Flying Lotus
I built computers and stuff when I was a teenager and whatever.Collection: Computers
I'm so thankful that I had music to turn to in the dark times and be able to understand myself through it.Collection: Thankful
I actually really liked the music to the 'Friday the 13th' Nintendo game. I still listen to it all the time. I sampled it in a couple records, too. It's hypnotic and dark but also really pretty.
I had a little Walkman, the worst Walkman ever. It was the yellow one, that underwater Walkman. Like you need to take a Walkman under water.
The Soft Machine's 'Volume Two' inspired me heavily. That record just feels like it was all done in the same breath. It's genius, and it's silly at times. But I love the fact that every time I listen to it, I listen from the beginning and want to play it out.
People are not able to just make music anymore; we have to do things that don't necessarily make the art any better. But that's just how it is.
People don't really care to be around you when you're going through tough times.
I was a real big fan of Lil Wayne when he first came out.
It's tough when you're an artist because you get to go around the world and make a lot of friends, but guess what? One day, all these people that you love are going to die, from DJ Mehdi to DJ Dusk to J Dilla to Austin Peralta to DJ Rashad.
I love my Fender Rhodes. It's been a part of my family since that keyboard came out, and I've had it reworked so that it's in the best condition it's actually ever been in. That is my baby.
I took to the synthesizer. My cousin had some synthesizers, and I'd always make stuff on those things.
I played saxophone for a while when I was a kid.
Thundercat put me on to George Duke.
If I have to be 'the experimental guy' or whatever, then I'll roll with it.
I'm not the kind of person who's always out at the club if I don't have to be. I like chilling. I think that comes across in my music.
Thundercat, specifically, is insane. I'm always surprised at the things he comes up with when we're jamming out together. I gotta try to keep up with him and his ideas, be able to respond without speaking, and come through with some more music. He challenges me to keep it musical and not so computer.
I definitely learned to communicate with other musicians better. I used to feel so intimidated by guys who can read notes, like, 'Oh my God, they're gonna think I'm not even gonna be able to sit at the table.' But I've come to see that a lot of these musicians don't know how to read music either, and that made me feel good.
I wouldn't want to get involved with a game that's a stinker - I can smell one of those a mile away.
I know what it's like listening to Aphex Twin driving down the beach.
I'm a geek, man.
I had the whole 'Ghostbusters' toy set with the firehouse and the car and everything. Sometimes I'd use my grandpa's camera and make little stop-motion cartoons with those toys - I was definitely a weird kid.
In high school, I was that guy who was trying to be cool with everybody, but I never really had a core group of friends.
If I work with Bjork, then I'll be a happy soul, man.
When I was in middle school, that's when I first started making beats. I was maybe 14, 16, something like that.
'Cosmogramma' is basically the studies that map out the universe and the relations of heaven and hell.
I don't want to do one of those records where it's like a compilation of a bunch of all sorts of rappers on my beats. I don't find those to be focused albums.
I believe there's more than this - that maybe, when we die, our brains conjure up some kind of shutdown experience, and that's what people try to sum up as the afterlife.
All of the Flying Lotus records are exploring similar themes: These questions in my mind about what's next and what's beyond.
Reading music has opened up me up so much. I've been experimenting for so long and trying to make sense of things just from my ears. It takes forever. Now I can get where I want much quicker.
When I got into music, that was another way to be by myself.
We're all trying so hard to be beautiful, but the people in 'Kuso' are trying so hard to be disgusting.
I do think your environment really plays into how you create. I lived in San Francisco for a bit, and I felt like I lived in the Matrix - so my music had that paranoid-of-the-outside sound to it.
If I see a cop, it's not like, 'Oh, there's a cop who's gonna keep me safe.' It's more, 'There's a cop who might be having a bad day, so don't make eye contact.'
Sometimes I feel evil!
I don't like to brag about it, but there are people I've worked with at the start of their career, and they've all become very, very successful.
George Clinton is the best storyteller in the world.
Before I started Brainfeeder, there were rumblings in our own circle about creating a label for us all. Then I started to see all these other ones from Europe try to capitalise on the scene. It didn't make sense to me that there were all these people who were trying to build on something that was in our backyard.
There are things I've seen and experienced in this world - things they don't talk about in too many books.
I like to stay in the space of creativity, and I want to go towards that all the time.
The Internet makes it possible for everyone to collaborate.
I'm really grateful for all of the things I've had to learn along the way, you know? I don't know if I would want to say anything to my younger self. That way, you know, it really means something. If you have to go through it all, it really means something.
I love Dilla, and who knows where this beat thing would be without him.
Dilla could flip a boring record and make you feel like you were flying.
Kendrick is a true genius artist.
The producer role attracts introverts. Making music on your computer is so appealing to someone who just sits in their room all day.
When it comes to art in general now, we've become so aware of our influence. We know when people are listening, when people are watching. It's not healthy. We start creating with that in the background of our mind. I think it's ruined my mind.
With every album that I do, I try to feature a new instrument or sound.
I don't have a great story, but I love Boards of Canada. I didn't get into it when it was happening; I got into it later on.
I feel like part of my journey as a filmmaker is to tell different stories, whether they are just a black perspective on things that aren't necessarily hood movies, or Tyler Perry movies or Ava DuVernay movies. Love all those people, but that whole thing has been sowed up already.
I never leave L.A. for too long. I'm not one of those that go on a tour of the whole world. I probably should be, but I'm not.