Thundercat

Growing up, I always loved working with people. I love playing with people and having that moment of discovering something different. I believe in the magic of what music is.

Driving around with my dad, growing up, he would play everything: Philip Bailey, Manhattan Transfer, Frank Zappa, Cream. I'd be like, 'Dad, cut this stuff off!' And he'd say, 'No, you're gonna listen to it.' I didn't understand why he liked it so much. In my mind, I would be thinking about the theme song to 'Sonic the Hedgehog.'

My whole being sonically comes from my dad's understanding of music.

My high school teacher, Reggie Andrews, was a huge factor in my learning my instrument. He didn't play bass, but it was the part where he gave me a knowledgeable perspective of what it was that I was doing.

I can tell when one of my songs is played on the radio because everybody just starts calling and texting me. It gets overwhelming because if you don't answer the right ones, they think you hate them, or you're ignoring them and are not friends anymore. It's all kind of crazy.

Money comes and goes. But when you look back on your career, you have be able to answer to yourself, 'Did I make the most of my time on earth?'

As a working musician, your first instinct is to try and do your job. It wasn't always my aspiration to sing; I just wanted to be a great working musician. But then Flying Lotus suggested I try, and nothing has ever been the same since.

I try not to think too hard about music. I like to see where it goes. I try not to give it a direction. I figure out what it is as it's forming. I don't have any goal in mind other than to make the best music I can.

I feel like I try to write from an honest of a place as I can - without scaring people off too much, I guess.

A lot of joking stems from a very dark place a bit.

I'll look at superheroes and comics and stuff and wonder, 'Why wouldn't you dress like that if you could?' With fashion, I look at it as a way to express that. I don't really pull any punches on it; otherwise, you get caught up in this nexus of dressing like everyone else.

I'm a guy where my perfect pitch has been altered by the fact that I usually tune up to what's going on. When I was a kid, it was horrible! If two notes were playing right next to each other, and they were dissonant, it would drive me nuts. If it was something that sounded like it was in between notes, it'd make me cringe.