Flying Lotus

00:00:08 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Just a quick note here, you can listen to all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, which you can find a link to in the show notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect. All right, enjoyed the episode, Flying Lotus isn't one of those producers who just programs beats. He creates an entire esthetic world for the music he makes to live in. Over the past thirteen years, he's a massed a diverse body of work through the label he started, Brain Feeder. He's released four solo albums, produced tracks with Kendrick Lamar, Tom York director actor David Lynch in The Climb featuring Thundercat. Musical innovation runs deep in Flylo's family. His grandmother, Marilyn McLeod, wrote songs from Van Gay, Diana Ross, and other motown artists. His great aunt Alice Coltrane married and played in John Coltrane's final bands, then after his death, released a slew of classic albums that seemed to grow in stature every passing year. In this episode, Rick Rubin and Flying Loads chop it up about visiting Alice Coltrane's ashram as a kid, why his peak creative hours have changed over the years, and why he directed a horror flick despite being scared to death as a child by the thriller video. This is broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's Rick Rubin and Flying Loice. How would you say your relationship to music has changed from when you were a kid till now? It's funny. There's this video of me when I was a little kid, and I was it was like my mom my grandma asked me questions, was I so, Steve, how old are you? And he like, like, Steve, what do you want to do? When you go? I want to I don't know whatever, But I was. I was kind of in this little interview moment, and then I think there was some Stevie Wonder that kind of turned on in the background, and you just saw that I was just like perked up and just was like I'm out of here, and I went towards the speaker and I was like, okay, yeah, that's the same same. Nothing's strange. I would just say that over time that my relationship with music has just gotten so much deeper. You know, at this point, it's so crazy to think that I thought, maybe four or five years ago, that I was the peak of my love for music or my love for creating music. And now I know that I was wrong, because I feel like, right now I'm there again. You know, I feel like I spent so much time learning things the past couple of years with synthesis and you know, studying piano and studying theory, harmonic theory and stuff that actually just yeah, it gave me another burst of life in this whole thing. You know, I feel like I just added more time than my clock. That's good for all of us, I hope. So what was the LA scene like when you were coming up? What was going on when you first started? When I first started, the scene that I was really kind of watching was what stone Throw Records were doing. They were doing a lot of stuff, Ubiquity was doing a lot of stuff. We had all these cool parties like Pooh Bah and Sketch Book. That was a cool scene. And you know, there was like a lot of people playing music that we like, you like shift from, like Jay Dillah and mad Lib, you know, that kind of beat music that that kind of vibe was going around, and you started to see all these other producer beat maker kids who were kind of hanging around, but they didn't feel I think it was like even more underground than Mad Living Diala. It was. It was just like weird because we we didn't care about rappers. We didn't. We were just like we're gonna do this without them, you know, like we just came for the beats, you know. And I think that was like that freak a lot of people out, I think at first, but I think we were there was at a point where it just didn't seem like rappers going anywhere, so I think the producers were just like, oh, let's just do this. I think the scene was kind of built in the parking lots of a lot of parties because we were just like listening the tracks in the cars, like with the doors open, blasting them out in the parking lot. You know, Like that was like a whole vibe playing tracks on the Homies boombox. Could you tell that something was going on? Could you tell, like there's a vibe? Yeah, it was like that it was important. That was important totally. You can totally tell it was important. It was because there's so many people who loved the same things. Yeah, there was just there was this just this frustration. It was just like this empty thing. It was just a void still. And I think that that became something that I held onto for so long actually and try to recognize, is that, you know, people need to be heard. They have to keep your ear out to the scene. You gotta keep your ear out. You gotta like know what's going on in the streets, man, because you don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss the thing. You don't you don't want to be left out of the of that new moment, the next moment. At that point in time, while the underground was just sort of taking form in La, what was the mainstream of hip hop like at that time? Do you remember, oh, mainstream? Was it still like New York centric or not? Necessarily? I would say it was still New York, but it was starting to get southern, you know, starting to go in that direction for some reason, I feel like, why do I want to say, gee, even it was a thing you know, like around around then it was like two thousand and five, I