Whenever it gets a little cold in L.A., it gives me an excuse to light my fireplace. You could stare at that joint for, like, a cool two hours. It's entrancing.
— Flying Lotus
I remember Usher came up to me at Coachella once, and it's like, 'Are you sure you're talking to the right person? How do you even know what I look like? You're not supposed to know who I am.'
I go through phases where I'm not into jazz as much, and then I'll get heavy, heavy, heavy into it.
The first beat that I ever made that I thought was actually worth a damn was called 'Toilet Paper Nostrils,' and I made it when I had a cold. I had the worst cold ever. And I had toilet-paper nostrils making music, but it was really reflective of how I felt. It was a really sad trumpet sound.
I've always been a techie kind of person.
My collaborations tend to be pretty organic. It starts off with me being a fan first.
I was 10 years old when the Northridge quake happened, and I lived right in the area, so it was a traumatic thing for me. I'd never had anything like that happen before. It's always stuck with me.
I'm the kind of person who needs to be challenged all the time. I need my brain to go, or else I just end up playing video games all day, you know? That's cool too, I guess, at times.
I like Philip Glass. I think he's made some really great contributions to his field. I love his style of playing - it's very loop-style.
I'm a silly guy.
I just understand that I'm supposed to be one of those people that disrupts the flavor a little bit instead of being part of the same sound as everyone else.
I am a big cinema nerd! I've absorbed a lot of films.
Death is a reality, and one day I'm not going to be here anymore, and whatever's next might not be that bad either.
It's the old-school jazz mentality that I connect with the most. I dig the idea of the seeker, the guy who's always trying to figure out why he is doing music and trying to understand and make sense of his instrument in a world which deals with rigid instruction.
A strong concept is the most important thing in creating a record. When you can listen to it and see a whole movie in your head, that's what separates an instrumental album from a beat tape.
I wish I could write music notation. Even if I couldn't play it, I wish I could just write it.
I was first inspired to make music by my cousin Oran. He was making music on an old Mac II by himself in his little lab, and I just started taking up after him. He was the first person to put a machine in front of me to work on. He was like my big brother, someone who I looked up to.
I like when my mind is being stimulated and challenged, and I'm forced to be creative.
When I can make music and don't have to think about anyone else's ideas or voice - when I'm making something that only I can make - it feels good. It's nice when you can find a sound that only you can make. No one else can make 'Cosmogramma.' No one else can make 'Until the Quiet Comes.'
Truth be told, I think jazz is a mind-set. It's not necessarily, like, this guy picked up a horn and did this or whatever.
I decided to play the saxophone because it was the most obvious instrument in my family. There were a lot of saxophone players in my family, and there were extra saxophones, so that was an easy one to pick up. It was fun - it was okay - it just wasn't me. It didn't feel like my instrument, so I never followed through.
I need to help people to create the best work that they can. It's just something a producer should do anyway.
I go through phases when I'm super into my anime stuff.
I can't let darkness be what guides my decisions. I can't let that be what guides how I treat people. I can't let that be what drives my art, either.
I like boring. Boring is cool.
My music divides people!
I like comedy.
I'd love to work with Drake. I got Drake beats.
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which doesn't feel like L.A. It's a bit different. It's still L.A. County, but it's not the same, it's not the kind of place where they embrace you for being a weirdo. You were just left alone with your Nintendo, and that was my life.
I love Snoop - I grew up with his music - but I never thought for a second that we'd work together.
I'm not much of a coffee person, but when I wake up and the sun is shining through the window, I'll get a lil' bit of green tea and get to work.
When I made '1983,' there were a bunch of tracks that were in the early drafts that didn't make it because they just sounded like tracks for rappers, and that's not really the sound I look for when I produce my own albums.
It's okay to not be working all the time and to be gentle on yourself when you're not. When it feels like you're losing that inspiration - or you're in a rut, not making stuff, and your head gets all weird - be gentle on yourself. Just ease into things naturally. But you still have to ease into it: you still have to sit in the chair.
I'm just a fan of art and culture.
I work a lot.
For me, being 10 years old and seeing 'Jurassic Park' for the first time blew my mind. I want music to feel like that.
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.
I built computers and stuff when I was a teenager and whatever.
Whenever I am making stuff, I got a thing in the back of my mind: 'Oh, this would be so perfect for' whoever.
I love 'Pop Team Epic,' which is really trippy.
I'm always seeing stuff and imagining scenes in my head when I'm making music.
Childish Gambino - him and I are the same age, and I really like him.
I've been working with Thundercat forever.
I feel like my music has a reputation for being pretty serious or whatnot, but I like having fun.
Takashi Miike is definitely one of my top five, you know?
I always feel like the past informs my present musically.
Part of what I like to do with Brainfeeder is to get the younger kids hearing jazz, because they don't know where to go to really hear it. Brainfeeder gives me a platform to put out people like Kamasi Washington or Austin Peralta.
Before saying, 'This track is so dope; it's gonna go on the album,' I like to take some time away from it and see how I feel about it in a few months. If it's gonna get released, I gotta love it - it's gonna have my name on it forever.
I first was introduced to really, I guess, underground electronic music when I was in middle school.
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.
