Flying Lotus Reveals The Origins Of The WOKE Supergroup (w/ Thundercat & Shabazz Palaces)
At approximately this time yesterday, the world was introduced to a cosmic collision of far-out talents with the arrival of WOKE; a three-piece supergroup comprised Flying Lotus, Thundercat and Shabazz Palaces. The inaugural outing from the megaton music men roped their funky forefather George Clintonon the celestial dopeness that was “The Lavishments Of Light Looking,” honing their respective forces on a cut that's equal parts space odyssey and underground disco. But now that we have that cross-generational manifestation of intergalactic funksmanship, there are still so many questions that need be answered, so many origin stories that remain untold. But fear not, faithful funkateers, FlyLo has provided us with the backstory on the supergroup and its unexpectedly cinematic roots in an interview with Pitchfork. Read through some Flying Lotus' more compelling excerpts below and hit the link for the full script as you await the next WOKE transmission along with the rest of us.
>>>Read the full interview (via Pitchfork)
FlyLo on the WOKE origins:
"The WOKE project started about three years ago. I, myself, and some screenwriter friends of mine started writing a script for feature film called WOKE. It was something that we developed for quite a while. Initially, it was going to star Ishmael [Butler] from Shabazz Palaces and Jeremiah Jae. We worked on it for a while, started workshopping, but there's always the financial issue—I haven't found anyone who is going to invest in the film."
On what's still in the vault:
"We have a bunch of ideas. There's about like nine songs kind of floating around. There's more stuff with George [Clinton], too. We've done a lot of recording over this year. I want to make sure that all the stuff that we do is in the same room together. I'm not trying to do e-mail shit; I really want it to be organic and a true collaboration."
On whether we'll ever see WOKE live and direct:
"To be honest, I hope so. The whole point of doing it this way was we were like, let's just see what happens if we put this one out there, see if people fuck with it, see if people want this to continue. If that's the case, yeah, we've already been talking about how awesome it would be. Before the track happened, we just talked about how cool it would be if we got together in the studio. Now, I'm like, What's going to happen if we actually make this project, or actually make an album, or actually make the film now. You know? So it's cool. I really hope that it just kind of unfolds naturally, as most things tend to in my creative life."