guess. So, yeah, it was like that kind of post Shining Suit era of hip hop. Looking back, now on the lacne men. Would you say that there were any similar scenes anywhere else in the world at that time, like kind of picking up the same kind of vibe. Absolutely, there was a crazy synergy around that moment for us because at the same time MySpace came out too, and that was a way for all of us to kind of hear what everyone else was doing around the world, especially you know, I think that that kind of helped cultivate the scene and let us know that it wasn't just us out there. There's small labels in Europe trying to do this stuff now, and there's small labels in Japan trying to do it, and it was like, okay, well this is something, this is actually something, and they keep looking to la So that was that was another thing. But I had a feeling then my Space was was kind of popping off and dubstep was kind of popping it was at the same time. Like so it was like a new electronic thing was brewing. The beats and the wobbly stuff going on and calling it wonky and all. They were trying to find all types of names to describe it. But it was just dope because it was the first time LA and UK are connecting like this, we're hearing stuff that just was just born in the studio, you know, last night, and that's that never happened before then. So I think it allowed a lot of people to just kind of accelerate the sound quicker too. You know, you hear something like it becomes part of the consciousness and then it just snowballs and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and suddenly you know, there's hell of people trying to do this thing. Yeah, it does seem like that connection between the UK and LA at that time. It's a fascinating one. Yeah, And it was definitely like just the underground sound. He knew it wasn't meant to be for everybody, but people really wanted it back in the day. How did you first connect with Kendrick? I first connected with Kendrick on on Twitter. He was like, have somebody tell Flying loadus to hit me up. I was like, I was already following this cat. I was like, whoa, what do you talk? I'm here, hello, here, here, I am, sir. What did he already what did he already have out at that time? He was he was still on section eighty. I think around then. It's just still a kind of early days. I think when Good Kid Mad City came out, he and I that at his signing in San Francisco. When that album came out, I came out to a signing and he hung out for a little bit. And you know, ever since then, it was like, we gonna make something, We gotta do something, we gotta do some we gotta do a project, gotta do ep, you got you know something. And then, um, the way we really started connecting was for some reason, he reached out to me because he wanted me to help him make his live show for the Yeasest tour that he did. What a time. I mean that record right there, that was that was huge record, that one. But anyway, yeah, I started working with him around then and I started playing stuff to him on that tour that kind of had that sort of like Parliament sound to it, kind of like Funkadelic sound, and he was really feeling that and that kind of kicked things off for the Pimp Butterfly and it kind of, you know, that was kind of the beginning of our collaboration. For our song never Catch Me In That was did you did you go on the tour. Yeah, I was on the tour for Little Bit. Yeah, I was there. I was there for the first few stops. How was that? It was cool? It was cool. It was really uh. It was really trippy to have been part of that show. And I'd never done anything like that before. I never put on helped anybody build a live show, so it was really uh, it was really fun. I never thought that would happen. It sounds great. Yeah, it sounds like fun experience and it's interesting to get to to get to experimenting new arenas. It's just fun. It's a fun. You know, if all you ever did was just sit and make beats forever, I know, But then when you go and do something else interesting, and then you come back, you get to make beats again, and it's incredible all over again. Yoh yeah. That's the thing. Like anytime I have to do anything else, I get so excited to just go home make some beats. But it's just let me make beats, that's it. That's all I want to do. I found the same with working on different kinds of music. If if all I have, dude, was make hip hop records, it would have gotten old long time ago. For all I made was heavy metal records. It would have gotten old. But the fact that I get to really submerge myself in different different things keeps it really interesting. It's always new. I never you know, I never know what's going to happen next, and that's a good feeling. Yeah, tell me, tell me a little bit about your creative process, like, um, are you always making something? What's the what's the rhythm of your work? Like I'm kind of similar, you know, I'm always in something, but with music especially, I'm like so in it right now and always trying to learn more. You know. I think whenever I get in a place where I feel comfortable, I'm like, all right, I need to learn some more stuff. I need to learn how to do things that I don't know yet. And this, this kind of quarantine time has been really good for me to just kind of focus and hone in on a couple of little things that I wanted to learn. You know, I really wanted to understand synthesis on like a very detailed level. You know, I don't want to be one of