Still Breezy: Humble Advice From the Multi-Talented Anderson .Paak

Brandon Paak Anderson, perhaps better known by his stylized moniker Anderson .Paak, views himself as a free spirit who values space above all other details. You can tell in the way he speaks: his conversational voice is doled out in a measured monotone that belies a melodious timbre that towers and soars and somersaults onstage; it also comes through in his style: he looks as cozy in formalwear as he does in Stone Island and a pair of Converse Chuck IIs. The Oxnard-born performer has seen his career skyrocket since Dr. Dre tapped him to play as a secret weapon on last year’s Compton and his thrusters kicked further into gear with 2016’s Malibu. .Paak, meanwhile, has managed to balance mainstream acclaim with his underground chops — he still keeps in touch with the Hellfyre Club team, don’t you worry. The critical darling has seen his star continue to rise, so HYPEBEAST caught up with .Paak on the phone to see how he keeps himself grounded amongst the acclaim, how he sees his own style evolving, and what’s next for him and his career.

Where are you right now?
I guess this is Los Feliz, maybe Silverlake area.

Oh, so you’re back in the States then.
Yeah, Eastside. It was hectic in Europe, man.

What is your purest form of self-expression?
My purest form of self-expression would probably have to be the music, y’know? Even more specifically: playing the drums. I really feel like getting everything out and I’m explaining myself when I’m on those drums. And — (a dog barks, Anderson laughs) — that’s probably the closest thing I get to meditation. Pure expression, y’know.

I read somewhere that your first musical experience was playing the drums in a baptist church, so I was wondering how you see that gospel and choral influence coming through in your music?
It’s my foundation, so it’s just what I’m grabbing from. That was my first schooling and where I got a lot of my core instincts, so the spirit of my music is in that. People say my music has a positive vibe to it and I think the church has something to do with it — the music there is so uplifting and healing. The energy. They like to believe that music is coming from God, so I think that foundation is still with me and it’s the root of what I’m doing. I picked up on a lot of other stuff as well, but you can’t really escape that — when you played in the church as long as I did, at least.

You mentioned earlier the whole meditative aspect, but what goes through your head when you’re performing? Do you have rituals before you go onstage? Is there any image you return to when you’re performing or is it purely meditative?
Usually, I just honestly try to get out of my own head. I’m really just trying to free myself up of thinking of what anybody else is thinking. So I’m just trying to manipulate this energy that the crowd is giving me — hopefully — and just, y’know, set the vibe and not be thinking of how I look because naturally I can be a bit self-conscious and stuff, and when I’m onstage I just try to free up. I feel more free when I’m prepared, so I don’t have to think about what to do because I’m prepared and stuff.
Right before the show, we always huddle and we always try to visualize what’s actually going to happen, so I always say “Yo, we’re gonna kill it! We’re gonna look great, we’re gonna sound great, we’re be fuckin’ up there — all the transitions are gonna be super sick! I’m gonna sound fucking amazing! We’re gonna be hitting everything on point, the crowd’s gonna be going crazy!” We start visualizing the crowd actually going nuts, and working with us. So from top to bottom, I try to think about that throughout the day — which is pretty tough ’cause you have all these distractions and stuff, but I try to think about me on the stage, killin’ it. And while I’m on there, I kinda black out. Just, boom boom. And then the show is done. And then I’m either pissed off or somethin’…

“Family is really important in my life and when I’m not on the road, I’m with them.”

 

I know you came up with the Hellfyre Club and Watsky, so I was wondering: how has your relationship with the musical underground changed since you linked up with Dr. Dre?

I’m still in contact with a lot of those people. A lot of those people are still my core friends, like Dumbfoundead. He’s one of my good friends. We talk all the time. I think sometimes, what happens is people see something happen — a big thing happens, like success or something — and you almost anticipate the change. So sometimes people will start acting different, or sometimes they’ll put it out there like you’re acting different or something like that… but I think people anticipate that you might do things different, when they’re the ones who actually start changing. But I’m lucky, I haven’t had too much of that. I’m honestly around the same people I came up with: my band — those are all my good friends and we talk daily — and within the underground, too. We’re all still in touch. People I choose to work with, I get irritated with people who quit too, so I don’t have a whole bunch of people, regardless. I still talk to Nocando and Dumbfoundead, Busdriver and stuff. Everybody’s very busy though, and actively trying to get what’s theirs.

So you’ve also managed to work with the heaviest hitters in the music industry at a relatively early stage in your career. What keeps you grounded as an artist?
My family. Family will tell you wassup, keep you focused and down. Most people don’t, y’know? They’re not grateful or worried about anyone but themselves. So that’s exhausting. But family is really important in my life and when I’m not on the road, I’m with them. I was just with them, partying in Berkeley, hitting baby-showers and everything, and I’m very different than all of them, but it helps. It’s like ‘Okay… this is what’s important. This is what’s not.’ And a lot of the shit that you think is super-important is just bullshit. And it’s very easy to get wrapped in that. That happens to me a lot, so I think the family aspect of my life is definitely what keeps me grounded. Yep.

Malibu is celebrated by fans and critics alike. What sorts of expectations do you set for yourself when you start working on something new?
I just wanna do something different and better than the last project. There’s always a new challenge ahead of us on each album and I always think about Steve Jobs when they did the Apple keynotes and it was always so different, testing the boundaries of something. I just think about demos and tracks and getting as many done as possible and then taking the cream from that. And the process goes from there. But so many times—I’ve made so many albums—and the whole process of it is just that all I can do now is stay inspired and not necessarily out-do myself, but rather: what can we do different? To just stay interested, review the tapes from the last project, and go on. It almost feels like we got a championship with Malibu, and now it’s like we’re trying to double-up and trying to have more conversations with other players and draft some other players. Have them be a part of the team and see what we can do now? But I don’t have any expectations, I just wanna continue to ride this wave of what we did.

