Photo by Timothy Saccenti

Stephen Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, might have first come into the public consciousness by soundtracking the breaks that accompanied black screens with sarcastic white type in between oddball dirty programming on Adult Swim, but he has since grown into one of the most interesting producers of electronic music. His four albums might initially register as “chill” or “relaxing,” but their nuance paints striking visual images and ensure that nobody will fall asleep during his late show tonight at the 9:30 Club. Unsurprisingly, the videos that accompany his work are equally striking. For example, his “Tiny Tortures” video starring Elijah Wood takes us through the painkiller-induced fantasy of an amputee regaining his lost limb and the short film including music from his latest album, Until the Quiet Comes reveals a bright, yet terrifying view of Los Angeles.

Ellison recently talked with to DCist about collaborating with other artists, revealing himself as rapper Captain Murphy and understanding that his music takes on a life of its own.

The last time I saw you perform live, you were DJing for Earl Sweatshirt. I was wondering how you met him?

I’ve been a fan of Odd Future’s stuff for awhile. When he finally came back to L.A. from going to that school where he was at in Samoa, he got on Twitter and hit me up and was like, “Yo, let’s get together.” So, wev’e been cool ever since and I really believe in what he’s doing. I really like his album.

One thing I realized watching you, because I’d only been familiar with your work as Flying Lotus, was that you were a skilled emcee so I started looking up some of your work as Captain Murphy. How does it feel now that it’s no longer a secret?

It’s kind of a relief in a way because it feels like it took so much energy to keep it under wraps. It made my life a little bit more difficult than it already was. So, having that weight lifted off is a little nice. I felt like it was a part time job to cover my tracks and not go through my traditional channels to do things. It was really frustrating in that sense. So, on one hand it’s really nice but on the other hand, I kinda like having an outlet where I can say things anonymously and could just kind of exist amongst the industry but not really. It was nice in that way. A little mystery never hurt anybody, especially in these times.

I imagine it must have been very hard to keep that secret in the age of everybody being online at all times.

Yeah. People would try to trace where I was tweeting from and, “Oh, you tweeted as Flying Lotus in the past two hours, so it’s got to be you!” It’s like, “Wait, what?” I feel like I was already being analyzed a lot anyway, so it was nice to get away from that. But then it started to be about the identity thing and it was missing the point. I did it for the music, not the mystery.

I got a chance to watch some of the videos on your website and I was struck by the vivid and striking images. How much of that was your direction?

I choose the people and I definitely get involved. I don’t like to tell them exactly what to do. I suggest. I tell them what the song means to me and when it comes back, I like to get involved with the editing and give my advice and whatnot. I do care about that kind of stuff and I’m a fan of the process as well.

You’ve also gotten to remix and collaborate with a wide variety of artists—Thom Yorke, Earl, Erykah Badu—is there any dream collaborator that you have not worked with yet?

I really want to work with Bjork at some point. That would be nice to do. Kendrick Lamar, too. There’s a lot of people I’d like to work with. I’ve been more open to collaborating lately than I ever have been.

Were you not as open before?

No. I was more into the idea of just doing everything on my own and kind of creating my own world. I was more closed off back then, too.

Is there any one thing that changed your mind or was it growth as an artist?

It was that. It was growing as an artist and as a person, too. But I think I had to go through all the things I had to go through to get to where I could communicate musical ideas to people and make sense.

You do so much with the creation of different sounds within electronic music which leads me to wonder, are you a gear head? Are you always searching for new pieces of equipment?

I’m a fan of gear. I like looking at new toys and stuff. A lot of times, I get some cool toys, too. But, it’s funny. I end up just using the same stuff all the time. I always buy other stuff and I never use it. It looks cool in my studio but I end up going with the same three pieces of gear all the time.

Are you writing and recording any new music right now?

Oh yeah. Always. I’m always making new stuff. I just finished producing an album for my buddy, Thundercat. That should be coming out this July. I’m working on a new thing now. I guess it’s a little too soon to talk about it because I don’t really know what’s going to happen. It could be pretty cool, the thing that happens, later on this year.

So, is it too early to talk about your philosophy on what this new work may turn into?

Nah. It’s funny because my philosophy — I’m always reminded that the work will reveal itself in the end and I never really know. I always say that I know what I’m going to do. I always have these ideas but it always reveals itself. I don’t ever get to make the thing that I make. It always changes and I always end up doing these things that I never expected in the beginning. Then suddenly, a year into working on something, you’re looking at a different body of work than you intended and it’s just, “Oh wow! This is a different story here! This is the honest thing which reveal the moments where I’m being completely honest with my music.”

Flying Lotus plays at the 9:30 Club at 10 p.m. The show is sold out.