Forget J-Lo. There’s a new kid in town called Flying Lotus or, to his fans, FlyLo. In the past several years, Flying Lotus, whose real name is Stephen Ellison, has won accolades for his first album, 2006′s 1983, and last year’s Los Angeles, released by prestigious Warp Records.
That’s not a bad beginning for someone whose work is virtually impossible to classify. Ironically, he has as much trouble labeling it as anyone else. When pressed, he comes up with the term, psychedelic beats. When that draws blank stares, he refines it with “hip-hop rooted in psychedelic rock.”
That’s probably as much a description of his approach to making music. Heavily influenced by his great-aunt, Alice Coltrane and her contemporaries, he was exposed to meditation, Eastern philosophy and the belief that our vibrations shape the world. As a result, he likes to clear his mind and sit down with no idea of what to do and just let things happen. “It hinders me in something like films, where people need to have an idea in fully fleshed out form, in ways they can understand. But I don’t work like that.”
His experience at the Red Bull Music Academy strengthened his resolve to follow his own instincts. He had always wanted to go to Australia when the application to the program, which was being held in Melbourne that year, fell into his hands. Recognizing that programs like this “don’t come around very often, I filled out the application, got accepted and kept waiting for the fine print. Except,” he grins, “there was no fine print.”
He went with the feeling that “something was going to happen” and wasn’t surprised when it did. “The song, “Tea Leaf Dancers,” was a result of a collaboration that wouldn’t have happened elsewhere.” Perhaps more importantly, “they let me really flex my muscles and come up with some crazy shit. I really don’t know what’s around the corner or what’s going to happen when I sit down to make music and they made me feel really good about that.”
Now that he’s climbing the rungs of fame, he’s learning to deal with people who don’t think that way, preferring their talent with neat labels. It can take its toll, he says, so he remembers why he got into music in the first place, meditates, and trusts his gut.
“I think the best lesson I’ve learned so far,” he says. “is that anyone interested in pursuing music should try to get a glimpse into themselves and convey what it means to be human as honestly as possible. Do that and the music will take care of itself.”
