Top 45 Flume Quotes

Often, when I work with a vocalist, I like to focus on the melodies first.

What So Not used to be a lot more dance-y, and now it’s becoming a lot more melodic. Flume has always had that melodic thing, but it’s starting to become a bit heavier, so it’s just difficult to navigate between the two.

There was this cereal, and it had a special promotion with a CD inside the box that had a really simple music-making program on it. I got it, and that opened my mind to being able to make music on a computer and seeing all the different layers.

What it is now is basically, I’ll sit on my computer; I basically kind of play the computer as an instrument, I guess you could say. I guess I play the Mac. And how it works is, say – I have a program called ‘Ableton Live.’ And, you know, you’ll open it up, and it’s just blank. There’s nothing there. And then you start.

I want to keep Flume kind of experimental, weird, melodic, pretty.

I definitely wanted the second record to be a much more grandiose thing. I wanted to push myself and make a big statement.

Meditation is a really powerful tool I have for life now. The only reason I know about it is because I was stressing about writing and a friend taught me it. It’s been useful.

I’m a really heavy sleeper. When I wake up I’m a terrible morning person.

I don’t think I can name any names or anything, but this is what I’ve wanted to do for a long time: to have Flume as my creative outlet and to work on the biggest songs in the world, like pop, and come up with the idea and send it off.

I used to never feel pressure to be creative; it’s always just been a fun thing. And then suddenly, it’s my job, and people are asking, ‘Where’s the record?’

I was nine, and I was shopping in a supermarket with my dad. There was this cereal, and it had a special promotion with a CD inside the box that had a really simple music-making program on it. I got it, and that opened my mind to being able to make music on a computer and seeing all the different layers.

I like bangers and really testosterone-fueled stuff.

To me it’s all about textures, and that’s the side of music that I’m finding really exciting. I feel like it’s one of the only parts of music that mankind hasn’t fully discovered yet.

I was an avid Pokemon card collector.

I think the thing that L.A. had on Sydney is an awesome music scene, especially for what I do.

I want to make music that is completely electronic but doesn’t feel it.

I’d like to actually work with a lot of other people, and whether it’s someone who is completely unknown who I love and think is a talent, maybe I’ll work with them, or, like, maybe I’ll work with some of the biggest pop stars and write music for them.

I want to fuse the abrasive and the beautiful.

For me, I would prefer to not have my face on the album cover. I don’t mind being in the public, but it’s just not really my personality, and it’s not really why I’m into this. I like making art, and that’s it. I don’t really want to be a celebrity, seriously. I like my privacy.

I can’t sing, but I’ll sing over this chord progression, like, over and over, for however long it takes – sometimes it’s, like, two minutes, sometimes it’s 20 minutes – until I’ve found like a hook or something that I’m really happy with. And then, basically, it just like that’s my melody, and that’s where I start from.

I think Sydney has so much natural beauty; it’s just a beautiful city.

Honestly, production when you first start can be difficult to wrap your head around.

I don’t think I make dance music. It’s not even 4/4. And it’s slow.

For me, one of the downfalls of electronic music is that it can feel a little soulless or robotic.

I feel like the first record was really finding my feet, figuring out what music I wanted to make… Now that I’ve done that, I feel like I’ve got a much clearer idea of what I want to sound like and what I want to discover. It’s exciting.

I’ve been having meetings with people, just everywhere in the world, and it’s like, ‘Hey, really love you to work with me, send me some ideas.’ That’s the crazy part.

Every kid has a laptop; everyone can make music, so in order to stand out, I think it’s important to find that sonic identity, I think my sonic identity – and mine is finding these weird sounds that may not necessarily sound that musical, and make them sound musical.

My main inspirations come from early ’90s Trance, the French electro movement round ’06, then a bunch of artists like Flying Lotus, J Dilla, Moby, The Prodigy. So I’d say it’s some kind of experimental electronica with a strong hip hop influence. It’s chilled, but people can still get super crazy and dance to it.

I’ve never been a rap guy, I don’t really know that much about rap music, to be honest. I like it, but I think what really happened was just my music seems to work so well with rap music.

I’m just trying to work out how to write music now, because I’ve never had the opportunity where my number-one priority is writing music. I don’t know how my brain works yet.

To me, skin is alien and kind of weird; it weirds me out. It’s strange, but it’s also really intimate and personal; it’s living, organic. That’s how I want the music to sound; I want it to feel alien and strange, but also like it’s got a heartbeat, like it’s got a soul, like it’s not made by a robot.

Probably the No. 1 most important thing in my music is not to sound like anyone else. It is hard in this day and age.

When I heard Flying Lotus, I was like, ‘Wow, okay, everything can be off the grid.’

Along with ‘Free,’ where I sing quite a bit, there are additional songs on ‘Skin’ where you can hear my voice in the background – lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’ But more often than not, I use my vocals to prompt other rappers and singers to feel calmer, better, bolder.

It’s quite fun to mess with the human voice. It’s quite special in the sense that the voice is the #1 instrument that we can connect with; it doesn’t sound too alien. I think that’s the key is to find the line between sounding human and sounding robotic. That’s an area that I like to explore a lot.

I’d like to do some crazy art installations and design some weird synthesizers and work with other people and make some fun stuff for a bit. Maybe tap into virtual reality stuff or maybe write another record… We’ll see.

The goal was always to do something that felt human but was 100 percent electronic.

It was a difficult second record. I had moments where I couldn’t write; had moments where I was writing lots. It was just a massive learning process for me.

Everyone can write their melodies and chords and pianos and guitars, but what hasn’t been discovered yet are tones and textures, and that’s very exciting. Probably the No. 1 most important thing in my music is not to sound like anyone else.

Sydney’s beautiful, the weather’s great, and the air’s fresh and clean, but it doesn’t have the scene and the amount of likeminded people. At home, things are very comfortable, but I feel like putting myself out there a bit.

Australia is so influenced by America. It’s kind of in-between the U.K. and the States.

I feel like I need to continuously keep evolving and moving.

I wanna make weird stuff.

I always regret leaving home if I don’t get at least four or five surfs in the week before I leave. I try to be in the water as much as possible before leaving, and it’s the one thing I miss massively.

The music I was making for people not to dance to was the one they were dancing to.