Thundercat Is Distracted – and That’s the Point

“Distractions help me focus,” Thundercat earnestly tells me atop the Hypebeast roof. He dons a custom, layered cape, silver body armor and a pair of alligator skin gloves.

It’s an outfit appropriate for a grand return, which the multihyphenate musician will make in just about 12 hours now with his first album in exactly six years, down to the day. Signalling the successor to 2020’s It Is What It Is comes Distracted, which just might be his most dialed in work thematically to date. 

Distracted dives deeper into Thundercat’s fixation on the juxtaposition between overstimulation and introspection in today’s technology-driven ether, probing questions on just how far we’ve progressed – and at what cost. 

“You’d think we’d have flying cars by now,” Thunder laughs. “Star Trek made the future look really different.” 

But, alas, as Thunder knows all too well, you can’t really dodge all of the things that coming at you full speed ahead – be it technological advancements or unexpected sh*t life throws at you. For Thundercat, the past six years have been focused on the latter. Since the release of It Is What It Is, the musician realized he “needed help,” and got sober, eventually allowing him to approach his music – and day-to-day life – with what he feels to be a clearer vision.  

And as he knows, since you can’t control what life throws at you, rather, it’s just about how you deal with these things. And that’s what Distracted is all about: the awkward DM interactions, the even-more-awkward IRL interactions, the doomscrolling until the sun rises, the intrusion of AI into both our creative and merely human spaces, and the fact that we still don’t have flying cars. 

A core unit of collaborators – all individuals whom Thunder calls his friends – contribute to the expansive tracklist, spanning A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, WILLOW, Lil Yachty, Channel Tres, Flying Lotus, and Tame Impala. On the production side, Kenneth Blume (formerly known as Kenny Beats), The Lemon Twigs, and superproducer Greg Kurstin offer their expertise to further hone the record. 

Thundercat sat down with us to share specifics on just how he sourced the album’s stellar lineup of featured artists in a conversation on all things Distracted – and how the only way to deal with fame in the digital age is by “punching away the pain” on Sonic the Hedgehog.

Distracted lands six years to the day after your last album, It Is What It Is. Why was now the time to return with a full-length studio album?

The process of the last album was really intense, but life has a way of telling you to sit down. After the last album, it was one of those moments. I just needed to chill for a second. And at the same time that that’s the case, I feel like my approach to music has always been kind of all-encompassing in my life. Even when I think I’m chilling, I’m still making music, and it took me a while to feel okay with just sitting with my emotions and creating.

Ranging from Rocky and Yachty to Tame Impala and The Lemon Twigs, the collection of contributing artists on Distracted is impressive. How did you go about curating the collaborative lineup?

In terms of collaborative work on the project, I was trying to approach it really naturally, and just feel out where it would go, and follow through that direction. There is a bit of cohesiveness to it, and I feel like that’s only because everyone on this album is one of my friends. These are people I really enjoy working with. I genuinely like them all, and I’m happy that the feeling was mutual.

From Kenny to Flying Lotus, to The Lemon Twigs, Yachty, and Greg, these people are my friends. Kenny has been a friend of mine for many years, through many different changes in life. We worked on lots of stuff together, and a lot of the time, the music we created was never really contrived. It’s about enjoying the feeling of making music.

It was a bit of an uncharted territory working with Greg, so we were just genuinely excited about the chance to work together finally. It was just a joy in the studio with him all the time.

With Lotus, his work has spoken for itself throughout the years, and the moment that he shows up on the album is one of the more tender moments of the project, which, again, I’m grateful for.

“ThunderWave” with WILLOW is one of my favorites. I know you two have a close relationship. Could you share more about how this track came together?

To know WILLOW’s work is to love her work. I’ve been a fan of her music, her growth, and watching her progress. People don’t realize that moments like this are not guaranteed between artists, moments where you can collaborate and genuinely get a chance to take things to a new place. Both of us were very excited about the possibilities of what that place could be. I say the song is “an exercise in trust” because she just really trusted my vision on the song, and we both ended up just feeding off of each other in the creation, both lyrically and melodically. It felt so right creating this song.

What about working with Kevin Parker? Thundercat x Tame Impala feels like a collaboration that’s been a long time coming… 

Working with Kevin Parker was a dream for me. Back when I was working on The Golden Age of Apocalypse, I remember I said to myself, I hope one day to work with this man, because I felt like he understood, you know, the feeling I wanted to convey. “No More Lies” was the first thing anybody had heard from me in a long time. Once people began to hear it, I realized that Oh shit, this is the starting point for my album. 

“She Knows Too Much” with Mac Miller was another one many of us were waiting to drop. Tell me more about working with Mac Miller. 

When we recorded this track, Mac had just moved houses. It was very much a fresh, new Mac. He was the kind of person who kind of continuously flowed, like a very continual, constant stream of consciousness. He and I carried a very similar energy. Recording this song was just a fresh start for us, and how we showed up in the music together. That’s really what it felt like: a fresh start. A genuine, new, sonic chapter. 

A big theme of Distracted is, well, distractions, and how, as your fame has increased, so have the distractions you are inundated with. How do you deal with the pressures of fame? 

Just play some Sonic the Hedgehog. Just punch away the pain. In reality, though, I feel like it just comes with the territory. So I try not to think about it too much,

What is your relationship like with distractions? Do you think they can be good?

I’ve always been very observant of, I guess, like, the dumber moments in life. We’re watching it happen right now in real time. Distractions can take on many different meanings. I think that there are both positive and negative aspects to it. I compare the positive side of a distraction to when a child is getting a shot at the hospital. They fixate on the needle. It’s going to be an uphill battle. If you distract the kid with some candy, you can get what needs to be done, done. And I think that the distractions can help me to focus. But at the same time, as we’re seeing, distractions can be the devil. It’s twofold. 

How has the progression of technology impacted your distraction levels? 

I don’t think we’ve really progressed that far. You would have thought we’d have flying cars by now. We didn’t really get past vampiric, global, draconian bullshit. 

What about social media? Do you read what people are saying about your music?

Do I doomscroll about myself? Never. [laughs] I try to create music in an honest way. I’m not here for the critics when it comes to stuff like that. I didn’t start learning my instrument because I cared what people thought. I learned my instrument because I loved it. And with that love comes the critiquing and the criticism and the pain and all that. But it’s not mine; it’s not my burden. 

“ADD Through The Roof.” “Anakin Learns His Fate.” Tell me more about these song titles. 

[laughs] You want to know what inspired “ADD Through The Roof?” I think that everybody kind of wants to be sick. And I think that there’s a part where once you hear that Are you struggling with looking at the screen? Do you make weird noises? You might be diagnosed with this. And you’re like Oh yes! It’s a system that’s meant to fail. And that’s not saying these conditions aren’t real, and things like that, but a lot of it is in your mind. Sickness is starting to feel like the norm. I don’t know one creative person who’s not from space, and as much as I rag on technology, I feel like there is so much information at our fingertips now. But that just makes it really hard for anybody to focus. There is no way to focus. 

You have to have some ways. After all, you’re dropping an album. 

Well, I think everything is a decision. Ultimately, you have to choose to focus. That’s kind of where the title of the album comes from: being distracted helps me focus. 

How would you sum up where this album falls in line with the rest of your discography?

I don’t know. It just feels like whoever I am right now. This is what that is.

What message do you want to leave listeners with?

That distraction can be good.