While 2017's "Drunk" may not have been the album that catapulted Bruner's career as his most recent album "It Is What It Is", Bruner is far from a rookie. Bruner is largely credited as one of the main contributors behind Kendrick Lamar's critically-acclaimed album, "To Pimp a Butterfly", and also a prominent feature on Kamasi Washington's three hour jazz album "The Epic". Bruner's incredible bass can be heard all throughout these pieces, as he collaborated heavily with Producer Sounwave on TPAB specifically.
Bruner's work with Kendrick Lamar catapulted his recent rise to stardom. Bruner describes his work on TPAB being shaped around Jazz greats like Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Mary Lou Williams and Miles Davis. Bruner's bass was largely improvised on the album. However, he still was largely influenced by these artists and went on to describe his process as "[He was] listening to different music, pulling from influences — deep down emotion coming across in the music based on things going on at the time. Everybody would share space a lot. It was a consistent stream of creativity, you know?".
Bruner has made a shift in his creative process on his most recent album "It Is What It Is". Bruner says in an interview, "This album is definitely more me by myself--with contributions from my friends, of course. There would be moments when I would go out and share and I wasn't sure how it would translate--a lot of the time I would prefer to record and do things on my own, in my own space". This marks a shift from his creative process in his recording sessions on previous albums, which were more collaborative in nature. Bruner is notorious for playing video games and hanging out and being very social overall in his creative process. This change in his process combined with Bruner's tragic loss of longtime friend Mac Miller gives this album a drastically more somber sound than the playful absurdness of "Drunk", without compromising the originality expected in Thundercat's music.
Bruner states that he can't separate his personal life from his creative life, and that the two are inherently intertwined, saying "But it's not like people's stereotype of a songwriter where your pain goes into your art. It can but it doesn't always work like that. It's not like your real life doesn't affect your creative life. They're one and the same". These close ties between his creative and personal life are demonstrated on the title track of "It Is What It Is", as a very somber "Hey Mac" punctuates a long solo that fades out in his tribute to his close friend.
Overall, I would say that Thundercat has potential to reach big-C-Creativity, because he has been on the forefront of Jazz-infused Rap/R&B, however he has not crossed that line yet. I can say for certain that I have no one is making music like Thundercat and we will probably not hear any six-string bass solos over a song about a Dragon Ball Durags any time soon.
Sources:
https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/4/6/21209319/thundercat-it-is-what-it-is-interview
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/meet-thundercat-the-jazz-fusion-genius-behind-kendrick-lamars-butterfly-70653/
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-ms-grammys-thundercat-20160214-story.html
I enjoyed this post because, though I've listened to his music, I didn't know much about Thundercat's process. His change from socially collaborative recording to a more solo creative process struck me. It seems creating alone allowed for more vulnerability. It's much easier to share ideas when they're joyful. I've only listened to Drunk, but I'll give this newer album a shot.
ReplyDeleteLike Sonja, I’ve only heard one or two of Thundercat’s songs and didn’t know anything about his process. I didn’t even know he had a role in Kendrick Lamar’s album. It really goes to show what kind of creative genius might be being overlooked or overshadowed in the industry! I especially like the unique sound of “Them Changes.”
ReplyDeleteBruner really seems to embody the Sternberg personality trait of integration and intellectuality. He was able to kind of pick and choose what influences he decided to incorporate into his own style and even reimagine these influences to fit his idea of a song. He takes it one step further when he discusses the intertwining of his creative and personal lives. In a sense, he is able to take the influences of his personal life and either consciously or subconsciously allow them to contribute to his creative process. Breaking off into more personalized work would make those personal influences that much more impactful and likely more obvious.
Thanks for sharing Thundercat’s story! I will definitely be checking out his new album.