Thundercat FaceTimes Ebro Darden on Apple Music to chat about his new album ‘It Is What It Is’. He tells Apple Music about growing up on thrash and punk, the magic of being in the moment, and quarantine conditions. He also discusses gaining some clarity in the wake of Mac Miller’s passing, and how it encouraged him to change.
On Mac Miller passing away and how things completely changed for him…
Yeah I started boxing, sleeping [right], you know, I became vegan. I completely cut down [on alcohol], gone for the time being...it was kinda like something definitely had to change, when Mac passed I felt like everything became visible, you know, it made me very aware of where I was and what was happening. I’ve had a number of friends pass at very young ages, from suicide to drug abuse to stuff like this, but Mac being so close to me was probably one of the most painful moments, emotionally and physically, that I’ve experienced. If it got to the point where if I looked at uh, it felt like the movie Hereditary, and if I even looked at alcohol I could hear Mac’s sniffles, I could hear his mannerisms, it’s like I could feel him and it would turn my stomach. Anything that resembled me walking in the same direction, it became painful.
On how he’s used to sitting in the house…
For me, personally, this quarantine thing is like hilarious for me, like, “oh you actually gave me a reason to sit in the house and fry.” This needed to happen right now, it’s the double edged sword of life like right in front of you.
On his thought process when creating music and the ‘magic’ of it…
I think that somewhere between the thought process and, there’s a number of reasons, I’ll give you one: I grew up playing punk, you mean what you say and that’s important, and then another part of it, is just, it has to do with your ability to access what you’re feeling and thinking and how quickly you can get to that stuff. There’s magic in the part where, it’s exactly what it is, it is what it is. It’s the way it feels and the way it translates and I’m happy I can capture those moments. I usually get discouraged from those moments in recording with people, on how many times someone takes a take of something, it’s like “we took this song like 700 times before the one time we got it” and I’m like well it’s not really inspired by that time anymore - at that point it’s just memory, muscle memory, just your ability to not mess it up. What about the magic of how you really think and process?
On his third eye protector that he’s wearing in the interview…
I mean this is definitely a third eye protector, it’s something of a ninja clan from uh, yeah it’s a bit of protection from Naruto in the Hidden Leaf village. I’ve been wanting to make a 24 carrot antenna, a receptor.
On working with multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on his new track…
He’s an amazing musician and composer. I’ve seen moments with Miguel where I’ve watched this guy write out a whole concerto for a string orchestra without headphones, without music, in the same manner a person would write out a note or post-it note. And I was like, I know what this is, this is like Beethoven, Amadeus level s***.
