Au manga store avec Thundercat : album, anime, Mac Miller...

On a rencontré d'Undercat que vous connaissez sûrement pour ça et comme c'est un fan d'animé on a fait

l'interview au milieu des figurines dans la boutique manga story à paris

C'est un album cool distracted yeah as we walk into a store full of distraction

is this one of your distraction of your good distractions you know I have an interesting

processing of this moment because it's like the toys I don't know it's weird man it's like there's so many that it's like it's tight but it's also like a double edged sword because it's just it can be your house can wind up looking like this is yours looking like this no no no mine does no no no mine's very no no that's

not for me no what is your link to anime to manga to Japanese culture I just have

always been a fan since I was a kid most of our cartoons even from when we were children were Japanese animations when I realized that it just made me even more of a fan knowing that this has been years upon years upon years of just building a long lifelong bond with anime and manga does it have an influence on your music absolutely absolutely it's always had an influence you know colors shapes yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah like you know I love it they're playing all the theme songs man kai katan with the jujutsu kaisen it's always about that first season theme song they're kind of nurtured by the second season oh yeah they did no I mean well you know I mean no second season is good but I'm saying in general no way they got the giant six foot lapras plush it was bought by Paris I remember this was on sale this was almost mine for real I'm serious yeah there's only a couple of six feet like huge ones like this and so this is the first time I'm seeing the one I'm like this been years now I waited too long to buy it there it is in the store in Paris feel it yes we are in Paris I should steal it about distracted about

decided why did you want to talk about distraction and I know it's a large themes talking about like the social media and the fact that we are on our

phones all the time yeah you know everybody anytime I'm talking to my friends you know close and personal and I'm dealing with a lot of a I watch a lot of emotional like like from depression to fallout to like inability to process and I'm I can see the I can see the through line you know social media plays a very important factor in this depression this uh FOMO this uh this weird like I'm I'm not enough or like you know envy or jealousy or all these things that get amplified it's all because there's an overload of information and your emotions get to it

can get the best of you yeah how do you cope with all these information at least I know it's a joke yeah this is what you do actually to cope with all this information and all this distraction just laugh so this is what you want people to remember about your music that is fun that is a way to escape from all

these distractions hmm I think it's a bit of a double entendre because even my album probably is a distraction but I think sometimes good distraction is good yes I think that sometimes you I for me for what I know of myself I have to be

distracted to focus there's a trend of going analog what do you think of this

and are you like a part of this I think it's so funny that the word trend gets put in this place where it's just normal like there was a day where everybody thought that vinyl would be obsolete or CD would be obsolete let's see let's even only speaking of CD you know they're like oh CDs are a thing of the past no they aren't you can't like a good example is like some go there's some pieces of music that are not as widespread that are like only very specific like a for for my friend's birthday one time I bought him the soundtrack for Sonic R and realizing there are not many Sonic racing soundtracks in the world yeah it's a very very rare thing to have so it was a gift to him for his birthday but it was one of those things where it's like they it's like even if this winds up on streaming yeah it's being controlled and you have to constantly you know try to subscribe to keep it it's it's messed up so like I never looked at it like a trend I've always been an analog person I've always accepted in in the integration of both but also knowing that it's still it's on you to work to go find these things and that they they are not always easy to find yeah and but at the same time it's still your work to do while you were here so trend never trend more so like

reality and normal it has to do with a how we consume yeah I don't like this term but no you're right you're right this is just the way we we we are lazy

you know and you don't in almost like it when you're like you know when people say you know sit down when you're eating a meal yeah because you know you can't process it standing up because you're not you're not giving yourself a chance to process the food by trying to move and eat I think in the same way it's like sometimes but I also believe this is a world where these both exist yeah to be able to physically sit down and listen to someone's music is really complicated sometimes to listen to a body of work and take it in even though or there's a giant gray area yeah from physical to digital you know because if your internet doesn't work then the album is buffering and then if there's a song that is not a it's a song that's not licensed they will take it off even though this is destroying the body of work I think these are stupid factors in these things but

how do you tend to listen to music when somebody is upside down eating a sandwich

with the Sonic the Hedgehog sweater with this how I do it yeah with Star Trek Generations playing in the background swinging a sword but I mean do you do you

