To call Steven Ellison a Renaissance man feels like a huge undersell. Better known to the world as Flying Lotus, the Grammy-winning producer, DJ, rapper, soundtrack composer, filmmaker and Brainfeeder label boss has spent the best part of 20 years blazing a trail in the worlds of music, tech, TV and cinema, creating everything from video nasties and Adult Swim bumpers to official Apple ringtones – all while kickstarting the careers of Kamasi Washington, Thundercat and Jaga Jazzist.
In 2025, he’s due to release his second directorial feature, a gruesome sci-fi horror called Ash, starring Aaron Paul and Eiza González. But in October, Ellison returned to his FlyLo alias, to share the surprise EP Spirit Box, his first substantial FlyLo release since 2021’s score for animé samurai jaunt Yasuke.
Boundary pushing has always been Ellison’s forte, both creatively and in terms of good taste – as anyone who saw his surrealist body horror Kuso (2017) will attest. On the surprisingly upbeat Spirit Box, he forges fresh ground again, diving deep into the supernatural while taking cues from shimmering house (Aljhussi, Ingo Swann) and hypnagogic R&B (Let Me Cook, and the Twin Peaks-referencing Garmonbozia).
Here, he discusses his inspirations for the EP, his love of horror and his memories of his great aunt – the late, great jazz pianist Alice Coltrane.
1. How are you feeling post-election? I’m curious to see how the world reacts to this moment.
2. Ajhussi from the new EP showcases a house-influenced sound. What were your reference points for that track? I was listening to a lot of stuff from the lo-fi house channels that Ryan Celsius has, just feeling a kinship to that whole sound because it’s so close to what I do anyway. But I wrote that stuff during the pandemic, so I wanted to make some things to dance to.
3. ’Ahjussi’ means middle-aged man in Korean. What is the best thing about getting older? Knowing more confidently who you are and what you want, and what you don’t want.
4. What’s the worst thing about getting older? Everything else.
5. You’ve been quoted as saying the Spirit Box EP was written with women in mind. How so? I thought it would be nice to have something that the ladies could groove to. It’s about physical connections, love, sex, the body, it’s movement ... It’s about connecting spirits and connecting souls and bodies so I think the intent was to do something that felt like it was still sweating.
6. Ingo Swann is named after the psychic. What is your relationship with the supernatural? I want to believe. There’s so much evidence that proves that we are not alone, and that there’s more going on than what we know. And I’m really fascinated with Ingo Swann and the remote viewing concept.
7. When did you first encounter his work? I first heard of Ingo Swann in a documentary called Third Eye Spies, which details a CIA remote-viewing programme that our government and taxpayers paid for.
8. Garmonbozia features your vocals. How comfortable are you doing that considering you don’t do it very often? My comfort level with vocals depends. Sometimes I’ll make a track and it just calls to me to do something.
9. Who’s your favourite character in Twin Peaks? Aside from Dale Cooper, of course, it probably has to be the Sheriff from the first season. He’s such a honourable, by-the-book guy, but has a heart. And I think that’s so endearing in a very corrupt show where everyone’s messed up. But obviously I love Gordon Cole too.
10. The second series of Twin Peaks was too long though, right? Yeah, they did stretch that shit out. They knew it too. I think they weren’t meant to tell who killed Laura Palmer but the studio and the fans really pushed them to do it, and then they ended up regretting it.
11. What’s the last thing that you took a photo of on your phone? My puppy. I have two Boston terriers.
12. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A film director. It was hard to be inspired to do anything that wasn’t creative when I felt kinship to all the creative people in my family.
13. Why did you move into music? It just happened. I always loved making music for fun but it felt like a long shot, and so different to the music that my family is known for. I was doing it for fun for so long until people were like, you know what man, actually this is kind of tight.
14. What are your favourite memories of Alice Coltrane? My favourite memories of my aunt were anytime she was being a badass. She was always very kind and very gentle but there were some times when she would stand up for herself – stand up for her family – and get things to happen. She was just so confidently like, “No, I’m not doing that,” or, “We’re gonna do it the way I want to do it.” I saw it on so many occasions, and it was like she was doing the Jedi mind trick or something on people. It was pretty cool.
15. How has she influenced you as a musician? I went to her house one day, and I was like, “Hey, can I mess around with the piano?” And she was like, “Well, are you going to play it?” And as a kid, I’m like, “I guess not.” And I never forgot that. But she always supported me with whatever my endeavours were, and tried to help me find a way forward with things. But every five years I come back to her music and am just like, “Whoa, how is she doing that?” Then I learn a bunch of stuff, come back five years later and am still like, “How is she doing that?” So my appreciation and respect just seems to grow and grow.
What are your favourite memories of Alice Coltrane? My favourite memories of my aunt were anytime she was being a badass. She was always very kind and very gentle but there were some times when she would stand up for herself – stand up for her family – and get things to happen.
16. Do you believe in God? Yes, but not in the traditional sense.
17. Do you believe in aliens? Yes. I’ve never had anything happen to me and I haven’t seen anything, but to think that we’re alone in the universe is pretty wild as a concept. I think that’s more like science fiction.