those people who's just like always using the presets and stuff on synthesizers. I wanted to know like exactly what everything does, and I spend time like just digging into that. So now I can go up to any of these boards, I know exactly how to get the sounds I want. And you know, this is like a little bit of time that has now, you know, changed the rest of my life. Now it's like I know from here on out, I'll be able to get get busy on it, you know, like like I always wanted to. So, yeah, I don't know my process. Though I wake up early. I'm not one of those people who stays up until crazy. I wish I could. What are your hours? Usually I start to day at six in the morning and then I go to bed like twelve one, But I'm like always on the machine between you know, work hours. I try to treat it like a job now really, where I'm just like on it nine to five at least, and then if it's super inspired, keep going. But at five I feel comfortable like stepping away and throwing on some cartoons. From the time you wake up, how soon do you start working? Usually after I brush my teeth and do all that stuff, you know, I'm like right right on it. I feel like that's my best, my best energetic moment. It actually is when I'm like just fresh out of bed ready to work, you know, sometimes after coffee and a joint or something good to go. But I wish I could do the late night thing because I do find that when I'm up late at night working on music that I'm less inhibited and the ideas they're not as you know, just you don't think so much. She's just kind of like flowing whatever. The the ghost is just like it flows through you way easier, less cerebral, you know. But I also find that I'm way less attentive to detail, and I don't really care about the little things as much. It's just like all idea. Do you think that has to do with you and how long you've been awake or do you think it has to do with something else? For me, personally, it's definitely time of day and energy. I feel like by the time eight o'clock rolls around, you know, I like smoked like several blunts, and you know, I'm tired, and you know, it's just I feel like I need a lot of energy to make music. Personally, I need a lot of energy or else it's just gonna be like you know, a couple of chords. You know, I need to be able to, like, I need to have this pulse in me, like when I'm working on stuff, or it just don't work. So whenever I got that, when I got that energy, it's good to go. Has this schedule and that rhythm of working always been your whole life. No, I feel like I only really started waking up early when I started having like British management and then my label, my record label, Warp Records. They they're based in the UK, so I think I started getting used to getting emails and phone calls super early in the morning. So my brain just kind of go. I was like, whoa, they might be trying to find me. I don't know, you know, maybe my brain just starts going. But before then I was definitely like a night out. But now I'm just kind of adjusted too, you know, always being awake. And so it's so funny you say that when I was when I lived in New York, I was on the late schedule, and I would usually sleep until three and then yeah, probably not be outside until it was dark, and then that would be my schedule. And you go to sleep sort of typically heading home as the sun was coming up was typical. Yeah, that's the artist special right there. That's it. So in the morning, you brush your teeth, go into the studio, and how does the process start, Like, what's the first thing you do? Well, lately, what I do now is I try to just write some patches and the keyboard or like synthesizer stuff. I go up to a machine, one of my machines and try to make a patch that I've not heard before, whether it's like a cool pad sound or a cool lead tone something, because then that will inspire an idea always, so it starts with it. So it starts with a sound. Yeah, usually starts with a sound, or you know, I'll just start playing keys, play some chords and then you know, then trying to find a sound that goes with it, and then a thing happens. But yeah, I love just trying to write patches. I think that's been a really fun kind of thing to add to my daily routine. Is I have to make a new sound today. What does it sound like? And you know what can I apply from other things that I've learned to it? I mix it with samples. You know what happens when I run through a reverb? This that whatever, and then maybe that's the beginning of a song, and like the past few times I've done that, it comes out as a song. Does the sound from the time that you get sound where it's like, okay, this is the sound and you're inspired by it and you feel like, okay, now I'm ready to develop past finding the sound, does that sound ever change going forward? Or is that sort of the central theme that is unchanged regardless of what else goes on around it. That part is usually unchanged because I feel like I end up structuring everything else around it, you know. But sometimes you find that, oh, well, this sound was actually too bright in the context of the track now, so you gotta filter it down a little bit and then change things. But yeah, usually it is the spark happens with that sound is like oh and then you know you started like, oh it sounds good with these drums, and oh, he just keeps going, and you know, two hours goes by, and yeah, typically, how long does it take to find the sound? And from the time it takes