The virtuoso bass player Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, is a key part of a jazz and R&B renaissance in L.A.; there's more to 'Baby Driver' than the hip soundtrack; Netflix is growing fast, but can it make the economics work in the long run?
Meet Thundercat, the go-to bassist for everyone from Erykah Badu to Kendrick Lamar
What do musicians Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, and the punk band Suicidal Tendencies have in common?
They’ve all collaborated with the virtuosic bass guitarist, Thundercat, whose real name is Stephen Bruner.
Thundercat is part of a jazz and R&B renaissance that has its roots in South L.A. Other principals include saxophonist Kamasi Washington and drummer Ronald Bruner, Thundercat’s brother.
Thundercat has had a long collaboration with producer Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus. The pair first worked together on Ellison’s album, Cosmogramma. Thundercat was also all over Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning album, "To Pimp A Butterfly."
Though he’s a prolific collaborator, Thundercat is also a solo artist and vocalist who recently released his third studio album, "Drunk."
The Frame producer Michelle Lanz met up with Thundercat at his home to talk about his writing process, and how he got so good at playing that six-string bass.
(Catch Thundercat at FYF on Saturday July 22 at 5:30 p.m.)
On how the name Thundercat came about:
The name started for me as, of course, the cartoon from the '80s. It resonated with me as a child. It was never where I was like, I want you to call me Thundercat! It actually started with my friends describing me in the studio, like, There's a guy with a Thundercat shirt on, go find him.
On how music is in his blood:
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. I want to say it's in the DNA a bit, and having very supportive parents who encouraged me to be creative.
On why he was drawn to the bass guitar:
I don't know what it is about bass guitar for me. I think it all stemmed from the idea of a sword, because, again, Lionel [from the Thundercats] with his sword. I think it stemmed from the infatuation of having something of that manner — that being the one toy I would play with. I would look back at all the pictures that my mom has of me, from being a baby where I was playing with a busted guitar, to the part where I'm in the backyard, a little older, missing my front teeth, but I've got this voice-changing helmet and I've got this toy guitar. Then from that to my first bass, around 5, 6 or whatever. I'd be watching cartoons, but I'd be practicing bass — listening to soundtracks from movies, practicing bass. My mom would always tell me if she saw me sitting there doing nothing, she'd say, Go pick up the bass!
On his musical education:
My high school teacher, Reggie Andrews, was a huge factor in my learning my instrument. He didn't play bass, but it was the part where he gave me a knowledgeable perspective of what it was that I was doing. I also studied upright bass at Colburn [Music School] for a couple of years in middle school. David Young was my teacher and it was a part of my curriculum. After school, it was like, OK, you have bass lessons at Colburn. Dave would come and teach me for about an hour, and he would leave and I would just sit there with the bass, like, What am I supposed to do now? I'd just sit there and practice a bit, hitting the bass with a bow ... completely wrong, like a kid left unwatched.
On how he met Flying Lotus/Steve Ellison:
I met Flying Lotus at South by Southwest almost 10 years ago. I remember I had known of his music and ironically, he knew who I was. He had heard, I imagine, something about me being around. We both had this moment that I can only describe like this one scene in "Nacho Libre" when Escalito and Nacho meet and they decide to team up. And it was like, Ok let's work! And it's been almost 10 years since.
The first thing we ever worked on was [the song] "Zodiac Shit," and he sent it to me in an email. I guess he was trying to see what it was. I remember how excited I was just to get the opportunity. At that moment it was one of those things like, Alright, let's do that. It was pretty comedic because the first thing we realized is that we lived down the street from each other. Worlds apart, but I could literally walk or ride a bike to his house. I was like, Alright, I'm coming over man, I'll see you. I'm looking at the little [map] and it says five minutes, I was like, Jesus, I'll be there in five minutes, man. Even though we've moved and changed, I still live like five minutes away. That will be on my tombstone: He lived five minutes away from Flying Lotus.
