On this week's episode of his new 15-part podcast series This Little Light, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea sits down with fellow master musician Stephen Bruner, best known as Thundercat, to discuss musical education, musical evolution, and more.
LISTEN NOW: This Little Light from Cadence13: Thundercat
Oddly enough, Los Angeles-born, GRAMMY-winning musician Stephen Bruner, better known as Thundercat, first began his musical journey as a Jazz artist, going on to have a hit in a German boy band as a teen, and moving on to playing bass with reformed Syco-punks Suicidal Tendencies in 2002. He has since gone on to drop four solo albums of his own while collaborating with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Flying Lotus, Silk Sonic, H.E.R., Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar, and many more.
Thundercat’s musical education began at a very young age, growing up with two musical parents, Ronald Bruner Sr., a drummer, and his mother Pam, going to gigs with his father and befriending the iconic Kamasi Washington and teacher Reggie Andrews, who took him and his brother under their wing.
"My dad's record player, we were not allowed to touch," Thundercat admits, "for all reasons known not to let a child touch a record player... I remember when he would leave, of course, we touched the record player. That was back when Hip-Hop was poppin' -- scratchin' and samplin'! No, but we would take two records, Billy Cobham's 'Total Eclipse' and George Duke's 'Faces In Reflection,' and my older brother was the kind of guy that would rather ask for forgiveness as compared to permission. He'd go run and grab Billy Cobham's 'Total Eclipse,' put the album on, and sit there and beat on a pillow. That had to be between the age of 5, and 7-8. I'd start messing with the record, dad walks in on you scratching... 'What is going on?!' But that album is burned in my memory, that and 'Faces In Reflection,' because that was the beginnings of it... touching the record, knowing what song you wanted to hear..."
Thundercat would eventually form the Young Jazz Giants, performing local gigs, Laker games, and more before joining the boy band No Curfew and touring Europe as a teen, leading to an unlikely spot in what Flea always remembered as a frightening band, Suicidal Tendencies. "My older brother (Ron Bruner) had started playing with, if I'm not mistaken, it was [funky ST supergroup side project] Infectious Grooves first. They called me to come audition, and I think it still happens too, if I get too excited, the ADD and everything kicks in, but there's a part of it where, when I was younger I was like a tape recorder; I could play it right back to you even if I only heard it for a split second." After being able to play whatever ST frontman Mike Muir threw at him, he was quickly accepted into the band.
"Those years, that was fun. That was crazy," he admits, even though he would get things thrown at him from the devoted crowd because he replaced a founding member. "That was fun, because I knew what this energy was. One tune that was always the tell-all: We'd play 'Send Me Your Money' ... when everything drops out and he'd say, 'Gimme some bass,' this was like judge, jury, executioner -- no matter what I knew! But that gave me life, I felt alive... people were receptive to the playing."
Now a multiple GRAMMY-winning artist, encouraged to make his own records by friend Flying Lotus, Thundercat's most recent album, It Is What It Is, featuring contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Steve Lacy, and more, was released in the spring of 2020 and took home Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2021 GRAMMYs ceremony.
Be sure to listen to Flea's full interview with Thundercat above.
Hosted by Flea, founding member and bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, This Little Light is a podcast about falling in love with music. Flea interviews musical guests from all genres to discuss the teachers who guided them, the influences that inspired them, and how the lessons they learned as young musicians have shaped their creativity, resilience, and careers. The podcast is produced by Cadence13 and Parallel, with proceeds benefiting the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a Los Angeles-based non-profit that Flea co-founded in 2001.
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