to find the sound, what give me an idea? Um, it can take from like five to twenty minutes, I think to write a patch when I'm not in a hurry to put something out. I really do enjoy recording sounds and recording noises, grabbing different tones and things because that's my palette. That's that's what I have to work with. And you know, we're kind of in this time where everyone is using like the same sounds and the same drums and the same noises. So for me personally, I'm in this place now where I'm trying to go out of my way to make sure that all the sounds that I have are unique. So you're working on the sound, what's the feeling in you that tells you, Okay, I'm gonna move forward with this sound? What does it? What does that feel like? How do you know? It's it's like it's the same sound as when you hear that break on a record, you know, where you hear something and you're like, oh my god, I gotta sample this where it's like it almost feels like you cheated, Like it's just like there's no way I'm supposed to have this right now, no one's watching, you know, It's like it feels like that, and that's when you know, and then you like you get you like you play some chords and there's like a little like chord. It sounds like, you know, that's when that's when they do it, when you hit the record button. Yeah, it's a it's a thrilling feeling, isn't it that? It is? It is. It's addicting because you know, every time you feel like you're getting close to that perfect beat, that perfect thing, and it never is, but you just feel like, oh, i'most there, you know, if only, if only? Typically do you work on music thinking it's going to be instrumental? Is that the typical default? No, there's no default. I think I just try to make stuff and then serve whatever the sound is later, you know, like it's like, okay, this don't need nobody, just let it be. But I think lately I do write music with vocalists in mind a lot of times, because there's you know how it is, there's people knocking on the door. You know, I'm working with Thundercat, you know, and all these different people and they're gonna want tracks. So I always try to keep that in mind. But I don't ever go into it a thing thinking it's going to be a certain type of track. But I like to just kind of just feel the ghost where we're going, I don't know, but you got me hype now talking about making tracks right now, we'll be back with Flying Lotus after quick break. We're back with Flying Lotus. After talking about the difficulties that come along with directing movies, Flylow tells Rick about his great aunt, jazz legend and spiritualist Alice Coltrane. How would you say the creative muscle is different between making music and making film. Making films and making music are so different, and they're they're such different muscles. But it's weird because there are things that relate where especially with producing, where you know, it's it's up to us to kind of vocalize a lot of things that are in our minds and manifest these ideas to people who can. You know, they have these different tools and different things that they bring to the table, so you have to be able to wrangle each department and be able to communicate with them this grand vision that you have. Same with music, same with film, though both of those things relate. But I would say film it's it's way more fucked up because there's way more money involved and there's way more people involved. And when it comes to music, I can i can just sit here in my room and make an album alone, really, But with film you could do that, but it wouldn't be the most interesting movie in the world. But you know, if you did it with CG animation or something, that could be great. But it's hard to make a movie on your own. I think producing making beats and stuff, it lends itself to people who are kind of more introverted, introspective, But I think with films you have to really be able to be outward and expressive, and it's it's it is a different muscle for sure. Yeah, it sounds like with music you have to motivate yourself to do it, and with a movie you have to motivate the cast and crew. Yeah, absolutely, get the vision to come to life. Yeah, and you have to stay You have to obviously be the most motivated, you know, like, because there's no one who's going to be nearly as motivated as you on your film project. It's hard. It's hard. It's one of those things where you know, if anyone ever recommends, like what should I do? How should I don't do it? Don't I just don't do it? But would you imagine doing it again? Oh? Absolutely, Yeah, I will. I don't know if I recommend it for everyone, but I definitely will. But you know the things that I've done, and you know, I've learned so much in my process that you can't wait to do it again because of all the things that you've learned. You say, Okay, well, next time I make a film, I could do it like this, And you know, it's like could have, would have, should have hindsight. It's crazy, you know. So when people are building things and constructing props from your imagination and you're seeing these things manifested and people acting out dialogue that you wrote, that's there's no drug that can compare to nothing like it. How did you choose to make that particular movie? Are you a fanatic of horror movies? I love horror films. I love horror films. I've always loved horror films, especially because when I was a kid, I was terrified of horror films until maybe like ten years old. I was