FLYING LOTUS
808s and Beats
He lives in a universe where hooks and 808’s reign and survival depends on his ability to break the rules. His desire to be different has kept him alive in the game and will continue to be the driving force behind his unique beats for years to come. This alternate “Flying Lotus” universe exists solely in his mind, and recently Earwaks.com had the chance to venture in to that world and discover what keeps the up and coming producer fresh and original.
LA bred Flying Lotus, born “Steven Ellison”, is not your average producer. His sound is a distinct, harmonious blend of pure, organic elements and raw, gritty beats. This unorthodox approach makes it a challenge to categorize his sound and makes it even more difficult to place it into a specific genre.
Flying Lotus claims that’s due in part to the fact that the word itself is dying. “I think genre is dead,” and he stresses, “That’s the thing I’m pushing. You know, there’s no more rules, we can do whatever we want. Why do I have to fuckin’ make house tunes, why do I have to make hip-hop. I can do whatever I want. I think that genre is a dying thing, because I think that a lot of people are just abandoning the rules.”
Although he tends to take the “fuck the rules” approach, he acknowledges that it’s important to be in the know, you just don’t have to follow the crowds. “I definately try to stay in the know with music, technology and the trends and whatnot, but I try not to let it affect me too much because people just want me to do what I want to do at the end of the day.”
For him, creating music goes so much deeper than just counts and breaks; it’s a dreamlike, lucid process.
“It's all relative. At the end of the day, I get more satisfaction out of making something a little deeper” and adds “What I try to think about is creating a universe, each tune is kind of a representation of that. At the end of the career or whatever, you have this tangible universe you can go through”.
Regardless of the way creates his sound and what goes on in his universe, you can’t move forward in music without acknowledging where it has been. Flying Lotus attributes a lot of his influence to Dre’s sound in the early 90’s.
“I grew up on Dre first it was like ’93 I was about 10 years old. And that sound he came out with melodic hip-hop, it just blew me away, really. It was all drums before that, we had the 808 kick and super repetitive thing. With Dre I felt like he had all sorts of musicians around him, he had string sections and people playing flutes on tunes, and I was just like wow… he’s doing that with hip hop. Back in the day I thought that was pretty revolutionary.”
Using the influences of Dre, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and J Dilla, Flying Lotus has created an appeal by abandoning any sort of rules and constantly challenging himself.
“I notice that I get comfortable doing certain things and its like ‘ok fuck that, lets just stop right here and do something totally different,’ you know and take it somewhere where I don’t know where its going. That’s the only way it stays fun. I don’t wanna ever just you know get too comfortable, and the kids get too comfortable with my sound and there like oh ya its gonna sound like that. They don’t know what its gonna sound like.”
The game is still fresh for Flying Lotus, but despite that he still has a vision and a plan on how far he intends to expand his universe. “I just wanna be a better musician, I just wanna be a better player. I wanna be a better piano player, I wanna be able to write string sections really well, I wanna build an art installation, I wanna make films. I wanna do a whole bunch of stuff, its just starting, there’s a lot to do.”
As for the future of hip hop, he believes that all the future players are going to have to be masters of their trades, handling all aspects, “I think over the next few years, motherfuckers are really gonna have to have some chops. You’re really gonna have to have some shit, your really gonna have to have to know how to play something. Your gonna have to be good at it, and be able to produce your own tracks too.”
Adding, “Its really cool. Cuz they’re [young artists] creating their own universe and not just like, ‘ok like I’m gonna work with so in so and have this element and this element.’ there doing the whole story, you get the whole sound, the whole package.”
Over the next few years as the shape and face of hip-hop changes, Flying Lotus will continue to dig deep into his universe, abandon all formal production “rules” and produce unique beats for the masses. This young and driven musician could possibly be moulding the future of hip-hop, but he’s not stressin’ it. “I’m just gonna have fun doing my shit. If people dig it they dig it, if they don’t fuck it. I’m gonna do it either way.”
COMMENTS
Flylo speaks like a true artist. He's not a "producer", he's an artist. He makes music not "beats"...let us all learn from artists like Flying Lotus and create things that will stand the test of time, not the next five minutes!!!
Posted 9 months agoThe whole LA series of EPs is killa. Same goes for the whole Brainfeeder camp. Quality music all around.
Posted 8 months agoOf smart, downtempo electronic music. Artists like FlyLo and Slugabed are really far too slept on by the mainstream but their day is coming soon...
Posted 12 days agoADD COMMENT