Space smells like burnt steak.
Hundreds of miles above your head, an entire universe stinking like a charred ribeye.
No one has direct proof of this, of course.
Credit: The1point8
If you slipped into earths atmosphere without protective gear you would promptly suffocate.
Smells like straight steak.
I am like,I would like to smell that.
Parker Day
Why does space inspire?
Because it’s bigger than me.
It’s bigger than us.
His 2017 track Jameels Space Ride tackles this planetary immenseness head on.
Feeling marooned, his falsetto echoes against a starry backdrop: I know were not alone.
But its hard to tell.
But it wasnt until 2011 that he branched off on his own.
I didnt think of it as far-fetched, he said of going solo.
But it was not like, Some day Im going to do my own music.
That was never my goal.
“I feel like I woke up in it,” he said.
It Is What It Is, out April 3, will shine an even brighter spotlight on his work.
The death shook Bruner, forcing him to reconcile his own substance use.
“I know you guys may have noticed a bit of weight [loss].
I feel that was a lot of pain and alcohol I was carrying around with me.
Back on the rehearsal space couch, Bruner further explained the decision to stop drinking following Millers overdose.
Mac dying was very traumatic, he said.
I just needed to come up for air.
He wrote a song soon after that tackled what he was going through.
It eventually became the title track to his new album.
(Bruner is signed to Ellison’s Brainfeeder label and has executive produced all of Thundercats releases).
I recall both of us didn’t want to record, but we just had to push through.
And then beautiful things happened.
We just sat there and listened to it and cried for hours.
you’re able to hear Thundercat’s unmistakable bass thrumming on every FlyLo album sinceCosmogramma.
I think that’s part of the yin and yang as to how we work, said Ellison.
If there was a starting point to the new record, though, it was recording that title track.
The song makes up a quasi-three-part suite honoring Miller.
But that feeling of overwhelming sadness also led to the album’s title,It Is What It Is.
It feels like a place of rest, a bit, for me, Bruner said.
Even saying it to myself sometimes makes things feel a bit better.
It’s a hard thing.
It’s really vitriolic.
Ellison added that the dichotomy is what defines Bruner.
I’m glad that he was just super honest with himself.
That heart-on-your-sleeve approach is integral to the Thundercat formula.
Thundercat’s world isn’t just made up of what’s in front of him.
As he said of space, It always makes me feel better knowing that there is something more.