like really afraid of these movies, you know, like Freddy Krueger. He would always be in my dreams and stuff and the be like so like why would they make these horrible things to frighten us? You know, and even like thriller. I remember that video was like so scary. When I was a kid, I didn't want to see the thrillers into Michael Jackson change and none of that stuff. Just I couldn't deal with it. And eventually when it starts to get fun and you're like, oh, this is just props and effects and stuff and you learn all the stuff, and I don't know, I just fell in love with it. I think because it was so scary to me. I loved it so much. And yeah, I love the genre. I love horror. I love horror films and scary games and you know the maccab but I love I love all that stuff. But I also love funny stuff too. I love when those things can intersect. I don't love serious horror as much as I like funny horror and being able to have fun with it and be playful. I guess because life is pretty serious enough. You know that life is pretty real, So when you can have your horror with comedy, it's it's a lot easier to digest for me these days. But I think when it came to me making my own movie, I wanted to make something that I know i'd have fun with because making movies as hard as shit. I was like, Yo, I want to make something that every day that I work on this thing, I will have a great time. I will laugh my ass off, and you know, just it'll be a blast for everyone in the process. How much does the work that you've aid in the past influenced the work that you make? Now, that's a good question, you know. I actually I think that's why, you know, side projects and alter egos become so attractive to people, to other artists, because they get to take a little bit of pressure off themselves to explore different things. Yeah. I definitely feel the pressure of things that I've done in my catalog. I mean, man, you must feel the pressure of your beard, dude, come on, man like like you know, like that beard. You know, like people are like, oh, man, Rick Rubin, It's like, you know the thing, man, you know, I would say it's more itch than pressure. Pressure. It's like, but what was the last time you thought about cutting it off? I've never thought about cutting it off, right, But I also didn't think about growing it at any point. It just kind of happened. It was I decided to stop shaving, and this is what happens when you stop. But you know, if you cut it off, that shit would suck people up. Me especially, I wouldn't recognize myself. Tell me about Alice. Oh yeah, Alice was just always Auntie. You know, she was she was Auntie. She was my closest aunt, close, one of my closest relatives. So my experience with her was was really unique. I saw her as you know, my grandmother's sister, mostly um, but she was also you knew that she was this very special, unique individual. And as time went on and as I grew up, and you know, I just would respect her more and more every head seeing like every decade, I would just wow, my Auntie is amazing human being. Oh wow, my aunt amazing. You know. I remember going to college and then really really falling in love with her music and coming home from college and you know, it was like, wow, teacher, where have you been this whole time? You know, you were just telling me how to just you know, break the lawn and stuff. You show me different things on the piano. But I didn't know how deep it went, you know, because I felt like in my youth and in a lot of her lifetime, she was John Coltrane's wife. That was her thing. You know, she wasn't Alice Coltrane a great jazz icon in her own right. People were always asking her, what was it like being John Coltrane's you know, you know, it was like she didn't have any problem with that. But I think that that just kind of became her thing, you know, for for so long, so we the emphasis wasn't on her music or on her personal legacy or it was always about his. And you know, I think only towards the end of her life she really started getting back into making music again and then that was you know, it just kind of we started to see her as the artist again, you know, the things that she would create because she took so much time off of it. I mean I would I'd never I see her a lot. I never I've never seen her practice. Yeah, never see her practice, but I see her play. She would play, But there never of that time where I come by this auntie and she was at the piano, messed around right, never ever ever ever, And you know, but she would unleash on Sundays at the ashram Um, but yeah, never never practice. Tell me about the ashram What was the scene like at the Ashram. Ashram Um as this beautiful, beautiful land in Agora Hills and it was recently destroyed by the fires. We had the wildfires two years ago, and but the Ashram was it was Yeah, it was beautiful. It was a big, big space and it was you know, as soon as you would get out of your car, you would notice is how you could hear a pin drop. It was just so quiet there and you know, there are people wearing white everywhere and like you rot coyfish ponds and stuff. It was very, very, very beautiful. But again, it's one of those things that I kind of just took for granted because it was there in my whole life, and you know, it was just something that we did on Sundays. But then as you get older you start living, you see how amazing spaces like this are, and yeah, it was a very unique experience. Did you ever talk about