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It takes a certain cocktail of reserve and resignation to live in a metropolis.
More people means more chances to meet some grisly end.
Lotuss new albumFlamagrais a softer rendering of a similar theme.
It can be dire, but its never dour; fire brings death, but the clearing facilitates rebirth.
(Lotus noodled on the keys a bit when it got quiet at one point.)
Its been five years since your last album, but it doesnt feel like a long time.
How do you balance all your work?The social life takes a hit.
Less time for that.
Honestly, I just be in the lab.
Its different when youre working on your own stuff, because youre chipping away at your own universe.
Balancing is rarely an issue.
I have fun with it.
Im the kind of person who needs to be challenged all the time.
Thats cool too, I guess, at times.
Im glad it went the way it did, though.
I think it needed to have the old sound.
I think the first time I heard your music was inthe Adult Swim bumpersback in the day.
Im always seeing stuff and imagining scenes in my head when Im making music.
How easily does an album come together in the middle of scoring and directing other projects?It doesnt.
Well, in the past, it hasnt.
Its not me saying what it is.
But thats part of it.
I like to be surprised and I like that moment where it all could be anything.
You get surprised by the work, the work reveals itself.
Do you think were at the crisis point before the heros journey starts?Yeah.
I want it hopeful, I want my record to inspire some hope in people.
Its from the heart.
Its trying to bring good energy to the world right now.
I cant let darkness be what guides my decisions.
I cant let that be what guides how I treat people.
I cant let that be what drives my art either.
Im supposed to do the thing that helps people, not the thing that makes people feel shitty.
What is this really about right now?
What are we really trying to say?
What do you really want to do with this?
You dont care about being famous.
You want to make people believe in magic again.
You feel responsible for the audience.Yeah.
Im curious how you got from the ideas about mortality onYoure Dead!to this.
Youre going to die.
Lets celebrate the beauty of that, because we aint got no choice.
It should have had a dot-dot-dot instead of an exclamation point.
Im fascinated by your work in film.
Your films are very take it or leave it.
Theyre not necessarily everyones cup of tea.Thats how the music has been.
And then eventually people came around to it.
Thats how it be with films.
Well, theres pleasant psychedelic art and theres terrifying psychedelic art.
People freak out when they get to the other side of the high.
I think youre trying to show both sides.
That sensibility is one that you have in common with David Lynch.
Im not surprised to see you connect and work together.
I was like, What is this guy, what is that all about?
And so you finally meet him.
What is he like?Exactly how I imagined him.
A little intense?There was a part of me that didnt want to be around him too much.
I just want to be a fan.
Like, dont pop the bubble for me.
How did you get into extreme horror?
Its sort of like sliding into a hot bath.Robocop?
When I was a child, I saw that uncut in Japan.
I was 10 years old.
Id never had anything like that happen before.
Its always stuck with me.
Is it going to be today?
I thinkKusois really just about exploring my own fears.
I wanted to do something that would make me go, Ugh.
He was talking about all the stuff I did inKuso.
Like, The Doo-Doo Chasers.
He was on that.
So youre calling the new record your fire album.
Im wondering what fire sounds like to you.
[chuckles] I tried to capture that sound in the intro of the album.
I wonder what long-term effects that might have on people.
We have a really crazy fire every year usually.
In the past few years, at least, that Ive been paying attention.
I always think of [the Tubbs Fire], because that was the one where people called me.
It was like a movie.It was like a volcano.
And I lived on the other side of that hill.
Its in the air.
I had all my friends from here calling me like, Are you alive?
Like, Im straight, dont trip, but I think that shook me too.
Seeing L.A. like that was like, What?
Hearing stories about fires and whatnot visually inspired me.
Have you been sneaking elemental themes in this whole time?
Where do I go fromYoure Dead!as a storyteller?
How do we come back from the dead?
Where do we go in the sequel world?
In the cinematic universe?
More than anything I venture to do instruments and sounds throughout the record.
So this album is the clavinet album to me.
The previous album is the electric guitar album.
And the one before that was the Rhodes album.
And the next one, I dont know what the sound will be.
Oh, I know what it is.
Im already doing it.
Can I ask, or do we have to wait?I probably shouldnt say.
Its definitely a sound thatll be pretty obvious.
Theres so many tracks with it.
The new ones your longest album, and its also the one with the most guests.
Whats the studio like in that sort of situation?
Sometimes the musicians are vocalists.
I dont have friends who dont make art.
So my social time is also like were working.
Sometimes itll be a layer.
One day [instrumentalist] Miguel Atwood-Ferguson will come by, and Ill have like four things.
Then well need strings and well just knock them out.
Thats kind of what the vibe is like.
When Im collaborating with people, even though its one-on-one, a majority of its still improvised.
Were working and were in that moment, and then thats the layer.
And then you layer another improvised moment, and you build.
All the tracks are different though, I cant say that its one way of working.
But thats my preferred way, because I can navigate the layers better and focus.
Plus, its nice to walk away and come back and hear what youve done.
You need that next day.
Maybe what you had before was better before that came over.
You want to be in it as much as possible but then have enough time to step away.
I got to know him over the last few years.
Theres a lot people dont know about: He gave great advice.
He seemed older than he was.
I just wish that there were more records that you guys worked on.There are.
TheFlamagratrack with Denzel [Black Balloons Reprise], theres a whole Mac version of that song.
I think we only ever heard two official collaborations between you two.
Is there a trove?There is.
Hed be like, I got three albums.
I want to play them all for you right now.
And it always reminded me that I need to get back on my shit because he was working.
He made me feel lazy, and Im working.
One thing thats inevitable is that young people are always going to make something really dope.
And Im excited for that.
I remember seeing the oldheads reacting to me.
Now Im like, Ooh, I get to be the oldhead now.
I get to be the oldhead in the crowd whos confused as fuck.
I cant wait for that day.
Is that bizarre or is that exciting?
But I like being older.
I feel I have less time for bullshit; everything is way more deliberate.
I think the lines are just getting blurred with mainstream and underground now.
Its all fair game if youve got a good Instagram.
Let Chance [the Rapper] be an example.
You cant call him underground.
You cant call him underground.
Hes way above ground.
I see that hat everywhere.
Who are the young rappers that you figure well be talking about in 20 years?None of them.
Careers are getting meteoric in the bad way.
I think 20 years is a long time.
To me that was a huge thing.
I could take care of my grandma, my sister, and stuff.
Its a blessing if you’re able to make it past the six years.
Madlib used to say that: Youre a producer for six years.
Whatd you play growing up?
I felt a little pressure to play, considering I also was using a Coltrane horn at school.
It didnt really register until later in life, like, What the fuck?
Why did I have that?
I always kind of dabbled with keyboards and stuff but I didnt really take it anywhere.
Im really in it now.
I wouldnt have guessed.
Your records are pretty accomplished.I dont even play keys.
I mean, I play chords and shit.
I could play chords back then.
But I didnt know how to do stuff I can do now.
On the next tour Ill probably be playing keys on stage.
I learn a lot while Im in an Uber.
I be asking more questions than the driver sometimes.
Sometimes I envy people for whom music is pretty simple.
I wish I could turn on a song and not dissect it in my head.
And theyll be like, Oh, well, you know, the radio.
But I wouldnt give up the fact that I fret over music for the world.
Its a blessing and a curse.The curse makes for good stories.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
