Thundercat (musician)

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Thundercat (2015)
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Apocalypse
  US 194 06/22/2013 (1 week)
Drunk
  DE 63 03/17/2017 (1 week)
  AT 72 March 24, 2017 (1 week)
  CH 56 05.03.2017 (1 week)
  UK 37 09.03.2017 (2 weeks)
  US 50 03/18/2017 (3 weeks)
It is what it is
  DE 30th 04/10/2020 (1 week)
  AT 73 April 17, 2020 (1 week)
  CH 56 04/12/2020 (1 week)
  UK 23 April 16, 2020 (1 week)
  US 38 April 18, 2020 (1 week)
Singles
Wesley's Theory (with Kendrick Lamar and George Clinton )
  UK 76 03/28/2015 (1 week)
  US 91 04/04/2015 (1 week)
These Walls (with Kendrick Lamar, Bilal and Anna Wise)
  UK 77 03/28/2015 (1 week)
  US 94 04/04/2015 (1 week)

Thundercat (born October 19, 1984 , real name Stephen Lee Bruner ) is an American bass player and music producer . The Los Angeles- born musician works in a variety of genres, including fusion , hip-hop and electronica .

Life and music

Thundercat is the son of drummer Ronald Bruner Sr. , who worked for The Temptations , Randy Crawford and Diana Ross , among others . His older brother Ronald Bruner Jr. is also a drummer. Thundercat decided to use the electric bass as an instrument at the age of four. He names Jaco Pastorius , Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller as influences . The music of John Coltrane , Joe Henderson , the Mahavishnu Orchestra , Manhattan Transfer and The Cream also shaped him in his youth.

As a teenager, Thundercat was initially a member of the boy band No Curfew . As a bass player he also toured with Leon Ware . From 2002 he played with his brother in the metal band Suicidal Tendencies . He also appeared as a session musician and worked for Snoop Dogg , Stanley Clarke, John Legend and Eric Benét , among others . He was later involved in two Erykah Badu albums .

Thundercat has a long-standing friendship with Flying Lotus , which culminated in several collaborations that ultimately helped him achieve a lasting breakthrough. His bass playing plays a major role on Flying Lotus' 2010 album Cosmogramma ; he also appears as a singer. Thundercat also plays an important role on the follow-up albums Until the Quiet Comes and You're Dead . Flying Lotus finally encouraged him to appear as a band leader and released Thundercat's solo albums The Golden Age of Apocalypse and Apocalypse on his label Brainfeeder . The albums are characterized by fusion and soul, but also contain electronic elements.

In 2015, Thundercat played a central role as bassist and producer on Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly , which reached number 1 in the American charts and received consistent critical acclaim. He was also involved in Kamasi Washington's album The Epic . In June of the same year, Thundercat released the EP The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam , on which Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington have guest appearances. It is partly shaped by the mourning for the former musician Austin Peralta , with whom Thundercat had a personal friendship.

2016 he played on the album The Divine Feminine by Mac Miller , whose favorite he was bassist. In 2017, Drunk Thundercats was the most successful solo album to date. According to the bassist, the production, which was generally positively received by the critics, was influenced by Kendrick Lamar, who in turn also appeared as a guest musician. On the other hand, Thundercat emphasized that he did not want to produce a consistently political album in the style of Lamar: While the racism debate surrounding the Black Lives Matter campaign and the rapper's music reflected a social reality, it was becoming too much for himself, exclusively in to be perceived in this context. The magazine Pitchfork emphasized the ease and playfulness that distinguishes Drunk from its previous albums, without losing the connection to the more serious topics. In 2018 he recorded the tracks Come Back to Earth and the album's second single What's the Use on Swimming , the last album by US rapper Mac Miller .

The follow-up to Drunk in 2020 was the album It Is What It Is with guest contributions from Steve Arrington , Steve Lacy and Donald Glover, among others . The Internet radio station ByteFM locates the record between musical references to fusion jazz, soul, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd as well as pop cultural references from Thundercat's youth (such as the anime series Dragonball ).

Discography

Own albums

  • The Golden Age of Apocalypse (2011)
  • Apocalypse (2013)
  • Drunk (2017)
  • It Is What It Is (2020)

EP

  • The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam (2015)

As a sideman

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE - AT - CH - UK - US
  2. ↑ California Birth Index 1905–1995 (Eng.)
  3. ↑ a b c Frannie Kelley: Thundercat On Making Music Outside The Lines , National Public Radio , July 20, 2013, accessed April 7, 2015
  4. ↑ a b Thundercat , Laut.de , accessed on April 7, 2015
  5. ↑ Jeff Weiss: Meet Thundercat, the Jazz-Fusion Genius Behind Kendrick Lamar's 'Butterfly' , Rolling Stone , April 2, 2015, accessed April 7, 2015
  6. ^ Daniel Gerhard: The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam ( Memento from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Spex , July 1, 2015, accessed on November 20, 2015
  7. ↑ a b Hannah Ellis-Petersen Thundercat on breakout album Drunk, laughing at racism - and his 'sexy cat', Tron , Guardian on April 13, 2017, accessed on July 3, 2017
  8. ↑ Review in Pitchfork , February 27, 2017, accessed July 3, 2017
  9. ↑ Thundercat - "It Is What It Is" (review) - ByteFM. In: ByteFM Blog - News and reviews from our editorial team. April 7, 2020, accessed on April 18, 2020 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Thundercat
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bruner, Stephen Lee (real name); Bruner, Stephen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American bass player and music producer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century