at the shows.

Sam has some really atmospheric songwriting and composition so I'm sure the approach is ultimately very different.

It was very cool — - every song is kind of like creating a scene and a mood — - which is true otherwise but it was just different. There was a stage design by Abby Portner, who worked with John Cale and does all the Animal Collective stage design, with these custom mobiles and hanging backdrops. It was all about me sorta casting shadows of the mobiles onto the backdrops. It was some real moody shit.

That sounds great. I'm looking forward to seeing that when you're here in October. I've seen Sam many times having lived in NC for over a decade. I can still recall an absolutely devastating performance at the McGlohon Theater.

This range of work feeds directly into how Ankeny thinks about his craft itself, from working around the elements to the philosophy behind his approach to visual resolution.

Last year you made the comment that the lights without smoke are basically like "skywriting at night." That sorta stuck with me and I was curious what happened on a night like Colorado Springs last year where it was just really windy and it was literally just blowing your work away. That was driving me nuts cause I could see what you were doing and then it just wasn't there, and I imagine more so for you, but what's your play in those situations?

There's nothing you can do. You just power through it. I did see a trick at the Stone Pony where they used black corrugated tubes with holes in them and during the show when it was really windy they would move the hazer from one side to the other so that it created a screen that went from one side to the other. It was super DIY, but it was sick. It worked, but when you're at a place like Red Rocks, there's just not much you can do.

Filed of Vision in Buena Vista, CO: 8/16/25

Last year at Field of Vision there was an occasional rain shower and it really enhanced the lights going way out past the stage in a way we don't normally see without that particulate matter in the air. That was great.

Rain at a gig can suck, but for the lights… the rain is tight.

How much do you think about the fact that your position, and your view, at the show is not always what everyone else sees?

It's easy to forget that most people aren't going to see exactly what I have planned. The Gorge pictures you took are a good example of the experience that isn't center. I can get lost in my own stuff trying to stick to symmetry, but I've actually tried to not focus so much on symmetrical stuff in some cases because of that. 

It was interesting — - at Iron and Wine, I said the band was off center, and I told Front of House that maybe tomorrow we could talk about centering it. He said that Sam didn't want center, the band actually finds center and then takes a step off center. That kinda rocked my mind. I was like, yeah, fuck center. Why are we stuck on these rules? So I've been working on that a lot as well.

For you the rig is in constant motion, but I am often chasing a defined structure of the lights. I often see you go through a progression that ultimately resolves in a shape. This sometimes goes on over a period of days where it seems like you're working towards a goal piece by piece, and adds up to a defined shape as the ultimate resolution for a jam or hitting a change during one. Sometimes it resolves the same night and other times it’s a few nights down the line. Is this something that you're actively thinking about?

I basically set up a bunch of positions and they are starting points that get paired with moving effects. The idea is that it will 'land' eventually back to the starting point. So sometimes it's like, well, what if I pan or tilt this weird X that I have and it evolves from there. It’s interesting that you are seeing that happen over the days.

Filed of Vision in Buena Vista, CO: 8/16/25

One thing that I appreciate about your work is that you do use shape as resolution. Many lighting designers simply use strobing as resolution when things are peaking. Like yeah, we get it. That is the easy meat, but your work is much more nuanced when it comes to that.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I am guilty of that too, though. When you have a button that makes everything go crazy, it's tough not to push it.

This is something that happened a lot in Paso Robles. I think that was honestly one of your best nights, which is interesting because it was such a small rig. You ran this twisted-looking shape for resolution. I've seen you reprise this very occasionally, but I always found this interesting since it becomes curved or twisted but using 100% straight lines.

Yeah, I was actually leaning on that a bit at the time. For a time I was using a shape that was making everything a point, and that's a bit of what you were seeing there.

In Brixton you were taking a really small set up and creating a highly expansive look, but with not a lot of equipment. That was a really impressive showing and a good example of having built from the larger room down to the smaller one.

Brixton was really fun. So here you can see what I was talking about earlier regarding scaling down. There are only a few of the towers on stage here because most of it just wouldn't fit on the stage. This was definitely a case of how a small room can end up feeling really big.

Electric Brixton, London UK: 11/1/25

So on the note of accidental geometry, I wanted to show you another one…

OH, is it the pentagram one?

Yeah, the pentagram.

Where the hell was that?

LA Forum: 11/1/24

It was at the Forum. I saw this pop up once and then just waited it out, and luckily you ran through the progression again and I was able to catch it. Were you really not trying that?

Haha, yeah, when you sent that one I was like, woah. Admittedly, no, I wasn't actually trying it, but yeah, that was sick.

Hmmm, ok, we'll go with "accidental pentagram"... good cover 

This concludes our chat with Terence, for now. Our thanks from kglw.net to Terence for making this series possible. We’re all looking forward to him lighting the way as KGLW continues its evolution.