spirituality with you all the time? Yeah, yeah, she would, and she would always be kind of my my spiritual guide, I guess, And you know, i'd call all her up whenever I had a question that about the universe or wanted to try to make sense of this world, help me understand. She would always always have the right thing to say. Yeah, so unique, beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, we'll be right back with Flying Lotus. After a quick break, we're back with the rest of Rick's conversation with Flying Lotus. What are you working on now? Talk about it? Yeah, a few things actually read just as a fun thing. I was friends with Johnny Ramone from the Ramones, and Ramones were one of my favorite groups, top you know, top three favorite groups, and they made an album there I think it was their fifth album called End of the Century with Phil Spector, and it's it's as a Ramones fan at the time. I remember I was in junior high school when it came out, and I already loved the Ramones, maybe high school, first year high school maybe, And I remember buying the album and putting it on and being so disappointed because I loved the Ramons so much and it didn't sound like the Ramones and it just broke my heart. And then years later I met Johnny and then who lived in LA when I moved to LA started hanging out with him, and I told him the story when I heard the album, and he said, it breaks his heart hearing the album because he said they're great Ramones songs, but the way they were presented didn't sound like the Ramones. So he always thought it was a miss and his dream was for some day that album to be remixed and re released as a proper Ramones album again, not to take away anything from the original version, both of them. You know, you could listen to him back to back. So through a series of events, we tried doing it about ten years ago and it didn't come together. And in that time, Johnny passed away, and I always felt like, since he passed away, I always wanted to make his dream come true, like a true man. Yeah. Yeah, So we're just finishing at now and it's uh good. Yeah, And it's just like it's just a feel good project, like an artist's dream gets to come true posthumously. Yeah, that's good. What did you want to be different about it? He just wants to sound just like a Ramones record, like much more stripped down, much more direct, much more raw, Just to like to sound like if you listen to their first four albums, to have this fifth one sound like what you'd expect after those first four in the trajectory instead of the left turn. And it's interesting too, like I like, I like Left Turn albums, you know, I like both. Some people though, right, Yeah, depend people want them to change. That's what's fucked up. You know. It's rough. It's rough. Yeah. It's one of the things I recommend young artists is if they want to have that ability to do that, it's important to set that standard early in their career. Yeah, that you change all the time. Yeah, it's like if you make if you make four albums that are very much like Volume one, two, three, and four of the same idea, if Volume five is really different, there's a lot of people who are just not gonna like that. That's real. That's so real. Yeah. So it's almost like, in a way, it's like training your audience to be open to go on the journey review. It's like if you if you listen to the Beatles. The Beatles were clearly well received, and if you listen to the thirteen albums from the beginning to the end, they don't sound like the same band. Like they radically change every two albums radically, and those were typically thirteen albums over seven years, so it was two albums a year, so every year they were a different band essentially. Yeah, that's hard. It's hard to do. But yeah, I think I think doing the same thing and it's such a drag. But then like if James Brown did something else, I don't know if I want to hear it right right, Yeah, Yeah, I'm very happy with James Brown trajectory. Yeah. There's certain artists, yeah, a lot of Yeah, a lot of them. You just don't don't go there. You don't gotta you don't gotta be that person, don't do that. Yeah. I think it has to do with how much the artist is a genre defining artist. Maybe maybe I don't know, I don't know, something I never thought about before. But be interesting to understand why certain artists you you're excited about them to change, and other artists you don't want them to change. Yeah, because I think I think, yeah, you might you might be right about that. If they define a sound and then they step away from it, then it might be way way too jarring. Yeah, that was that was the experience with Jesus. There were a lot of people who were not on board with Jesus oh god man, Yeah, yeah, totally. And to me, that was my that's my favorite of all his stuff. I think it's just it's the most different. But yeah, the first listen was like, what the fuck is this shit? Fuck but fucking sounds that there ain't no sounds on here, And then it was like, whoa, this is some other futuristic shit. It's cool. I can remember also hearing Um trouble Funk for the first time. Right in the early days of hip hop. The only way that I was able to hear the only place you could hear hip hop when I was growing up was WHBI had a Mister Magic show, which was like a oh yeah, an hour long mix show of I'll call it underground hip hop because there was only underground hip hop at that time. There was no there was no above ground, you know. It's all the hip hop in the world was underground at that time, and you couldn't hear it on any mainstream station ever. UM, but this one weekly show for an hour played hip hop records and so we took it very uh. We cared a lot about that show because it was the only source of hearing this music and UM and then one week he played this Trouble Funk record which was like and it was also like a seven or eight minute track which had of an hour show that's a lot. Yeah, and it wasn't a rap record. