In 1988, Locks and his SVA classmate Fred Armisen and friend Wayne Montana formed Trenchmouth, a Chicago-based punk band, in which he was the lead vocalist and percussionist, Montana was the bassist, and Armisen was the drummer.[3] The band released five albums during its active years: Construction of New Action (1991), Inside the Future (1993), Trenchmouth Vs. the Light of the Sun (1994), The Broadcasting System (1996), and best-of album Volumes, Amplifiers, Equalizers (1994). It disbanded in 1997.[2] Locks and Montana founded another band, the Eternals, immediately afterwards, releasing five albums (with another on the way): The Eternals (2000), Rawar Style (2004), Heavy International (2007), and Approaching the Energy Field (2011), and "Espiritu Zombie" (2016).[2]
In 2008, Locks joined Exploding Star Orchestra, a musical ensemble founded by Rob Mazurek, and worked on his first album with the ensemble, Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra, a collaboration with composer Bill Dixon. It was Dixon's final collaborative album before his death in 2010.[2] Since then, he has been on further Exploding Star Orchestra albums: Dimensional Stardust (2020), Lightning Dreamers (2023), Galactic Parables, vol. 1 (2015), 63 Moons of Jupiter (2014), and Live at Adler Planetarium (2024).
Locks founded the jazz group Black Monument Ensemble in 2015, and recorded the group's debut album in 2018, a live album recorded at Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. Consisting of fifteen members, Black Monument Ensemble performed the album, titled Where Future Unfolds. The album was officially released in 2019 through International Anthem.[3]
In 2020 and 2021, Locks released the second album for Black Monument Ensemble, Now (with Black Monument Ensemble), which was largely recorded outdoors in the back patio of Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio due to the pandemic. In 2023, he collaborated with Rob Mazurek on a duo album, New Future City Radio (with Mazurek). In 2025, he released his first ever solo album, List of Demands.[2]