Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner — a bassist, producer, singer and songwriter — is a frequent collaborator of Kendrick Lamar and has worked with the rapper on his lauded sophomore album, To Pimp A Butterfly, and the majority of his new project Untitled Unmastered. The Brainfeeder signee, who played bass and lent his vocals to several tracks on Untitled Unmastered, explains the significance of the project and why Pharrell is his Hero.
So what do you have planned for 2016?
I’m definitely working on a new album. I’m still working with Flying Lotus and hope to be working with a few other artists. Pharrell, I really, really would love to get a chance to work with him. He’s been my hero since I was a young kid. And I got a chance to tell him that. I was like, “Hey man, your N*E*R*D album…” You don’t want to be the super stereotypical… “Your rap changed my life man” [laughs], but he was like, “Okay, cool, great.”
I really would love to work with Pharrell. I’m open to different ideas and just kinda keeping everything moving. Everything is kind of amped up so it kind of sharpens different senses for me. As an artist, it made me sit back and think for a second. Like the question you just asked. I’m in that mode, that mind state right now. I’m interested to see what is going to come for 2016. There’s still a lot of music being created and there’s music a lot of music that I’m involved in that hasn’t come out. It’s going to be interesting. But yeah definitely working on my new album.
What’s you’re favorite N*E*R*D album?
Deep down in your heard you know the answer to that. It’s In Search of…
I love Seeing Sounds too.
Yes, the one with the big gorilla on the cover. Put it this way, in a time when musicianship kind of was on the back burner, so to speak, that album kept me afloat creatively. It let me know the music still exist and it can be funky and it can be everything that it is supposed to be now and it’s okay. It was a natural thing. I remember sitting nights listening to that album.