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, why did you give away our time? Time this exactly, and I would forward, you know, the cassette. I would forward through the cassette, pass the trouble funk song to get back to the hip hop records. Yeah, and then within a couple of weeks the only thing I would listen to on the tape was a trouble funk song. Yeah. Yeah, that's how it goes. I always think about that, like I always try to spot out my least favorite song on the record that I listened to, and like, all right, is this going to be the one that I actually fall in love with? Because that happens so much, so much. Yea, it happens. Also sometimes with the thing that you love, the first time you hear it might not have sustaining power. Yeah it doesn't. Yeah, so I mean sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, yeah, sometimes it doesn't. The first thing that the single or whatever, that thing you fell in love with it is like, yeah, that's cool, but there's other deep cut that's gonna last me the rest of the year. Yeah. Can you think of any music in general, any Like, I remember when I was a kid, classical music didn't speak to me at all, and now I probably listened to that more than anything else. Definitely classical for me. Um, I didn't really vibe with it until I heard Stravinsky, um, some of that stuff, and then I connected it to Fantasia, and then I was like, oh, okay, all classical music is just Fantasia with no with no images. Okay, cool, it's all It's all this vibrant cartoon that keeps change changing, and you know obviously your connection with the changes. But yeah, I think that was that was huge. Fall in love with that music and just kind of being open to that at an early age I think was so so good for me. My favorite my favorite thing is new old music, you know, old music that I haven't heard before. That's that's the best because I just like the way that music's made and it, uh, it's a flavor I like, and I'm really used to all of the stuff that's familiar. But when I can hear something in that flavor that's not familiar, that really feels like it expands the mind. Yeah. Same, I've been on that too. Man. Like anytime you just like you find something from the seventies you haven't heard before. You're like, oh wow, you know you can dig into it. You know, like it's gonna have certain instruments, certain ideas and techniques of how they recorded in everything. What have you been What have you been vibing on? Though? Just a lot of all the kinds of old music, a lot of old psychedelic music, a lot of classical music, a lot of jazz, kind of the new you know, the the new classical. It's like somewhere in between new age and classical like Max Richter and meals from and yeah, I don't I don't even know what you really call that. I guess it's contemporary classical. I don't know, but yeah, that's that's the vibe though. Yeah, it's often electronic based, but doesn't have to be. It feels inspiring. It feels like, um, they're using the same machines in different ways, and I like that. Do you like Philip Glass and Ryuichi Sakamoto? Yes, Rucci Sakamo amazing, incredible. Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of his stuff and it's it's so crazy to hear all the different vibes that cat. It's been across you know, like from the seventies to now, he was always in the electron of music, but always in the kind of classical and playing and whatnot. And it's just it's wild. Yeah, the stuff he was doing back then kind of sounds so new and fresh. Also a lot of you know David Axel rods always always come out. Yeah yeah, yeah. Do you hear that there's a there's an album he produced of the Electric Prunes. Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, yeah, it sounds amazing too. Yeah. I didn't, and I the way I found it wasn't through him. It was just through listening to old psychedelic music and Matt came up. It's like, oh, this is different than everything else, and who produced it? Turn it turns out he produced it, but I didn't know that. It's like, why is this different than everything else? Why is this so special? Then I listened to the whole album before I even knew he produced it, and thinking like, this doesn't sound anything like anything this band did before this. This is a unique moment. Oh yeah, cool, A pleasure. I look forward to hanging soon. Yeah, I would love to real a pleasure. Sir, Thank you very much much love, thanks the Flying Lotus for Talking Shop with Rick, you can hear all of her favorite fly Loow tracks long with a bunch of other songs he's produced over the years on a playlist at broken record podcast dot com, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash broken record Podcast. There you can find extended cuts of our past episodes. Broken Record is produced with help from Jason Gambrell, Mila Belle, Leah Rose, Eric Sandler, and Martin Gonzalez for Pushkin Industries. A theme musics by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.