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Music collective to Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, Beyonce, and Madonna.
The army of keys at the coda of the G.O.O.D.
Friday cut Take One for the Team gives the song a delightful whiff of Rick Wakeman.
It weaves highlights from five sessions into a 90-minute space odyssey highly suited to soundtrackthe holiday its named after.
My girlfriend, Louise Donegan, is creative director on the whole thing with me.
I could chop this up and turn it into something.
Its those five days in a row, 18-to-20-minute pieces of music [from each].
And in between each one of those, I put a four-to-five-minute more traditionally produced song.
But the rest of the album is really raw.
I didnt go in and edit and delete bars or layer more stuff.
I have to admit that when I heard you were doing an instrumental album, I expected massive beats.
But this is more like Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream.
I hear a lot of prog rock.
What nudged you into that lane?Thats good you noticed.
Thats what I was going for.
I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd.
Welcome to the Machine, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, stuff like that.
That period is my big influence: the synthesizer gods.
4:20, more than a lot of music Ive heard lately, sounds like the process of music happening.
It sounds like a producer playing with LEGOs.
Every day Ill go in there.
Ill do 128 BPMs a day.
Ill pick a key and get the sound I want to start with.
I dont really have anything else planned besides that.
I start playing, and it usually works out pretty well.
Whatd you think of it?
I saw some people who were like, I cant wait to freestyle to this!
I dont know if theyre going to be able to do that in the way they think.
Im trying to be the new Philip Glass for this generation.
Plus the stuff is very sampleable, I think.
Theres so many loops in there.
People are definitely going to make other records out of your record.Thats half the reason for putting it out.
I might not go platinum on this album, but I bet 20 things made from it will.
Have you been followingTimbaland and Swizz BeatzsVerzuzseries?Definitely.
Ive been talking to both of them too.
They trying to get you to do one?Everybodys been asking me about that.
He was playing Timbaland beats.
If that counts, I can take out anybody.
I can just put onDark Twisted Fantasyand walk away.
How do you maintain a fresh perspective?Ive never tried to chase the last sound.
It works, but it gets boring after ten years.
A lot of the trap producers who make the same beat over and over, they eventually fade away.
It helps to play a few instruments and have more tools to work with.Definitely.
Thats why I have, like, 50 keyboards.
I like to cycle new equipment out of my studio every few weeks.
Every keyboard has its own character and personality.
Howd you find Apex Martin and everyone?Apex is a kid from Houston I knew from Twitter.
Hed DM me on Twitter and send me beats like, Im working at Best Buy.
Get me outta here!
Eventually, he sent me some stuff that I liked, so I signed him to a publishing deal.
Hes actually bringingmeprojects now, which is good.
He broughtRoddy Ricchrecently; we did a song with him.
He brought me the Smokepurrp album.
We push each other really hard to make each other better.
Id kinda give him a little push.
It sounds like Judgment Day.Justin Vernon [of Bon Iver].
Me and Justin made that song in Paris.
I played the chords on the Memory Moog, and he sang the chorus.
Then I turned it over, and everybody added onto the beat.
Thats where the solo came from.
I was just screwing around.
I played an eight-minute guitar solo and sent it to Kanye, and he threw it on the album.
Lets go back toWyoming, 2018.
I think afterPusha-Tand theYealbum, he would finish his vocals and be like, Peace, Im out.
You mix it and do what you gotta do.
And me and the whole crew would stay in the studio and finish it.
We learned that work flow from the G.O.O.D.
Friday shit, I think, putting out a song every Friday.
We learned how to prepare a song in four hours.
What was your favorite G.O.O.D.
Friday track?Maybe Take One for the Team.
Is there a plan to put the G.O.O.D.
Friday songs on the streaming services the way people arerereleasing older mixtapes now?Theyll be out someday.
Maybe on the tenth anniversary [in August].
I was trying to do it last year, but it was too late.
Theyll probably end up on Tidal or something.
People will definitely be looking now!
Last year you mixed the Sunday Service album,Jesus Is Born.
The voices on that one cut like a sword.
Was it different working with gospel?Its hard not to make a hundred people cut, you know?
That album was mixed really fast, in two, three days.
Thats why its so cohesive; the faster you mix, the more they sound cohesive.
Roden Crater,where they shot the movie?The crater had this tunnel thats based on a flute.
Its the same dimensions as a giant flute, a few hundred feet long.
That was the echo and the reverb that made the vocals in the movie sound cool.
For the album, I digitally recreated the sound of that tube.
Is there a plan to release the movie?
Hemakes great movies and never releases them.
Everyone is still waiting on theYeezusmovie.Theyre still waiting onCruel Summer.
I sawCruel Summerin Cannes.
Did reworking theYandhisongs for theJesus Is Kingalbum surprise you at all?Nothings surprising with Kanye.
This is a scary time for people who work anywhere in music.
For every Kanye or Travis Scott, theres hundreds of people that are out of work.
Were all working on a little stuff here and there.
Speaking of 4/20, indica or sativa?Indica.
Joints or blunts?Joints.
I quit smoking tobacco like three months ago, so I havent had a blunt in three months.
I feel like everyone is using this time as a reset.
What else has changed for you?After Kobe died, I tweeted that everybody needs to slow down.
The whole world is going way too fast for me.
Too much crazy shit happening.
Pollution destroying the world.
[The pandemic] is changing that.
You walk outside and look at the sky, and theres nochemtrails.
you’ve got the option to see the mountains in California.
Usually you see a haze.
It hasnt looked like this here for 20 years.
Its like the world needed an enema.
