A biography for Thundercathasn’t been written yet.
“I grew up in Compton: 116th and Wilmington.”
“My family is all musicians - my dad plays drums, my mom plays flute, my older brother plays drums, my little brother plays drums and piano. For some reason, I didn't get the memo, so I just play bass.”
“Tokyo style is so specific. And I'm a very big fan of their history. It's pretty simple. A lot of the time, people expect to see the wild style that comes out of Japan, but I think, traditionally, the style is very simple.”
“Yeah, I'd like to collaborate with God. Do a collaboration with God!”
“It was actually working with Kendrick Lamar that pushed me further into the act of songwriting, specifically.”
“I appreciate my parents for everything they instilled in me and my brothers.”
“When I invite people over to my apartment, they usually don't like it because the music I play confuses the crap out of them - I'm making people listen to the 'Final Fantasy' soundtrack, and they're like, 'Why is this happening? Let's just leave and find somebody who wants us to have fun and not teach us about something.'”
“I actually went to high school with Jay Rock.”
“It feels nice to be able to call Brainfeeder my home. It's giving art the platform. That's what Brainfeeder has always been for me: hope for art.”
“Creatively, I'm not one to advocate people knowing every little nuance about you sometimes.”
“I've never been called the black sheep. Everybody in my family had something weird about them, like, 'What's wrong with you?!' We all were black sheep.”
“Growing up, I always loved working with people. I love playing with people and having that moment of discovering something different. I believe in the magic of what music is.”
“I do enjoy a bit of the fantasy world that anime provides, but at the same time, I need the reality in it. I'm very much a stickler about the actual animation. I'm not into the cutesy, stereotypical animation with big eyes and a small chin. That annoys the hell out of me.”
“Why do we think the '70s were so awesome? That 'freeness' of music was there.”
“The truth is hip hop has always complemented jazz and vice versa, but there's always been this communication barrier that exists based on music to lyrics.”
“I'm not Beyonce or Trey Songz or anything, so every now and again, I feel a little like, 'Are they listening to me, or am I just sounding crazy singing to myself?' I feel like that sometimes.”
“When I was younger, I was always a musician that could play by ear better than I could analytically.”
“You can find humor in most things, and even terrible things.”
“Sometimes I practice to Allan Holdsworth or John McLaughlin, but I don't just practice to jazz and jazz-fusion albums. I'll practice to TV theme music - one of my favorites is 'M*A*S*H.' I'll just play along with anything on the TV.”
“I don't look at my instrument as having one specific role; I was raised to go as far as you can. But Raphael Saadiq hated my bass. He told me to throw it away. And playing in Snoop's band, there was a time when my bass was more annoying to everyone than helpful. They would get on my case: 'Can you make your bass sound like more of a bass?'”