After a most dope, most sweaty set at Odd Future’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, Mac Miller hung out with FADER backstage and talked about his future. We’d recently broke the news that Mac had taken his independent imprint, Remember Music, to Warner Bros for a cool $10 mil, so we caught up with the growing artist about why he felt it was the right move and the right time. He told us he’s staying focused on the music either way: “I’m trying to not let [the deal] factor in. I’ve held on and been independent and done my own thing long enough that they trust me and are going to let me make what I want to make. I think that the second I let that affect the creation, it’s horrible.”

With Odd Future guys skating around the grounds and Schoolboy Q popping in for quick daps (and a deal offer), we spoke to Mac about how moving to LA and making new friends helped him grow. “Everyone’s friends,” he says. “The reality is, in meeting Odd Future and all the TDE fools—everyone I met out is here is a lot of very creative people. It’s been cool just to have peers to kick it with and create. I always forget that I just dropped Faces, a 24-track mixtape. I love it because it captures the essence of what went on in the Sanctuary [his LA home studio].”