Music producer Flying Lotus talks new album, Coltrane family and video games

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What was it like linking up with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke?

Well a lot of times when I listen to Radiohead I wonder ‘How do they do this?’ Whenever I see Thom, I never talk to him about that kind of stuff and then I’m like ‘Ah! I should have asked him about this.’ With our relationship, we talk about life stuff, and sh*t we’re trippin’ on; it’s that kind of thing and it’s never like a geeky thing. Then we’ll nerd out over music on email and  then in this business when it came to making this record, we would send stuff back to each other and he was asking me what’s the album, what’s it about and I’d tell him my ideas about what the songs mean and he’d say  ‘Alright I think I got something.’ Then we’d take that concept turn it into something else.

Do you find it easier or what are the challenges in conveying a message or a project with a track when you use minimum vocals or verses?

I think there is this kind of stigma where it’s not okay for a producer or someone to use the same sound twice.  Sometimes you’d hear reoccurring sounds with Timbaland beats like and you’re like ‘Oh man he just used the same drums from his other work.’  I adopted that formula for this record.  I felt like ‘Okay well if I’m going to make an album, I want to make some sounds keeping coming back throughout the record so it feels like they’re unified. I listen to a lot of Shuggie Otis when I’m feeling inspired or high or whatever.  There is one constant drum machine you hear throughout the whole thing. It’s like he had one drum machine on the whole record, and I love that idea where you’d say what a certain set of toys; you have certain sets of tools and a specific thing you make from it. You can use all these different sounds and have all these different genres and all these different things, but you can play with the same tools and it just unifies everything. So, that was something I tried to adopt in this record. I didn’t want to get too many new sounds but just let me work with these folders and sounds and try to build something out of it.

Were you into video games and cartoons prior to your work with Adult Swim? Are there any video game soundtracks that you play that really stick out?

Yeah. I would name Mario Brothers just because they are so embedded in my subconscious over and over and over. I really like the music from the Silent Hill games; those are my favorite soundtrack plus the Final Fantasies. I remember that time so well; it was so cool between my friends going through the games. It was like a universal thing, that everyone was going through.

For anyone that is an up-and-coming producer, what words of wisdom would you give to them in their journey?

I would say play out the trends but don’t play into them. Find the things that work with what’s happening and turn them into something else. As well as listening to other music that is different as what we do, than what you do. It really does help reading books. Just really try to immerse yourself in creative field. Don’t just say ‘I’m a beat maker’ and that’s it, get into all the arts; what about paintings and all these different beautiful art forms that exist, because they will all inspire the work in some way.

You can check out Kyle’s musical coverage on theGrio music page, and follow Kyle on Twitter at@HarveyWins.