You were making music way before you were in the mix on any OF stuff?  How did you start? My older brother had Fruity Loops when I was in middle school. I just started out making little random beats. When I was in fifth grade and everyone was listening to mainstream, I was listening to N.E.R.D. and stuff that wasn’t cool at the time. It’s cool now to like N.E.R.D. but back then it wasn’t cool. I would listen to The Commodores, Tribe Called Quest—that was my shit. A lot of my favorite bands would take like four or five years to put out an album. I was like, y’alls music is therapeutic to people, it’s like a medicine, people need that shit. That was half the reason I started making music, so I could feed that hunger for something new—kind of a cook your own food, teach a man to fish situation.

Your brother is an A&R right? Yeah, he was an A&R for Janelle Monae and Outkast. He helped her start the label she has now. I got to see Janelle Monae and her camp come up from the start. Kind of like where me and Syd started. I understood that it had to be a family atmosphere—like legit family atmosphere, not we family when there’s money and you know when the money’s not rollin’ in…

How’s he been a resource for your career? He gives me little anecdotes. He’s the one I tell stuff to, if something’s going on, cause he’ll understand it. I remember he would tell me things Andre 3000 would tell Janelle: no matter how weird you want to get, you’ve still got to have music for the every day fan. If you make a weird song, you’ve gotta have a breakdown part that has a little chant that’ll get niggas being like “oh, I feel him.” Even though it’s weird you still ridin’ with us.

A&Rs are often under-credited for their work as producers. A lot of times they are as involved as the person sitting there pressing the buttons and making the music. That’s very true. My brother’s not a producer, but he still has to know how things should sound. That’s a form of producing. The first two Internet albums were more so me making the beats, or the homies contributing beats, but with the next album I’m taking kind of a more Quincy Jones approach, cause we have so many talented young musicians around. I might not be playing any of the stuff, but I’m telling them what to play because these are extraordinary musicians that can outplay me on any instrument.

Your early work as Jet Age of Tomorrow was very experimental. I call it free form. That’s how I see it in my head. Jet Age was an excuse for me to put out anything that I wanted. That’s why I didn’t ever really push it. I wanted it to be that cult following thing that has those fans, but not a huge deal. At the heart of The Internet is Jet Age. I still can be free form, but with The Internet I have to… You can get too weird, you’ve got to have something for the regular man to dance to. With Jet Age, I don’t care.  I just want people to just vibe to it, if don’t like it, you don’t like it, if you do that’s tight.

You’ve mentioned you were sampled on Kendrick Lamar’s “A.D.H.D” and weren’t credited. When did you first hear that record? The first time I heard that record was when Section.80 came out. I was getting tweets like, oh you’re on the new Kendrick album. That was the first time I heard of Kendrick because I be late to people all the time. A few days passed, and people keep hitting me up, and I’m really confused. I go and listen to it and I’m like wow. It is what it is, but there’s no key switch–it literally is my song with new drums over it. I would have loved to let them use it. I’m a big fan of Kendrick’s, so I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. It’s like a courtesy thing, let someone know. Most artists want the best product to come out of anything they make. So my thing is just letting them know, giving them proper credit.

If you’re a creative person and you make music, wouldn’t you appreciate something dope being made out of something you made? If you’re hungry and someone got rich off your record, that’s one thing. I’m a respect kind of guy, I’m not no industry dude. I just want people to have good music to listen to, that’s literally why I make music. I’d do art if I wanted to make money from something I was naturally talented in. So just give people credit. My situation is frustrating because it’s been two years since the process of clearing it. Now I own more of the song than the actual person that produced it. It’s just a respect thing, I’m not mad about it. Its just crazy the same guy produced the song they’re getting sued for.

How was it working with Chad Hugo on the last album? Working with Chad was fucking dope dude. He’s like one of us. In the studio, wearing socks, making beats. We were at Mike Einziger’s house, he executive produced our last album and he was the writer and guitarist for Incubus. He and Chad are real good friends. We start making “Dontcha,” and Chad was like, “I’m in the hall making beats, if you need anything come get me.” So when “Dontcha” started getting tight, we got him for the bass line. He came in, real quiet, and did it perfectly on the first take, exactly on the click, and then he’s like “Ok, if you need anything else, let me know.”

It’s crazy to think about how relevant N.E.R.D’s sound is now, considering when they first came out… They got bad reviews! I remember that shit. The cream of the crop, they rose to the top. I’m not saying it’s the best music, but it was some of the most innovative shit I’d say for back then. That’s why these niggas weren’t ready for it.  That’s the thing with being ahead of your time. I feel like that about Sa-Ra, a lot of artists are musical descendants of Sa-Ra. People just get there late, but it’s cool–better late than never.

It’s almost more real because it didn’t blow up and the band didn’t keep going. Those records are frozen in time now. I don’t want to say I modeled The Internet after N.E.R.D, but I love the pocket that N.E.R.D got into. They could do festivals and work with major people, but it didn’t feel forced. It felt like this is what we do for fun, and we don’t have to be doing this. You’re not trying to go too far, but you’re not trying to stoop too low.

The Internet’s sound is not the default popular sound with young people right now. How do you convert new fans? It just depends man. Sometimes we’ll perform in front of a full rap crowd and they won’t understand it. We’ll perform in front a full rap crowd somewhere else and they’ll get it, cause they understand the soul in it and the hip-hop base to some of the songs. Since the band has gotten better, people have started understanding. People like to know that other people are listening to what they’re listening to. Now, since we’re making a little bit more leeway, it’s okay to like The Internet.

So often, artists that play live music like you are almost comically “about the music,” like, “fuck the industry.” But you seem to be very in tune with navigating your career. I hear you talk about image versus sound, and fans, and different pockets. You have to understand your fan base. I look at the industry closely so I don’t have to be in the industry, if that makes any sense. We really don’t deal with any industry people, we do everything ourselves, so the only time we deal with industry people is when we need to turn in an album.

And how is that process? That’s a whole different story. Turning the album in or what?

Taking this music that you guys know isn’t mainstream in any way, and presenting it through a label. Luckily, they believe in us. Especially for this next album. They put us in the studio with some really tight people that I never thought I’d be able to work with. It’s our third album, it’s very important for us. I want us to be taken seriously. I want us to be able to tour for the rest of our lives, so I want to give people something different, but have that sound. Every artist has their sound. That’s more my concern than is the label going to like it.

[Fader]