When it comes to art in general now, we've become so aware of our influence. We know when people are listening, when people are watching. It's not healthy. We start creating with that in the background of our mind. I think it's ruined my mind.

With every album that I do, I try to feature a new instrument or sound.

I feel like part of my journey as a filmmaker is to tell different stories, whether they are just a black perspective on things that aren't necessarily hood movies, or Tyler Perry movies or Ava DuVernay movies. Love all those people, but that whole thing has been sowed up already.

I never leave L.A. for too long. I'm not one of those that go on a tour of the whole world. I probably should be, but I'm not.

I get homesick driving to the grocery store.

I found so many reasons to call it 'You're Dead!' - not just because I wanted to make this album about the journey through death. I was watching the music scene that I came up with kind of go stale and watching the lights go out on a lot of my friends.

The Soft Machine's 'Volume Two' inspired me heavily. That record just feels like it was all done in the same breath. It's genius, and it's silly at times. But I love the fact that every time I listen to it, I listen from the beginning and want to play it out.

I don't sit around listening to beats all day. There's so many producers, and so much of it is derivative.

I'm just a fan of art and culture.

I was first inspired to make music by my cousin Oran. He was making music on an old Mac II by himself in his little lab, and I just started taking up after him. He was the first person to put a machine in front of me to work on. He was like my big brother, someone who I looked up to.

I first was introduced to really, I guess, underground electronic music when I was in middle school.

When I made '1983,' there were a bunch of tracks that were in the early drafts that didn't make it because they just sounded like tracks for rappers, and that's not really the sound I look for when I produce my own albums.

A strong concept is the most important thing in creating a record. When you can listen to it and see a whole movie in your head, that's what separates an instrumental album from a beat tape.

Before saying, 'This track is so dope; it's gonna go on the album,' I like to take some time away from it and see how I feel about it in a few months. If it's gonna get released, I gotta love it - it's gonna have my name on it forever.

I'm not much of a coffee person, but when I wake up and the sun is shining through the window, I'll get a lil' bit of green tea and get to work.

It's the old-school jazz mentality that I connect with the most. I dig the idea of the seeker, the guy who's always trying to figure out why he is doing music and trying to understand and make sense of his instrument in a world which deals with rigid instruction.

Part of what I like to do with Brainfeeder is to get the younger kids hearing jazz, because they don't know where to go to really hear it. Brainfeeder gives me a platform to put out people like Kamasi Washington or Austin Peralta.

I love Snoop - I grew up with his music - but I never thought for a second that we'd work together.

Death is a reality, and one day I'm not going to be here anymore, and whatever's next might not be that bad either.

I am a big cinema nerd! I've absorbed a lot of films.

Takashi Miike is definitely one of my top five, you know?

I'd love to work with Drake. I got Drake beats.

I just understand that I'm supposed to be one of those people that disrupts the flavor a little bit instead of being part of the same sound as everyone else.

I feel like my music has a reputation for being pretty serious or whatnot, but I like having fun.

I like comedy.

I'm a silly guy.

I've been working with Thundercat forever.

My music divides people!

Childish Gambino - him and I are the same age, and I really like him.

I like boring. Boring is cool.

I'm the kind of person who needs to be challenged all the time. I need my brain to go, or else I just end up playing video games all day, you know? That's cool too, I guess, at times.

I'm always seeing stuff and imagining scenes in my head when I'm making music.

I can't let darkness be what guides my decisions. I can't let that be what guides how I treat people. I can't let that be what drives my art, either.

I was 10 years old when the Northridge quake happened, and I lived right in the area, so it was a traumatic thing for me. I'd never had anything like that happen before. It's always stuck with me.

I love 'Pop Team Epic,' which is really trippy.

My collaborations tend to be pretty organic. It starts off with me being a fan first.

Whenever I am making stuff, I got a thing in the back of my mind: 'Oh, this would be so perfect for' whoever.

I need to help people to create the best work that they can. It's just something a producer should do anyway.

I've always been a techie kind of person.

I built computers and stuff when I was a teenager and whatever.

I decided to play the saxophone because it was the most obvious instrument in my family. There were a lot of saxophone players in my family, and there were extra saxophones, so that was an easy one to pick up. It was fun - it was okay - it just wasn't me. It didn't feel like my instrument, so I never followed through.

The first beat that I ever made that I thought was actually worth a damn was called 'Toilet Paper Nostrils,' and I made it when I had a cold. I had the worst cold ever. And I had toilet-paper nostrils making music, but it was really reflective of how I felt. It was a really sad trumpet sound.

I had a little Walkman, the worst Walkman ever. It was the yellow one, that underwater Walkman. Like you need to take a Walkman under water.

Truth be told, I think jazz is a mind-set. It's not necessarily, like, this guy picked up a horn and did this or whatever.

For me, being 10 years old and seeing 'Jurassic Park' for the first time blew my mind. I want music to feel like that.

When I can make music and don't have to think about anyone else's ideas or voice - when I'm making something that only I can make - it feels good. It's nice when you can find a sound that only you can make. No one else can make 'Cosmogramma.' No one else can make 'Until the Quiet Comes.'

I remember Usher came up to me at Coachella once, and it's like, 'Are you sure you're talking to the right person? How do you even know what I look like? You're not supposed to know who I am.'

I work a lot.

I like when my mind is being stimulated and challenged, and I'm forced to be creative.

Whenever it gets a little cold in L.A., it gives me an excuse to light my fireplace. You could stare at that joint for, like, a cool two hours. It's entrancing.