Meet The Visual Artist Behind All The Vibes At Your Favorite Concerts

June 11, 2022 Off By Eliza Dumais

The ideal concert experience requires a complex recipe. Sure, the music itself likely takes precedence, but there’s also a precise alchemy of other essential ingredients: the venue, the crowd, the sound system — and if you’re an experimental artist and stage designer like John King (A.K.A. Timeboy) the technical visuals are the element that seals the deal. Think: shadow displays, light shows, and immersive video back drops.

“When I’m working with a band, we’ll sit down and talk through what they feel is the vital aesthetic for their music,” he says. “Then, the challenge for me is to take that idea, and put it into a computer. We all have a million creative ideas, but my job is to find a system to actually bring those things or ideas into the world.”

With over 10 years of experience in the industry — and a roster of A-list clients (Prince, Santigold, the Weeknd, Kanye West to name a few), Timeboy clearly has a gift for bringing music to life in a visual format. “What I do is create new worlds for concert-goers to immerse themselves in,” he explains. “So when I’m trying to make something new, I close my eyes, listen to music, and build that stage in my head — a mental construct of what that experience can look like.”

In the spirit of that very creativity, we partnered with Bombay Sapphire to better explore the inspiration behind the much-lauded new dimensions Timeboy crafts through audio visuals. Watch the video above to see mixed media artist Tschabalala Self in conversation with John King while they explore inspiration, the art of collaboration, and contemporary music.