Who is on your Dream Team then?
Right now that’s what I’m trying to assemble. There’s two teams right now I need to assemble: my band, The Free Nationals, is only four of us, total. But I’m adding some pieces to my live situations: some keyboards, some horns, some background singers, and I wanna make sure we’re ready for these festivals — which I feel like we are, but I feel like there are some small things that could really enhance our show. So I’m building that aspect.
And then as far as this new album goes, my Dream Team is really what I’m trying to figure out. Because I really like working with a lot of hip-hop producers, especially a lot of the older ones — Ninth Wonder, DJ Khalil, Madlib, Hi-Tek on this last album — and I think that element was important. And I feel like there’s a void for that still, so I’d like to build, because there’s people that I didn’t get to work with on Malibu. People like Alchemist, Pete Rock, I wanna do some research with Large Professor… some more hip-hop people, some live musicians. Dr. Dre works a lot with Mark Batson and he’s a bass player and a piano player. I wanna get him involved. I want someone that is really great with arranging strings and horns and stuff, high-scale arrangements. I want someone like that. Someone that’s really young. I got some music from Jahlil Beats and he’s crazy, and I got to work with people like DJ Da-Hi and Cardo on Dre’s album, but having someone really young, ear-to-the-streets and has a raw talent too on the beats side, I would love to have someone in my corner who’s doing that.
My band too, ’cause the Free Nationals are always involved. And I think Dre is basically my copilot, my co-captain on this next one. We’re trying to get the sound that we wanna deal with. We have an idea of where we wanna go with it.

“‘Scared money doesn’t make money.’ Be able to put skin in the game, make some money and you can’t be scared.”

What is your definition of success and what is next in your career from here?
I just try to take it one day at a time. I’m about to go to Austin, Texas tomorrow to do SXSW, and that’s gonna be its own scene — 12 shows, I gotta stay healthy. And then I’m out to Coachella two weeks after that. So it’s gonna be the same deal. I’m not thinking too far ahead. That’s that, right now. I just wanna make sure those are executed well and then I’m gonna be getting back in the studio. On a more concrete note, I know NxWorries is gonna come out, it’s done. We’re about to promote that, too. Just a bunch of shows. Like I said, I’m really trying to enhance the live show and making sure it’s the best it can be.

What’s the best career advice someone has ever given you?
I guess when I think about that, I think of “Scared money doesn’t make money.” You’ve gotta put some skin in the game and that’s what people don’t understand, being in music and stuff. They don’t wanna put skin in the game, so they go halfway or 80% or whatever, but you gotta go ‘Okay dude, if I lose this, I lose this. I’m all in.’ So that was the best advice: be able to put skin in the game, stretch the lane, and make some money and you can’t be scared. That’s the risk and that’s what it is. Start to see what you’re made of and shit.

How important is style to you and how would you define your style?
It’s pretty important. It’s like when you know a pretty girl but she has horrible posture. It can just destroy, like, everything. So posture is important, style is important. Especially nowadays, I feel like. You can have a lot of talent and be gifted, but stick to one style and it can be hard to digest. You’ve just gotta deal with a lot of different things in order to get past that. A lot of it resides in confidence.
As far as my own style, I’m a free spirit. They used to call me Breezy (Lovejoy) and even though I don’t go by that anymore, the vibe is still there with me. So I’m a free spirit, but there’s still a lot of confidence there as well. That’s what it is with my style: I’m a free spirit, I’m open, and I’m affected. Life throws a lot of music at us, and it makes you move — it’s good — but there’s a spirit in it that’s sometimes a little dark and negative and I think people lose sight of the fact that music’s supposed to help you, and help you grow. And so I want to put that in my music—and I feel like I am doing that—but I wanna put that in my music even more. So within the free spirit style, I do think that fashion is important to me. And I’m still building on it and even with that, a lot of people say ‘I dress myself and you guy’s've got stylists’ and this and that, but fashion is so interesting to me. When people devote their whole lives to it, I’m interested in working with them. It’s like me working in a producer who makes beats. I wanna have a conversation with them to see what we can collabo on. So I don’t see anything wrong with collaborating with people who devote their whole life to style. And if we can do something together as artists, I think more about the music than I do about style, but it’s important to me too. It’s an aspect.

I read that the period in your name stands for details; which details mean the most to you, musically and aesthetically?
I think the most important thing is space. I feel like music is all about constants and variables, and you have one thing that’s always steady and one thing that’s a variable. So the variable, a lot of the time, is me! As far as the vocals and being a vocalist is concerned, that is. A lot of time, I’ll get these tracks and they’re filled up. There’s no space for me to land, I can’t get off. And it’s like ‘Okay well… what am I supposed to do with this?’ I need space, I need you to create a landscape for me to exist on and be that variable, to bounce around and stuff. That’s a detail that I think that so many miss out on and the really good ones, man, they are all about it. It’s a pleasure to work with them. Sometimes, you can miss some stuff — it’s so subtle. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it, y’know? Just a lot of producers lose out on detail. A lot of them aren’t used to working with vocalists, because you got a lotta DJs and producers now who don’t need vocalists. They just go off and make remixes. And that’s what they’ve been doing, and if it’s working for them, so be it. But they forget about details, working with an artist and producer on a record, this and that, listening for certain things. But yeah, space is what I’m looking for. Space and patience.