I was in shock and awe that he could see it. And when he laid his verse to “Walk on By,” it immediately became this portrait. I’m thinking, “Yeah, why would that be your goal?” I love his ability to connect with that deeper part through music. On his Unmastered, Untitled album, there’s a line where he asks, “Why you wanna see a good man with a broken heart?” It hit me like a ton of bricks. I usually just sing at home by myself with my bass. Someone told me I had to put Auto-Tune on my voice and I told them, “I am not that guy.” I had to find my comfort zone. I literally had to kick everyone out of the room, because it was weird. There was one time when I was in the studio and I’m recording vocals for Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly track, “These Walls”, and a few of my friends had never seen me sing before. I’m not going to name any names, but that was the honest criticism. I had to deal with my friends telling me, “You can’t sing.” I had to deal with people laughing at me. I was like, “I have to sing?” I had references and different things that made me feel comfortable, like, “I know I can do it.” But I didn’t know to what extent I could. And I’d ask, “Was it cool?” By the time we got to Apocalypse, it was a weird moment for me. I would sing on other people’s albums, their backgrounds. I didn’t know where I was supposed to make sense. I’m looking at people like Beyonce and Trey Songz and Jamie Foxx-people that sing like they’ve got chicken all in their throat.
How’d you get comfortable as a vocalist? You essentially didn’t become an active singer until your late 20s. The songwriting, I didn’t fully understand what it meant. As a bass player, that’s what comes easy to me-the bass playing. They’re a major influence on my songwriting. The best thing is knowing that there’s somebody out there who doesn’t know who they are, just so you can be like, “Sit your ass down and let me play you this.” It’s timeless. Being able to convey ideas through song, I had to learn that from different places. “Walk On By” has Hall & Oates nods to it musically. Things get added, but it always starts with the bass. I don’t have any goal in mind other than to make the best music I can. It’s me telling a story from that perspective.
That goes for everyone that I’ve worked with. Somewhere between those lines, there’s this existence where you end up drinking. If you’re not in a rock band, music doesn’t exist for a musician. It’s such a weird thing to be a musician nowadays. I’m observing and reporting what my experience as a musician has been ’til now. What journey are you taking this listener on with Drunk? He’s rocked it all. Prior to this show, the eccentric artist sat down with Billboard backstage to talk about what inspired Drunk, why Lamar’s verse on this album is special and his generally flamboyant style. Outfits so heavily stylized and exaggerated that they’d make sense on the characters of the ‘80s cartoon heroes he named himself after. Blazers that recall Michael Jackson’s vintage regal vibes. In purple camouflage sweatpants, a black tee under a red lumberjack shirt, Thundercat, 32, was having a chill day in comparison to some of the louder pieces he’s been photographed wearing in the past. He also sprinkles bits of Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion” and “These Walls,” which he assisted in producing for the rapper’s critically acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly album. As he’s bathed in green and blue spotlights, Drunk’s “Them Changes” earns the loudest cheers. Each song he performs seemingly gets its own 30-second improvisational period before returning back to the realm of familiarity, stirring the crowd into a frenzy. Then he locks back into his music-a smooth, velvet-textured amalgam of jazz, soul, Hip-Hop, and funk partnered with lyrical content fit for both talking head social-political programs and inner-city barbershop dialogue. Thundercat Album 'Drunk' to Feature Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Wiz Khalifa & Kenny Loggins
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