tend to like when maybe even like Steve Lacey is dropping the album are you going to get the physical version of it of course yeah I always if I'm especially if I

really love a person's work I will buy the physical because it's important to it's important to beyond the label beyond the you know beyond the label beyond the royalties behind the beyond the publishing it's important if you really love this music or this go by the physical yeah I think it's going to be

necessary in the future talk about future you talk about disappointment in the promise of technology what do you feel we we lost among the way green ruins

everything yeah white supremacy ruins everything this against the you know that these things ruined like the ability to see straight with stuff or like sometimes they'll want to to put out to mass-produce versus me like was it quality quality over quantity yeah these make these things hard or these kind of principles they muddle the purity of the said things sometimes so it's like I don't know we vote I think we've always been lost with these things you know like me you know it's it's it wouldn't matter if it was based on technology it's just yeah in principle we've always struggled with we lost like some kind of humanity with heart we've lost heart to it with your solution is art a solution what is my solution yeah blow it all up and start over no that's no I don't know like maybe art can be a way to this expression expression yeah it can persuade it can change you know it can you can inspire you

consider your art as a political in some way no no not really you know I think that

there has been political music I've been involved with you know the pimp a butterfly of course and stuff like that but no music for me is bigger than politics and things like this it's a connection to the unknown to God to it's your heart it's your spirit how it's how you feel and sometimes for some people it is political but I didn't learn to play my bass to join the military no I was

going to talk to you about the collaborations on on this album is there are a lot of featureings which to me it feel more like the conversation more than just a featuring because it feels like they are genuine friends of course how do you know when someone fits into your universe it's a very nuanced question

because you don't know you don't know how somebody will you don't know how it will translate I know that this is it's a language you know music and you had the more you understand the language the more you can share and communicate and speak in these terms and I think that the people that I collaborate with or you know they're very communicative do you tend to work with friends more is it

easier that way for you to work with people you actually know before making

music with them sometimes working with your friends is very complicated mm-hmm but a lot of get distracted no need not even just distracted but there's everything from closeness breeding contempt to like you know like not learning how to allow people to have ideas and help them grow versus what you think it should be it's it can be complicated because of what a person how they feel you should show up it's sometimes but sometimes it's just like in what's the saying sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger but even that being considered I do like it's very nice if you can be friends but it's not guaranteed mm-hmm you know and a lot of the time you don't get better by being comfortable you only get better by being thrown into uncomfortable yeah and sometimes the collaborations can feel uncomfortable for me or for the other person but if you if a lot of the time I really like to one thing that I try to hold true to is like if I love their work and that's it it's really simple you know someone you you you you

love is Mac Miller who's present on the album the song really moved me as much as as he made me want to dance actually yeah really funky how special is this song for you and how did you make it how did it come to life I think these songs and

like this specific song is a I think a very specific moment in life with him it was like new life and all honesty like he you know so many changes that happened before this mm-hmm you know we were with a fresh set of eyes and ears and you know felt like a totally different place from where we had been and between me him and Taylor graves this was a you know if it felt like that's the change into life and pace and everything this was the first thing that came out instinctively literally it's the first thing that came out of us when we as soon as we press record it's like first take yeah that's crazy yeah you know it's like so you know the idea of it was very cultivated from this already it felt very um in sync how it came about felt almost done as we started it almost Mac Miller was the dude how

do you decide what stays private in what becomes a song because it really feels

like it's that's funny it's funny question how do I decide what is private you know I don't know I think there's natural regulators in my brain that help me I don't even know how to describe it I think that uh if I am naturally inquisitive of what this is in myself you know I some I don't mind expressing this sometimes and I will sometimes I feel like it's important that you be honest with yourself about certain as much as possible about this stuff because even if it doesn't always translate maybe somebody will understand it because they are also having the same you know they're feeling the same about stuff but um I don't know I very much

uh because your music is really introspective you talk about your experience which is what people do but some people other people tend to create stories there's like a thin line between your life and your songs yeah and this is something also about like social media and how you use social media yeah you don't tend to show yourself too much but you are present yeah how do you separate like thundercats from your personal life hmm I don't know it's interesting I feel like

