I try to convey this feeling of being innocent in a mystical state, being in a place that's new, seeing things with brand new eyes, for better or worse. I just imagine this little kid floating on a beautiful king-size bed over the city at night, seeing all sorts of crazy stuff happening in the world. To me, half the fun is all the stories other people have.

Flying Lotus

Categorized in : Beautiful Fun Crazy

I feel some responsibility to shine light on things that I love.

Flying Lotus

shining light responsibility

I just understand that Im supposed to be one of those people that disrupts the flavor a little bit.

Flying Lotus

flavor littles people

I'm not the kind of person who's always out at the club if I don't have to be. I like chilling. I think that comes across in my music.

Flying Lotus

chill kind thinking

I wish more artists would do that sort of thing - just focus on one sound on a record instead of "Here's my club banger, here's my metro booming track, and then here's my Americana song." I like albums to feel like a world. That's just me.

Flying Lotus

track artist song

I believe there's more than this - that maybe when we die our brains conjure up some kind of shutdown experience, and that's what people try to sum up as the afterlife. But yeah, I think something else is going to happen and it's going to be crazy and confusing and weird, and we probably won't know what it's all about. It'll just be another place where we're trying to understand why we exist at all.

Flying Lotus

afterlife crazy believe

Artists are all giving so much of ourselves to the work and the people and the press and the media and Twitter and all that now. For me, being able to create from a genuine place is really difficult lately because there's so much going on all the time, but when all that stuff gets quiet, you can explore your ideas without any ego or mental chatter.

Flying Lotus

artist giving people

I just like to be dangerous with what I try to do.

Flying Lotus

dangerous trying

I don't want to do one of those records where it's like a compilation of a bunch of all sorts of rappers on my beats. I don't find those to be focused albums. I'd like to sit and work a whole record with a certain person, to come up with a concept and see it through that way.

Flying Lotus

rapper want way

I definitely learned to communicate with other musicians better. I used to feel so intimidated by guys who can read notes, like, "Oh my god, they're gonna think I'm not even gonna be able to sit at the table." But I've come to see that a lot of these musicians don't know how to read music either, and that made me feel good. I could just come up with ideas or show somebody things and get the ideas across.

Flying Lotus

feel-good guy thinking

Communicating with musicians is really interesting because everyone has their quirks and their strengths and their weaknesses.

Flying Lotus

musician weakness interesting

Here's the thing: if I want to do something, I just have to do it - for real! I'm not gonna pussy out in the moment. I don't want no holding back!

Flying Lotus

moments real

I used to be really into traditional meditation, but I found that creating new music is the best meditation. When I'm able to get into that space, nothing else matters, and I'm just a vessel for whatever the message is; I feel like I'm not in control. It's like this organic communication, and I feel like that is the quiet, in a way.

Flying Lotus

communication meditation quiet

More than ever, I had to analyze my mental state over the past couple of years because of all the things that happened since the last album came out. Just being surrounded by lots of noise - good and bad - and still being able to try to hold onto some kind of identity for myself.

Flying Lotus

couple trying past

The city is always influential in the work, though I've had that temptation to leave, but only recently. It's difficult because whenever I start working someplace else, I'm like, "Man, this would have been better if I had my subwoofer."

Flying Lotus

influential temptation men

I can't work without a Good L.A. weed. That's the thing you miss the most.

Flying Lotus

weed missing

I'm not going to be like, "I gotta get this idea out of my head." It's like, "OK, here's a clean slate, and I've got all these paints, and all these brushes, and this is what I'm going to do with it." It reveals itself, and you take a step back and say, "What's happening here? Where are we going? What does this mean? Do I need to break it open? Does it need to just be what it is? Should it end now?"

Flying Lotus

paint break mean

People don't really care to be around you when you're going through tough times.

Flying Lotus

you tough-times care people

I was first inspired to make music by my cousin Oran. He was making music on an old Mac II by himself in his little lab, and I just started taking up after him. He was the first person to put a machine in front of me to work on. He was like my big brother, someone who I looked up to.

Flying Lotus

me music brother work

Before saying, 'This track is so dope; it's gonna go on the album,' I like to take some time away from it and see how I feel about it in a few months. If it's gonna get released, I gotta love it - it's gonna have my name on it forever.

Flying Lotus

name feel time love

Childish Gambino - him and I are the same age, and I really like him.

Flying Lotus

childish same like age