{"id":7950,"date":"2012-10-08T07:53:27","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T07:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/?p=7950"},"modified":"2014-09-03T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T18:58:08","slug":"interview-until-the-quiet-comes-with-flying-lotus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/illsocietymag.com\/?p=7950","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Until The Quiet Comes With Flying Lotus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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He’s not from a galaxy far far away, and I don’t think he ever trained under the cruel tutelage of Pai Mei or Jim Kelly\u2026 But something about Flying Lotus sounds part sci-fi crossed with the dark hadou, like cruising in an x-wing fighter after pounding cinder blocks into dust at the neighborhood dojo.<\/font><\/p>\n

His music can be melodic as songbirds and nightingales, digital like true technotronics and still somehow soulful like the fabulous dramatics. You can count the breaks and let your eardrums get shattered by bass, but really though\u2026 describing it is like putting a ship in a bottle. His music is meant to sail the open waters with a life of its own and not sit behind glass walls on a shelf.<\/font><\/p>\n

ILLSOCIETY Magazine was given the opportunity to marinate with Flying LotuS shortly before he unveiled his new work, Until The Quiet Comes, to the public at large. We were invited up to a private location in the hills of Echo Park and greeted by a lone stone buddah head over looking the staircase which lead into the bungalow series of offices where FlyLo and his management team were promptly waiting for us and our questions.<\/p>\n

We sat down with the man behind the Brainfeeder<\/a> agenda as he finished eating like a king and humbly got some trees from his whip to fumigate while we chopped it up like Benihanas.<\/font><\/p>\n

ISM: What kinda buddah have you been lighting up recently? Do you pay attention to that kinda thing? Like Blue Dream, Sour Diesel?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: I think this is Dos A\u00f1os.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Dos A\u00f1os.. Do you think that weed’s been literally gathering energy for two years?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Who knows man\u2026 honestly, all the names and stuff, and all that\u2026 That’s all good, as long as it works. Right? This shit works.
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\nISM: Sometimes it’s just the act too, you know? Crumblin’ the weed, it’s real ritualistic.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Yeah, yeah.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: The first thing I wanted to know is\u2026 What are you going to do when the quiet comes? Like when the music goes off, and you put the drum machines away, and the orchestras go home\u2026 Like what do you do when the quiet comes?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: You’re probably the only person who gets the title\u2026 [laughs] \u2026Because it’s a hell of a thing. I honestly don’t know. I really feel like when the quiet comes I’ll be an old man listening to my children making music, hopefully, you know… Or I’ll be dead.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Laughs]<\/p>\n

ISM: Cuz then it would be real quiet, when you’re dead.<\/font><\/p>\n

[Laughs]<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Exactly.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: You stated that this album is like a collage of mystical states, dreams, sleep and lullabies. Listening to it is almost like a peyote vision. I was curious if you had any trips making this album, or reoccurring dreams or visions that were running through your head while you were painting this picture?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Yeah man, I always make sure that I have some kind of psychedelic experience every year, whether it’s acid, mushrooms or DMT or something like that. I have to do one a year, and that’s just for me, it doesn’t have to do with music or making music.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: It’s a real spiritual journey.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Yeah, you know, a kind of inward journey, and it can also be a way to bond with your peoples too.
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\nISM: True.<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: I really cherish that experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

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ISM: Native cultures believed in vision quests, and they’d put themselves in a trance like state through different substance and they’d learn about themselves and the world around them and what they needed to accomplish and do.<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: I’m down with all of that too man, that’s something that I remind myself of, you know, the ancient people were more connected to God, or the idea of God, than we are. And I think that is because they had that personal connection, and that was often through the use of substances and psychedelics to get there. I feel like really the God is within us.<\/em> <\/p>\n

ISM: I like that, it’s really kinda 5%er or buddhist. That God is in everything, like the divine element. There’s God in that weed we’re about to spark, in the flame, in the lighter, in you, in me, in everything. That’s that divine presence which connects everything\u2026 but uh\u2026 What did you want to accomplish with this album? Like what sets it apart from your previous work and what are you trying to say new for yourself and for the listener as well?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: With the last record I did [Cosmogramma], I felt it was exactly what I wanted to say. And on this one, I wanted to do something that was on par with that feeling, that it felt the same, that it had that feeling, that same notion, but at a different time, i didn’t want to repeat myself.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Exactly, progress. You know what I’m saying?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Shit, I think that more than anything, I wanted to try and create an experience that was like a non-stop journey for 40 minutes and a half of your attention.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: You’re gonna take that 40 minutes of attention and travel across the world with it. So there’s a lot of ears listening, and you’re speaking in a universal language. I mean even when you have Erykah singing on the song (See Thru To U) it’s like very ambient. You know what I’m saying? Her vocals, you can’t almost understand all of them. There’s a lot of harmony that plays a more important roll\u2026 So is there anywhere that you wanna play that you haven’t played yet? Like tour wise or travel wise, where would you like to take your music on this planet?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: To be honest I feel like I haven’t toured America enough. You know, I love this country, and I haven’t been able to travel it enough as much as I’d like to. You know I’ve been a lot of places around the world, I haven’t been to Africa yet, I’d really love to go there, but I think there are places at home that I’d really like to see and I’d like to connect with the American people in middle America. I haven’t done that tour yet.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Rock Nebraska state\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Yeah man, I want to do that. Europe shouldn’t be the only place where this music is heard. I feel like it’s American music. I want to make sure that we have this too.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Did you use a lot of samples on this album?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Absolutely, yeah.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Were they a lot of American samples?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: [laughs]<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: I don’t want you to give away too many of your secrets.<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Honestly, I don’t think it was like that. I think it was a lot of samples from all around the world, whether it be via recording, or records, or wherever I sampled it from.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: What’s a typical recording session like for you?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: That depends man, you mean like working with a vocalist or something?<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Just for you, like when you sit down to sketch a beat. What ingredients need to be going right in your day for you to feel like you’re going to make your best music?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: I need a lot of energy, and almost like I need to already have this pulse before I start working. You know sometimes you can get that pulse, you can have that build up in the day, but I feel like for me personally, I need to have a lot of energy. I smoke a lot of weed, you know, and I think it’s real easy for me to just get like eeehh\u2026 get all lethargic while I’m making music. And I don’t really make the best stuff like that. It has to have the follow through.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: The whole energy of making a beat. It’s easy to make a loop or chop something, but then you only have maybe two bars that’s repeated. How do you make it progressive from beginning to end where it’s cinematic?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Yeah\u2026 You just kinda look at what you got, and you try to break it. That’s what I think. You know, I get something that I think works really well for a minute. Then, how long should this happen? You know, and then I’ll be like, how can I break my knowing of where we’re going. And then I’ll get something out of it, and I’ll be like ok, I kinda know where it goes. And then it’s not so fun any more. I think the fun is knowing that you don’t know what’s around the corner, even while you’re making it. Just be like oh well, what if this was only a fragment of the song and fuck it let’s just keep going, you know\u2026 Fuck it. I like that notion. Just knowing that you can just do anything\u2026 there’s no rules any more.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: If Until The Quiet Comes was the score to a silent movie, who would you trust to direct it?<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Like big director?<\/em><\/p>\n

ISM: Like whoever? It could be anybody\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n

Flying Lotus: Khalil Joseph.<\/em><\/p>\n