On a memorable moment in the studio with Flying Lotus:
We're always working on music. I like to go back to the beginnings of things, like [the album] "Cosmogramma." I think he was getting to learn me as a musician and I was beginning to learn him as a producer. It was this moment of him realizing that I could keep up with the music that was changing. He stopped the track one time and he was messing with the time and it was like, Man, keep going. Make it faster! It was this moment of, This is awesome! It was like, I can play as fast as you can program. That was one of many moments to come, but I'll never forget that one. He just kind of looked at me and was like, Really?
On the writing/recording of "Show You the Way" from his album, "Drunk":
For "Show You The Way," it started in the process of [working on Kendrick Lamar's] "To Pimp A Butterfly," actually. I remember I had written the hook of the song and that was the only thing that existed. I would play it on repeat, maybe a 30-second clip. I was like, OK, I don't know what this is, but that's something.
Somebody asked me at one point about [who] I wanted to work with. I said, Kenny Loggins was one of my heroes. I mentioned it on the radio one time, his son reached out in an email and I was kind of like, Whoa! And, sure enough, Kenny reached out. The first thing Kenny asked me [was], "Are you joking?" He thought that I was joking because it was like, Where's the part where it makes sense? I think he realized I was very serious.
It was just me and Kenny at first. As we were writing and I was playing him a lot of the music that I'd been recording, he said that he thought it'd be a good idea if Michael [McDonald] got involved. I kind of peed myself a little bit. The very next session we got together, Michael came. It was hilarious and intense, they look exactly like you would have thought they had looked. It was one of the greatest moments in my career as a musician ever — Michael McDonald showing up with Kenny Loggins. And the crazy thing that I didn't realize at first is they hadn't written together in like 20 years. That was even a deeper moment for me. That's how that song came to be. It was just awesome ... I felt like I was worth something.
After winning Wall Street and Hollywood, Netflix wants to be the next YouTube
Last week, Netflix picked up 91 nominations for the 2017 Emmy Awards — almost double the number it received last year. This week, it surprised Wall Street with a strong second-quarter performance.
Netflix stock prices soared after announcing it added 5.2 million new subscribers in the second quarter — much higher than the expected 3.2 million. It has also crossed 100 million subscribers worldwide, with slightly more than half coming from international markets.
The results come after a series of big risks by the streaming giant. It has reportedly spent $6 billion on content just this year, and it cancelled several high-profile and expensive shows such as "Sense8" and "The Get-Down."
And now Netflix has a bigger prize in mind — to become the next YouTube.
On an earnings call yesterday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that while Netflix viewership is growing, it still has a long way to go to match YouTube's one billion hours of viewing a day.
Variety's New York Digital Editor, Todd Hastings, has been covering this story and spoke with The Frame to discuss Netflix:
Interview highlights:
On the biggest takeaways of the earnings report:
They exceeded the number of subscribers that they signed up by a very wide margin. That gave investors a lot of optimism that the company's fast growth trajectory is not yet over, it's not reaching the top of the bell curve just yet.
On Netflix as a customer and competitor of movie studios and TV networks:
They've been watching Netflix with a measure of concern and envy for a while already. In fact, Netflix is a huge customer for a lot of studios and networks. Most of the spending that Netflix does on content is to acquire past TV shows and films, so Netflix is in a sense a competitor but it's also very good for the studios as well.
On Netflix's international strategy:
They are trying to think of what's going to play well with audiences around the world. Now, at the same time, you have different tastes in different parts of the world, so Netflix is going to have to increasingly spend money on local, regional content that's in-language, that is culturally resonant in those areas, because what's popular in India is not necessarily what's going to be popular in the U.S. or South America or parts of Asia.
On why Netflix wants to be the next YouTube:
Netflix has wrestled with this idea of who is their competitor. They've most often been compared to HBO for a long time, and in fact Netflix itself has said, We want to become HBO faster than HBO can become us. That's been the comparison so far.