because I put so much in my music that I don't there is not really much to it's like I think that social media and things are very exploitive naturally you know but it's your job to it is your job to you know curate yourself what it is uh that you do share with people because a lot of the time people are just nosy people like to see you fall just as much as they like to see you rise and you have to learn what to hold on to and what to let go of and it's very hard if you're standing too close to the tv if you know what I mean yeah um and that goes for anybody I would think it's like you know you my regulation is to I if you know me you know me

if you don't you don't that's simple I had a question about like uh the time between your last album this one I know there's something about like uh it has to go with the fans as well the pressure of releasing music has to go also with the how we consume music yeah and people want

new stuff every single year every month every month this is little b's fault no no no but like

how how you as an artist do you deal with this pressure how do you do you actually feel this pressure did you feel it in these six years of uh no no no because I feel like it's not it's not

real it's a it's a byproduct of how fast the world is moving if music is meant to be timeless formless shapeless you can't put it to this for me I've known this you know like sometimes even things being ahead of their time or behind in time or songs that last for 50 plus years you know even longer you know things that become standards yeah knowing that this world is full of standards and like knowing that this is a wide world like that it doesn't really I don't pay attention to this because it will cause you to go crazy it's it's real yeah but it's not my reality and you cannot impose your reality on my reality and I can only create in the way that I can create it can go it can speed up it's not it's it's very relative how these things exist to me I'm very aware of them but you know you can't take a cake out of the oven unbaked it will just fall unless you want dough which is good too but you have to eat it quick because once the bacteria gets on it you will throw up that's a good image so if you want to undercooked album go ahead and enjoy like a raw egg

and just like you said you have to be distracted to get focused I think in these five six years you spent some time not making music just yeah living life um I experienced some really intense

moments over the last few years as everybody can see yeah and um you know it's like I think in a way this moment in like one I always say one hand feeds the next kind of and I think that this moment was like go sit down man I think even at one point flying lotus said this to me he was like hey man go go sit down it takes time to heal it takes time to regroup it takes time to like in a world where nothing's guaranteed like you're just saying music is always demanding demanding in this moment my life

demanded that I sit down so you got to focus on what's important for you maybe friendship love no

just learn to be okay by myself and know that there are people that can relate but it's okay to like it's okay to cry you know and that moment for me was like maybe you need to sit down

cool so now how do you how do you feel are you how you happy are you how do you feel in your life

right now I always feel like you choose happy you know and the feelings my dad always says this to me like feelings come and go but you are this you're the sum of the decisions you make and whatever you spend your time doing is what you are so I choose happy

you choose happy by making music is this what by watching Star Trek Generations

now by Sonic the Hitchhawk um what what's up with Sonic what's with Sonic what's with Sonic what's with Sonic what do you mean what's with Sonic I mean what's what's the big deal with him what's the big deal with Sonic have you seen him I played video games so I was little

yeah I know that's crazy I know Sonic is amazing the music are you kidding me what are you talking about man like the supersonic chaos emeralds I wanted that answer that's why yeah golden

Sonic is the best thing to ever happen it's like to planet earth yeah like it's going really fast what happens when you go even faster than fast oh man is this with with your superpower would be running oh yeah as funny nah that wouldn't help anybody what would it be then well my superpower be you probably thought of this I've thought about it a couple of times like my superpower would be I thought about you you know it's like oh maybe flying because flying you can go you know you can uh get away with all kind of insanity if you could fly this is getting bad for me I will fly here because no I wouldn't

want to live forever mmm that's it also boring are you into I know you are a Nintendo fan I didn't get

the last switch man oh yeah I think it's not worth it it's weird because everybody's trying to again in the competitive market of you know we've got to compete with everything it's like I feel like Nintendo never they they everybody has some to some degree some competitive but I'm also just like man I'm just tired of everything being so connected and where you can lose everything at the drop of the head I understand it's complicated for the bigger franchises like this but I would like to be happy playing video games and if I'm not I won't play video games when was the last time you felt happy playing a video game call of duty and that's like the last one yeah I've been playing the new one it's fun because it's like live die live kill die repeat it's like it's nice for me you said it's too futuristic yeah you need something that yeah something more fantasy yeah I do too I mean I do too I love it I also play um what's that uh the ghost of yoti oh ghost of yoti yeah I'm playing it right now yeah that's who it's really cool it is you know and I will always play sonic the hitchhawk when stuff gets hard I will play sonic the hitchhawk three specifically two two is good but three three one got way too easy I really just been tapping back into star trek generations yeah I feel like that was peak next generation star trek next generation that's real cool how do you feel

