With his new album Until the Quiet Comes, musician, producer, label boss, film-maker FlyLo has turned everything on its head all over again. "I don't think I'm capable of repeating myself," he tells JIM CARROLL
IT’S TIME TO get Steven Ellison on the phone and find out where his head is at this time around. A new Flying Lotus album on the way is as good of an excuse as any to check in with the Los Angeles producer and Brainfeeder label boss, especially when we’re talking about the follow-up to the glorious Cosmogramma.
Released in 2010, Cosmogramma was Ellison’s great leap forward. Observers knew from 1983, Los Angeles and Reset that FlyLo had a way about him when it came to dishing up dashing beats. But Cosmogramma was a different, brighter, more enticing proposition.
Over the course of a slew of eerie, dreamy, fuzzy, fizzy and dazzling tracks, Ellison worked out the jazzy, improvised, cosmic sounds he was hearing in his head to create quite a trip. You could hear the influence of the beats which had previously driven his music, but you could also lead a whole lot more besides as Ellison sought to show off some other sides to his musical wash.
What you’ll find on new album Until the Quiet Comes is Ellison putting further structure and shape on the contours he explored the last time out.
Instead of spacey wig-outs, we get sharp corners and focused tunes. There are collaborations with Erykah Badu, Brainfeeder’s Thundercat and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, but, most of all, there’s Ellison flipping the script again.
A repeat of Cosmogramma was never really on the cards, for several reasons.
“That’s the thing with a successful record; it’s there when you go back to work on the next one,” Ellison says. “Part of you don’t want to detour too far away from it because it worked. At the same time, though, if you don’t try something unfamiliar, you’re not challenging yourself. I learned so much already but I felt I needed to do more.
“Then there’s the fact that I don’t think I’m capable of repeating myself.
“I’ve found that if I try to say or do the same thing twice, it just doesn’t work. It would be foolish to try to drink from the same water again and make Cosmogramma 2. I asked myself what felt more honest to me at the moment, and I thought that doing something that felt a little bit more minimal was the way to go.
“I don’t plan this out in advance, the music and the direction just reveals itself as the work goes on. I always think it’s going one way and then, it turns out totally different.”
What Ellison found when he started to work in his Los Angeles home on the new record was that he was “concentrating more on dynamics than straight-up producing” and this mindshift dictated where the album went.
“In a way, that was where my mind was at, and I’ve been getting better at following that. I think I’ve also become a better musician, though I still have to improve myself. I also wanted to get away from doing what people expected from me.
“It’s really frustrating when people have their category that they want to put you in. I mean, I don’t do that with people.”
For Ellison, Until the Quiet Comes is a better reflection of just where he’s coming from, the yin and yang of FlyLo.
“It’s different than Cosmogramma and it’s probably as much for the club as the headphones. I really wanted both elements in there because both of them mean a lot to me.
“My kind of headphone music these days is stuff like Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring. That’s so beautiful.”
When Ellison talks about the acts on his Brainfeeder label, there’s a tone of parental pride in his voice. In recent years, it’s become home to a wildy diverse bunch of acts such as Jeremiah Jae, Daedelus, Lapalux, Ryat, The Gaslamp Killer and many more.
Ellison views the label as a way of doing for acts what people did for him when he was coming up. “I feel like one of the aims of my life is to help other people achieve their dreams and shine a light on things that I think are really cool. A lot of people did that for me. A lot of people really tried to push my sound, and I noticed that and remember that and want to keep that spirit alive too.”
He points to fellow Los Angeles crew Odd Future as another example of what this kind of patronage is all about. “It’s really cool to watch them do their thing because I think they are the kids that I was looking to hang out with when I was really young. I wanted to be part of that same energy, that same rebellious nature, before I went on to college and shit. If I was 14 and I came across Odd Future, I’d be all over them. It’s cool to see they’re giving the lead to kids now.
“But even if it doesn’t come off in this way, it’s really interesting to see how thoughtful they are. The people behind it really do give a fuck about what they’re doing and they’re trying to bring the best quality that they can to what they do.”
One of the key features of Ellison’s recent work is a willingness to bring in other voices like Badu and Yorke. His quest for new collaborators has recently seen him adding Beck’s name and number to his contacts list.
What does he look for in a collaborative soulmate? “I like to collaborate with people who understand the place in the mix of music. I like when people know how to get in the pockets of beats and are happy not to be straightforward sometimes. I love when I come across people like that, who can hear a track and turn it on its head. That’s so fucking cool.”
Ellison’s restless compulsion is not just confined to his own sphere. He has also done soundtrack work for Adult Swim’s Cat Dick pilot TV show about a cat detective, has been producing tracks with Shabazz Palaces and is doing this and that with some of the Odd Future gang.
So he’s back working with rappers again?
“It’s really cool for someone like me to feel that connection with rappers again. It wasn’t there for a long time, I didn’t feel it because I couldn’t relate to what I was hearing.
“Now, it’s different. I like to do all kinds of music, though some people have downplayed the hip-hop stuff I’ve done in the past. But hip-hop has been hugely supportive of me over the years, and I feel it’s time to remind people that I’m definitely still in that gang.”
Until the Quiet Comes is out today