I think what [CEO Reed] Hastings is trying to do is set the bar higher and really reveal what his aspirations are — to be the largest source of video entertainment in the world. I think it's mostly kind of a vision-setting thing here, not that Netflix is competitive with YouTube, really, in any way. YouTube is largely ad-supported and Netflix has no ads at all. But I think he's thinking of it in terms of the vision of what Netflix is trying to be — the biggest internet video company ever.
To hear John Horn's full conversation with Todd Spangler, click on the player above.
Listening for the sneaky sound cues in 'Baby Driver'
When “Baby Driver" writer-director Edgar Wright was a guest on The Frame, he talked about being paranoid that James Gunn's music-heavy "Guardians of the Galaxy" would beat him to the punch on songs he planned to use in his musical action film.
After all, "Baby Driver" is fueled by its soundtrack.
But while there's a lot of buzz about the great mixtape of songs that the character of Baby has throbbing in his ears, there’s a whole symphony of sounds sneakily laced within the soundtrack that the average moviegoer may not catch.
Sound designer Julian Slater, who has worked on every Edgar Wright film since “Shaun of the Dead” in 2004, was the culprit. And right from the opening logos, you can tell there’s something unique about the film’s sound. Here are some insights from Slater:
THE SOUND OF TINNITUS
“The sound that we all kind of associate in movies with tinnitus, which is that high-pitched whistle tone — we wanted to try and explore different avenues, so that it didn’t just sound like something that was going to annoy you,” Slater said.
The main character, Baby, suffers from tinnitus — a ringing in the ears — and Slater wove that into the music and the storytelling.
“The tinnitus actually changes in pitch,” said Slater, “depending on the incoming piece of music. So, for example, the Sony logo was pitched down, that is in the same pitch as the tinnitus it goes into, which in turn is in the same pitch as the car squeal brake that pulls up, which then goes into the ‘Bellbottoms’ music cue.”
BREAKING DOWN THE OPENING SCENE'S SOUND DESIGN
More than his tinnitus, Baby is defined by the songs blasting in his earbuds — while he’s driving, while he’s running, while he’s strutting to the coffee shop. With the help of Slater, the whole world around him seems to be jamming along.
“The very beginning of the movie starts with Baby waiting outside whilst his cohorts pull of this bank job,” Slater said. “The movie is laced with lots of audio. .. I call them ‘Easter eggs,’ things that, at a first-time watch or a listen, you wouldn’t maybe grasp that it works musically. The opening track is ‘Bellbottoms’ by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. And at this point in the movie, he turns on his windscreen wipers, and they are moving in tempo with the music.”
“[Then] we’ve got three burglar alarms that are all happening at the same time. We introduce them one after the other, and they’re all syncopated with the music.”
“We would take each sound as it stood in its own right. We would then tempo-map it, pitch-correct it, play it into the mix, decide if it worked. If it did work, perfect. If it didn’t work, we would then try a different sound.”
THE SOUND DESIGN OF THE "TEQUILA" SEQUENCE
Midway through the movie, there’s a tense meeting that erupts into a gunfight ... all while The Champs’ song, “Tequila,” is playing.
Edgar Wright has been dreaming up this movie for two decades and several years ago he hired an English DJ named Osymyso — who has made remixes using sound and dialogue from Wright’s other movies — to remix "Tequila" using gunfire, with this scene in mind.
Slater explained how Wright used that template when shooting on set.
When Edgar was on the shoot, all the actors knew that the guns had to go [imitates triplet sound] at a certain time. So it was always shot with the playback happening at the same time. Then that’s brought back to the cutting room, and Edgar adjusts the picture where needed. And then we set about replacing those guns ... and then adding on top of that. So the things that you see in sync are the guns going bang bang bang, but then all the ricochets that are happening in the surrounds are also kind of flicking around and all working with the music at the same time.
“It’s very complicated,” said Slater, “but it’s an absolute joy to do. And something like this is all down to Edgar. This was thought out and built into the script, so you can obviously push the parameters a lot further.”
To hear this story click the blue play button at the top of the post. To get more stories like this, subscribe to The Frame podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.