His sound continued to develop as he put his own twist on the approach, recording with a crop of jazz musicians including the indispensable likes of bassist Thundercat and strings master Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. This process began with the turbulent set Cosmogramma and peaked in terms of acclaim in with You're Dead! After he was Grammy-nominated for Producer of the Year, he provided the score for the anime series Yasuke.
Steven Ellison was born in Los Angeles and raised in the city's Winnetka neighborhood. His cousins include Ravi and Oran Coltrane , the latter of whom introduced him to electronic music production and gave him his first piece of gear, a Roland MC groovebox.
Drawn first to filmmaking -- he made stop-motion clips in his youth, using action figures and a camcorder -- Ellison obtained a degree from Los Angeles Film School and continued at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
After a short period in the Bay Area, he returned to L. In response to an open call from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, Ellison submitted tracks, and soon had them licensed for use between segments and commercial breaks. Ellison debuted officially as Flying Lotus in , the year he connected with Plug Research, a crucial outlet of Los Angeles' emerging beat scene. That October, Plug Research released , Ellison 's first album.
Titled after his birth year, it was created in solitude with the exception of the cosmic "Unexpected Delight," featuring vocals from Laura Darlington -- a frequent collaborator for years to come. The next year, U. Meanwhile, Ellison had become a major catalyst in the activity emanating from Low End Theory, a weekly club night -- and public salon of sorts for aspiring beatmakers and other musicians -- held in L. Local groundswell and an increasing international profile combined to make Ellison 's first Warp LP a subcultural event.
Now, in , it seems that Flying Lotus is everywhere. Like What You See? Request More info Book a tour Apply Now. It just seems like it's boundless imagination, things beyond belief.
That's what I got out of it. Snoop Dogg's debut album, Doggystyle, was a big thing for Flying Lotus. Snoop Dogg's first album — I love that. All that West Coast hip-hop stuff happening in the early '90s was hugely influential on me.
Mostly because of the production. I love Snoop on the record, of course, he said some great stuff. But it was the production and having this kind of musical sensibility in hip-hop that was really groundbreaking at a time when it was just all about the breaks and short little vinyl things being looped up. Like, they're actual musicians playing parts. It was just like a bigger, expansive concept and it blew my mind what was possible with production.
Flying Lotus spent some of his formative years working for the Stones Throw label. That's when I was over there. That was my era, when Madlib did the Sound Directions album. And you know, through Stones Throw and being there, I got to meet J Dilla and go over to his house and stuff. I'd get to film shows, I got to do all types of things for Stones Throw. And it was all really helpful for me and also a way to meet people in the industry. He comes from a formidably talented musical family. My grandmother is a songwriter.
There was a futon in the room and I was probably wearing gray sweats all the time. I just thought it would be fun. It was just so cool. I had a MySpace page and eventually my music was spreading all over the place. That was huge for us. Everyone was so welcoming at that time. I think we all knew that there was this thing that was brewing. I remember how united everyone was. It was so beautiful.
Everyone giving each other their moment to play beats in the car outside the club. There was a scene that was built from that. I heard so many exciting beats that way. They were on the cusp of a deal with Kanye at the time when all of this was popping off. We were kind of on the outskirts of their movement because their scene was a bit inclusive, but we all spun their music and it was all love, really.
But it was good because we got to build our own thing. There were some amazing people back in the day that gave me hope. I remember that we were AIM buddies — like iChat friends. Once Stones Throw guys like Dudley Perkins started showing love it was very validating, because those were the cats I was really looking up to at the time.
Just to be associated with that was amazing. It was just perfect timing. A whole remix album happened on the back of it.
When I hear it now, it stirs good memories. That was one of the ones that hit MySpace pretty hard back then. At that time, I still had a day job. And you know what, I have never been as productive musically as I was when I had a job. Then, I had to hustle out of it [the job] because all I wanted to do was make music all day.
I guess I still feel that way. When Kamasi started soloing I drifted off into thought. It was like my past, present and future. It was a showcase for up-and-coming jazz musicians as well as cats like Carlos Santana and Alice Coltrane doing interesting things. I would go to the festival every year and later worked setting those up. It was a job, as was managing the publishing of John Coltrane.
She would teach a service there and play music for hours. My connection with her music was more like a spiritual one. It was so unique in the landscape of everything else I was hearing as a kid. After that I worked at Stones Throw Records, which was great. Even though it was a regular job, it was great to be around that environment and see the possibilities of things that could happen.
They just inspired me so much and gave me a real perspective on the record industry. Egon and Peanut Butter Wolf definitely had my back in that way. They also gave me encouragement.
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