Thundercat is in desperate need of coffee. It\u2019s a sunny Friday afternoon in Tokyo and the virtuoso is preparing to play three back-to-back shows over the weekend. Needless to say, caffeine with a vegan-appropriate dairy alternative is a necessity. \u201cNobody wants me to be happy,\u201d he grumbles lightheartedly as he watches someone else get served their coffee.<\/p>\n
But even a busy schedule and the lack of coffee aren\u2019t enough to ruin Thundercat\u2019s first shows in Japan since 2022. He last performed a show here with half-COVID restrictions, when social distancing was still enforced and audience members weren\u2019t allowed to clap and make noise, and had to wear face masks indoors. \u201cIt was crazy but ultimately, it was fine. It was funny to me because there are still psychological effects from COVID happening and everybody’s still mentally recovering from this,\u201d he recalls of the gig. For this trip, he\u2019s slated to play Sonic Mania at 10 p.m. tonight and two shows for Summer Sonic in Tokyo and Osaka on Saturday and Sunday. The Japan dates serve as a prelude to his first major tour since the pandemic, and he\u2019s made quite a few changes to his preparations since then. Physically, he incorporates exercise into his everyday routine (boxing is his workout of choice) and even brings a personal trainer with him. Mentally, psychologically and emotionally, he follows the mantra of his 2020 record. \u201cI’ve been more forgiving of things I don’t have answers to,\u201d he explains. \u201cI mean, the album was called It Is What It Is<\/em>, and I think I took it very literally.\u201d<\/p>\n In the three years between now and the release of the GRAMMY-winning album, he\u2019s been more focused on releasing collaborations. He joined Gorillaz for the title track of their latest project Cracker Island<\/em> and teamed up with Kevin Parker of Tame Impala for the one-off single \u201cNo More Lies.\u201d Although he\u2019s a veteran collaborator with an untouchable arsenal of musical partnerships ranging from Flying Lotus to Kendrick Lamar and the late Mac Miller, he\u2019s found that the process of his recent joints have been more intentional. \u201cI’ve always wanted to work with Kevin Parker since the very first album, but you don’t know how these places will connect or the way your worlds will cross paths,\u201d he says. The way Thundercat sees it, the collaborative process is a reminder to artists that they need each other. When they put the complications of business aside to be fully open with each other, it paves the way for a mutual creation that memorializes the creative energy of that moment. \u201cMore than just the music,\u201d he shares, \u201cthis is how we grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Collaboration is second nature for the Los Angeles native, and even after doing this for more than half his life, it never gets boring. He feels the same way about touring, making him one of the few artists who love being on the road. It doesn\u2019t come as a surprise, however, seeing as he\u2019s been touring with a myriad of different artists since he was a young teenager. When he became his own artist, he made it a point to always be on the road, performing. \u201cTouring has been my whole life,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I just stop touring, I stop living.\u201d He takes a minute to imagine how his music could be impacted if he quit touring, and he deduces that his music may never be the same if that were the case. \u201cThe only way you learn how to be a better fighter is by fighting. You don’t learn how to be a better musician by not being a musician; you always have to be playing,\u201d he states. \u201cIf I wasn’t touring as Thundercat, I’d be touring with Kamasi [Washington]. I’d be touring with Terrace Martin. I’d be with my friends. It’s my life’s work.\u201d<\/p>\n With the amount of time he spends on the road, one would think that each Thundercat tour is repetitive at this point. Luckily for the artist, he\u2019s cracked the code of touring and it\u2019s pretty simple: Just have something new. He believes that in music – as something that is always its own entity – there are different iterations of a spectrum of being a great artist, and his favorite musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis didn\u2019t need elaborate choreography or lasers to be considered an all-time great. He acknowledges that music is in a different era now, but the way he sees it, it\u2019s the energy of a performance that will translate to people. Even when he has off days just like any other human, the one thing he can do for his audience is