THE FUTURE ACCORDING TO FLYING LOTUS
Published: Music Australia Guide #76, May 2010.
Nephew of avant-jazz great Alice Coltrane and grandson of Motown songwriter Marilyn McLeod, Los Angeles producer Steve Ellison (aka Flying Lotus) is taking instrumental hip hop to places it’s never been before. He introduces Dan Rule to future sounds of his third record Cosmogramma.
The complexity of Cosmogramma’s rhythmic and melodic detail seems to suggest that you’re channelling your aunt and your family’s musical history more so than before.
“I was definitely feeling some comfort in exploring that side of my musical life and letting it speak more. I’ve been playing more piano and stuff like that… I’ve really just learned a lot more about musicianship and kind of embraced my musicianship much more.”
Speaking of which, there’s a lot more live instrumentation on the record from people like your cousin Ravi Coltrane on saxophone, harpist Rebekah Raff and Thundercat from Sa-Ra on bass.
“Man, it took a while to find the right people to do stuff. A lot of people are really good players but they don’t really get the direction; they don’t really get the influence and where I want the music to go. But you get a guy like Thundercat, I could call him and tell him I want to do something and he can get it going already so it just pops. It was just amazing, like, ‘Okay great, I’ll have a little Thundercat over here and a little Rebekah over there, maybe some Ravi there’, and there it was.”
The record feels like a very complete and realised work. The tracks really work as movements, like means to a much greater end.
“Yeah man, that was the totally the point. When I first started working on this thing, it was right after my mum passed away, you know, so this record was definitely the furthest I’d ever ventured within myself personally and emotionally and I feel this is the most honest I could be. I want to make sure that my shit is worthy of spanning back to a Beatles record or whatever, you know. It’s going to be on the same shelf in some record store, so let that shit be a statement, something honest and complete and truthful.”
People describe your work as futuristic, but you also seem to be creating a gateway to obscure past genres and sounds. Do think of your work in that manner?
“Definitely man! Definitely! It’s like, if you like this record then check out Soft Machine and check out George Duke and check out Alice Coltrane, and take that shit to a new level. People look at their influences and think that they’re the pinnacle, but if you think like that, your music won’t go anywhere. You have to take you’re your influences and think beyond them.”
When you first started making beats, did your family understand what you were getting at?
“They were definitely into me making music. My mum and my grandma were always like ‘What are you doing? What are you creating?’ and it was a really, really supportive environment. But did they get the music? No (laughs). They were like, ‘Stevie, it sounds like a little boy beating on garbage cans!’”
Cosmogramma is out now via Warp/Inertia
Visit: flying-lotus.com