about the you were part of star wars uh this is crazy this is crazy there's no end to the universe we can see more good stuff coming out of it oh star wars yeah absolutely like uh

i think people forget that how long star wars has been around and we get short-sighted of it as a franchise and as like uh as said you know any any other thing in history there are high points and there are low points you know and i've i've always been in it for the ride i'm enjoying it and i think that star wars will always be awesome you know do you play the video games i played a couple of them yeah i definitely enjoyed the battlefront yeah battlefront was hilarious the second one yeah the second one was good that was crazy it was great and uh i'm always excited to see what comes next with it you know something hopefully grabbed my attention i was i heard there was a darth maul yeah it's like a series it'll be good yeah i think it'll be fantastic he's one of the best characters ever yeah no we we fell in love with darth maul when we were kids it's great it was like he died too young yeah i think i also heard the lore of like there is something maybe about uh mace windu oh yeah yeah like he didn't die when he fell for real yeah this has to be the best news ever yes you see even thinking the thought of this is just like oh wow that that's purple lightsaber i'm excited it was it was the best yeah like i don't think they didn't just do or darth maul who who is your favorite character of the universe the star wars universe this is up for speculation because

you can say boba he's like just say boba make this easier for yourself i don't know because i look

at it and i kind of like again i like uh love the mandalorian pedro pascal i think that this is a very great character because it's got a very western feel to it almost you know john favre is a genius

yeah you know and he's a fan that's what makes the the tv series so good yeah it's got a bit of a

samurai executioner feel to it this slow pace it's fantastic you know it tells a great story of a mandalorian you know but even still when i saw the lightsaber that the uh yeah jedi made with him i was very disappointed at the craftsmanship oh yeah you know like the white one well i know where the saber came from but i just i was like but it was tight though because they made it like the berserk so it was heavy and hard to wield i was like that's tight like a heavy like would you like to direct

some uh some something in the future direct something yeah like man i can't even pick the clothes up off the couch bro i don't know if i can but i can see you direct something directing some insane some madness yeah some madness some sonic the hedgehog oh yeah speaking of it's the

anniversary this year sonic the hitchhog oh yeah happy anniversary sonic the hitchhog and happy

anniversary lord of the rings i have one last question about your shows because i've been to your shows it is crazy because it's really um exhaustive in a way i mean i i didn't know how to move my head because it's going too fast but there's some playful to some some fun to it how do you see uh live how important is it to you and how do you deal with it live is

very uh i think it's very key to performing yeah and i think that um i've always been a instrumentalist and a live performing musician and touring musician and i've always enjoyed this part since i was a kid and uh i think i always will so it's very important you know um i think that uh even if this is very this is interesting that you bring that it's interesting you bring this up i've spent so much time being like uh improvisational with my instrument with my friends and stuff like that that it just because this comes so natural i think less sometimes when it comes to those moments so it's like it's more about the enjoying the experience on stage you know do you enjoy all the

time because when you're on tour you can be with the same energy at every every show oh yeah no it changes

you know like um but overall i enjoy it you know what's best about it what's best yeah the constant being on stage and getting to play more you know i don't always get to play in a manner that i enjoy when it comes to how people you know expect it or like so it's like it's a getting to play with my friends and having spent so much time touring with them is what i get the joy from you know we know each other i'm also okay with change and stuff yeah you know but uh i think that these moments on stage are like uh it's comfortable well not even just comfortable as compared to like uh for as far as i can see back it's very very linear okay so it's like anytime you still get to do

this it's fun it's a kind of uh there's like a kind of zenitude to it like to yes it can be very

cathartic it can be very like emotional and all-encompassing you know to know that we will always have a language to speak to each other that's i love this well thank you thank you very much

thank you so much it was a real pleasure and i'm going to see you in march in paris this is going

to be crazy maybe exhaustive as well but crazy yeah no it'll be fun don't break my neck no yeah start a mosh pit actually you'll see me jazz mosh pit