to give it his best every single time, and he considers that as one of the best parts about being a musician. Even Beyonc\u00e9, he says, who is considered as one of the greatest performers of all time, has slip ups, such as getting stuck riding on the on-stage horse. \u201cThings go bad, but it doesn’t mean that you stop. You know, you hit a bad note, you feel flat, you’re not feeling like your ears are keeping up with your hands or something, it’s all part of it,\u201d he reflects. \u201cBut I think that all in all, it lives and dies on stage with you. I don’t think anybody really cared about Beyonc\u00e9 not being able to get off the horse. Even if they slipped and fell and farted on stage, it would be like, \u2018Oh, that was crazy, but I was there to see it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Each visit to Japan is always so surreal for him, despite the fact that he made his first visit two decades ago as an 18-year-old Stephen Bruner. \u201cMy friend found photos of us from the first time I came to Japan and all my friends looked like they were part of a street breakdancing team. I looked like I drove a Nissan Skyline,\u201d he chuckles, alluding to the famous \u201cGodzilla\u201d car. Thundercat\u2019s love for Japan and its culture is well-documented, but it\u2019s more than just an infatuation that he developed as an adult. If you asked about his childhood, many friends would describe him as that guy with a VHS of anime and clothing that definitely didn\u2019t originate from the West. He learned a lot about the culture, its principles and different spiritual aspects through anime, and it was clearly a driving force for him in many ways. Even when he started out illustrating, his favorite thing to watch and learn about was anime because they were some of the best drawings he\u2019d ever seen. He adds that there\u2019s a major difference between Japanese and American culture, \u201c[Americans] are really loud and make a lot of noise for nothing,\u201d he states, \u201cbut the level of care and respect that you experience here is so meticulous and different than where I come from.\u201d When he\u2019s here, he feels more comfortable when people walk up to him because there\u2019s such a strong sense of respect. \u201cBack home, people just yell my name down the block and it’s just like, why would you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJapan’s always been a love of mine,\u201d Thundercat reaffirms with a soft smile. \u201cA lot of my happiest memories, my childhood memories and the joy that I find in my personal life were created in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you feel like your admiration and aspiration for Japanese culture extends to your fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, I think so. A lot of my fans, I feel like, are very similar to me. They love anime and it’s a wide variety of fans. I see a lot of different characters in the audience, from older guys with Steely Dan shirts to the kids, girls and guys and everything in between, and furries. [laughs]<\/em> I love it, because I’m happy that my music reaches to different places.<\/p>\n Do you have any advice for people who want to visit Japan for the first time?<\/strong><\/p>\n Advice for people visiting Japan? No, because I like to gatekeep. You find it yourself. You did this to yourself, that’s my advice.<\/p>\n No, just kidding. If I had advice for somebody coming to Japan, just prepare for such an experience different than you’re used to. And be respectful.<\/p>\n Do you have any must-visit spots for people who have never been here?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you haven’t been to the Nintendo Center, the Pok\u00e9mon Center or Shibuya PARCO, you have to go. The first time I went, I was hyperventilating and almost passed out because I’ve never seen so many plush toys. We had to ship all of them home.<\/p>\n If you could live in Japan permanently, why do you think you’d like to settle?<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m from LA so I love being in the city. I don’t necessarily like it quiet. Quiet to me still sounds like helicopters. It’s like, “Wow, what a peaceful night and only one car crash.” [laughs]<\/em> I feel very at home in Tokyo, with how loud the Americans and Australians are here makes it feel like home. But I also think that Tokyo is very much like LA where they get everything first. Just like LA, Tokyo also sets the trends. When something new happens, it happens here first.