18. What scares you? I didn’t used to be but I’m getting more afraid of death. I’m afraid of the house burning down.
19. Have you ever had writer’s block? Every year to some extent. [To get over it] you gotta do some stuff every day, even if it sucks. And you also have to surround yourself with great, great art – films, albums, comedy – and it’ll bleed into what you’re doing.
20. Who is the best artist you’ve seen live? John Williams.
21. Have you ever had a mentor? I seek out mentors all the time, whether it be a personal trainer or a piano teacher. I always want to be surrounded by someone who’s better than me and has more knowledge.
22. Who is your directing hero? David Lynch because he’s been so uncompromising in his vision and his voice, and he’s been able to be celebrated for having his brain and his autism – he’s been able to make it work for him.
23. Acting, directing or making music? Directing, because that way I could always do music. At the end of the day, I have to have music in my life. Creating music is my church. It’s how I communicate with God and the beyond. But film is my passion.
24. Why do you love the horror genre so much? It’s the one genre where anything can happen. I love that.
25. What’s your favourite horror film of all time? Hereditary. I hate to say it, because it’s so basic now, but that movie moved me.
26. What did you learn making Kuso? That anything is possible, really. That movie started out with a bunch of silly Photoshop pictures I was making but then a story emerged, and a world emerged ... It was cool to see that if I become obsessed with the thing, it can manifest.
27. How did you feel when you heard that people walked out of the film? Oh, it made me so happy. The worst thing that could happen was that it didn’t affect people at all.
28. Kuso was inspired by your experience as a child in an earthquake. Does your forthcoming film Ash mine any autobiographical trauma? Not particularly because Ash is not my brainchild. But there’s definitely some of my things in there.
29. What is the sound world for Ash? It’s a textured world with lots of vintage synth work. It was interesting because I did most of the music alone, without any other people playing instruments or anything. So I tried to find a sound that I could work really well on my own.
30. What is your life motto? Let’s get it.
31. What makes you laugh? Farts.
32. What’s your ringtone? One of the ones I made. It’s trippy, because for so long it was only on my phone. [Whenever I hear it in the wild] it always makes me check my phone.
33. What do people assume about you that is incorrect? That I like Milky Ways. [Laughs]. It’s a silly Reddit meme that went around a long time ago, where some kid said they saw me in a store and I was stealing Milky Ways.
34. What is your most treasured possession? My Steinway piano. I got it about six years ago and it is the most expensive thing I’ve ever paid for.
35. What is the closest you’ve come to death? Oh, man, I almost got hit by a bus when I was in New Zealand. It was really crazy. I was just crossing the street and I had my headphones on. It probably looked badass the way I jumped out of the way but I almost died, legit.
What do people assume about you that is incorrect? That I like Milky Ways. [Laughs.] It’s a silly Reddit meme that went around a long time ago, where some kid said they saw me in a store and I was stealing Milky Ways.
36. Who would direct the film of your life? Barry Jenkins.
37. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Keep your nose clean. My grandfather would say that all the time.
38. What is the most overrated thing in the world? Children.
39. What do you view as your greatest achievement? Bringing artists like Thundercat and Kamasi [Washington] and Miguel Atwood-Ferguso out into the world.
40. What are your thoughts on AI and the creative industries? Oh, I’m all for tools. I think we should have the best tools in the world but I don’t like the idea of us just letting this stuff create things for us and calling it a day.
41. What or who is the future of music? I think, unfortunately, the future of music is the person who can do it all. You can’t only do music now – you’ve got to be capable of world building now, bringing interesting visuals, films, music, the stage show …
42. How was it working with Ryuichi Sakamoto? Really fun and really, really special to me. It was a very unique experience because I just felt like for the first time I worked with someone where silence was such a huge part of the process. You could hear a pin drop in my studio when he was around – he brought a real stoic Japanese vibe, this super ascended, elevated energy and it was super infectious. He brought his own incense.
43. If you could collaborate with anyone living or dead, who would it be? Well, I really want to get one in with Stevie [Wonder]. And I’d really like to get one in with The Weeknd one of these days too.
44. What’s your favourite word? Fuck.
45. What’s your least favourite word? No. [Laughs].
46. What’s your guilty pleasure? It’s probably cakes, or anything cakey: cupcakes, bread pudding, tiramisu or anything like that.
47. What drives you? I’m driven by the possibilities, the fact that we can do so much with the tools that we have and the resources. I’m driven by all those possibilities that I could create the craziest thing ever.
48. What’s it like winning a Grammy? Validating. It’s a nice feeling to know that all the time that I spent doing this thing has been worth something to someone – to the industry – you know. After the Grammy, I’m like, well at least I did that even if it never happens again. You can say whatever, but you can’t take that from me. It does feel nice, I’m not gonna lie.
49. What are you doing after this interview? I’m gonna have some lunch.
50. Well, you can because we’re done. Did you enjoy the interview? That was fantastic, thank you. I mean, that’s pretty much my psych evaluation right there.
Spirit Box by Flying Lotus is available to stream now.