Quotes from Flying Lotus

I remember Usher came up to me at Coachella once, and it's like, 'Are you sure you're talking to the right person? How do you even know what I look like? You're not supposed to know who I am.'

When it comes to art in general now, we've become so aware of our influence. We know when people are listening, when people are watching. It's not healthy. We start creating with that in the background of our mind. I think it's ruined my mind.

I played saxophone for a while when I was a kid.

For me, being 10 years old and seeing 'Jurassic Park' for the first time blew my mind. I want music to feel like that.

The Soft Machine's 'Volume Two' inspired me heavily. That record just feels like it was all done in the same breath. It's genius, and it's silly at times. But I love the fact that every time I listen to it, I listen from the beginning and want to play it out.

I'd love to work with Drake. I got Drake beats.

I don't like to brag about it, but there are people I've worked with at the start of their career, and they've all become very, very successful.

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.

I go through phases when I'm super into my anime stuff.

I go through phases where I'm not into jazz as much, and then I'll get heavy, heavy, heavy into it.

I like Philip Glass. I think he's made some really great contributions to his field. I love his style of playing - it's very loop-style.

Truth be told, I think jazz is a mind-set. It's not necessarily, like, this guy picked up a horn and did this or whatever.

I don't have a great story, but I love Boards of Canada. I didn't get into it when it was happening; I got into it later on.

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

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.

I found so many reasons to call it 'You're Dead!' - not just because I wanted to make this album about the journey through death. I was watching the music scene that I came up with kind of go stale and watching the lights go out on a lot of my friends.

I was a real big fan of Lil Wayne when he first came out.

Part of what I like to do with Brainfeeder is to get the younger kids hearing jazz, because they don't know where to go to really hear it. Brainfeeder gives me a platform to put out people like Kamasi Washington or Austin Peralta.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which doesn't feel like L.A. It's a bit different. It's still L.A. County, but it's not the same, it's not the kind of place where they embrace you for being a weirdo. You were just left alone with your Nintendo, and that was my life.

I always feel like the past informs my present musically.

A strong concept is the most important thing in creating a record. When you can listen to it and see a whole movie in your head, that's what separates an instrumental album from a beat tape.

I feel like my music has a reputation for being pretty serious or whatnot, but I like having fun.

I need to help people to create the best work that they can. It's just something a producer should do anyway.

I don't sit around listening to beats all day. There's so many producers, and so much of it is derivative.