<\/p>\n I’m like Ariel from The Little Mermaid<\/em>: “I want to be where the people are.” I didn’t even watch it when I was a kid; I was more interested in Northstar<\/em>. I don’t even remember how I watched The Little Mermaid<\/em>, but it had to be at somebody else’s house. I was watching Dragon Ball<\/em> at home.<\/p>\n Since you brought up Dragon Ball<\/em>, do you have any new anime you’re currently interested in?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hell yeah. Hell’s Paradise<\/em>, I’ve been reading a manga called Dai Dark<\/em> that was done by the creator of Dorohedoro<\/em>. It’s pretty funny.<\/p>\n Do you have a favorite genre of anime?<\/strong><\/p>\n I mean, Sh\u014dnen<\/em> is always fantastic. [laughs]<\/em> I like seeing people get the shit kicked out of them. I like blood. And violence. And sex. And I like winning. I like crying too.<\/p>\n I feel like that’s one of the things that I think is kind of weird about anime right now, because there’s genre. I like genre-less anime, because there’s a part where a lot of our favorite anime were very defining to genre. There’s still stuff that I don’t know, but I love the classics. The classics are so defining. I love genuine stories with really high level animation. One of my favorite stories is Rurouni Kenshin<\/em>, but the original OVA. Yeah, the series is nice, but those original movies? It’s so beautiful. Very poetic. One of a kind. There are some beautiful moments in Japanese animation like that.<\/p>\n If you could watch one anime for the rest of your life on repeat, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hokuto no Ken<\/em> the movie. Either that or Cowboy Bebop<\/em>. I think there’s nothing better than Cowboy Bebop<\/em>.<\/p>\n Did you watch the Netflix live-action version of Cowboy Bebop<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope. Hell no, I wouldn’t wish that on somebody on their deathbed.<\/p>\n What are your general thoughts on a lot of these live-action adaptations, especially when they’re made out in the West rather than in Japan?<\/strong><\/p>\n When somebody gets a good idea to start putting sugar in bread, ultimately, it’s really bad. I think that everybody’s trying to take a gamble because they realized anime fans, we spend our money, so they rather take a chance and see if they can hit the jackpot. I think that it’s so stupid. The reason why anime fans are anime fans is because we like animation. That’s literally the name, like what part of this didn’t you understand?<\/p>\n Any time there’s a big franchise in anime, there’s always plans to make a live-action. It’s like, nobody asked for this. There’s some that lend themselves to it like Pacific Rim<\/em> \u2014 it was kind of a mock, lightweight Evangelion<\/em>.\u00a0Evangelion<\/em> has these denotations, but the characters are so specific and you grow an attachment to the characters. You can really ruin that by creating a picture that takes away from the imagination of who this person is, because they were drawn by hand.<\/p>\n A good example would be Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell<\/em>. Everybody immediately got mad because she was white, and it was kind of like, rightfully so.<\/p>\n We don’t talk about Ghost in the Shell<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n I do. I’ll talk about that shit all day. No offense to Scarlett Johansson, but it was like one of those memes where like, “Nobody,” and then it’s like, “Let’s do a cover,” and then it’s me, “No.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s a slippery slope and every time they do it, they take a chance. Even the Dragon Ball<\/em> one was horrible. It feels like whoever made it hates people. It’s like making a car with no seatbelts. It’s just like, “This is a great car, but there’s no seatbelts. You’ll be fine,” like, no, you want me to die.<\/p>\n From your perspective, has there been any successful live-action adaptation?<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s been a few! The Rurouni Kenshin<\/em> movie was good. There’s also Gintama<\/em>. There are some stories that you can do this, but the ones that are big? We love them. I would never want to see a live-action Inuyasha<\/em>. No need.<\/p>\n\u201cI’ve been more forgiving of things I don’t have answers to.\u201d<\/q><\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wasn’t touring as Thundercat, I’d be touring with Kamasi [Washington]. I’d be touring with Terrace Martin. I’d be with my friends. It’s my life’s work.\u201d<\/q><\/p>\n
\u201cMore than just the music, [collaboration] is how we grow.\u201d<\/q><\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of my happiest memories, my childhood memories and the joy that I find in my personal life were created in Japan.\u201d<\/q><\/p>\n