Andr 3000 at Berklee: Respect Your Taste-Thats All You Got On tour for New Blue Sun, the iconic artist and his band sat down for a sprawling conversation on staying excited about music, trusting your instincts, and-what else-flutes.By
John Mirisola
October 31, 2024
Andr 3000 spoke to students at the Berklee Performance Center.
Image by Elizabeth Friar
Any time Andr 3000 shows up, you know youre in for a treat. Whether a classic Outkast song drops at a party, or the artist lends a perfect cameo to a Beyonc or Frank Ocean track, or he delivers a killer portrayal of Jimi Hendrix in a 2014 biopic, or he plays a flute in a caf while he waits for his coffee, or he releases an ambient jazz opus called New Blue Sun, Andr Benjamins appearance commands-and rewards-our full attention.
Students at Berklee got to relearn this basic fact of modern life this week when Andr 3000 stopped by the Berklee Performance Center on Tuesday before his performance at the Wang Theatre on Wednesday. He and his band sat down with moderator Lil John Roberts for a wide-ranging conversation sponsored by the Berklee Career Center.
Much of the conversation centered on this latest act in Benjamins musical career, in which hes picked up the flute (or, well, many tens of different flutes, wooden and digital), and turned to atmospheric soundscapes-diving headfirst into the ethereal, spiritual, and avant garde, as Berklee student Fulano Librizzi put it in his introduction before the band took the stage.
Listen to the first track from New Blue Sun:
The world needed [this kind of record], said Roberts in his opening remarks. The world needs healing. They need the positivity, the high vibrations, with all thats going on right now.
Benjamin credited those bandmates-producer and percussionist Carlos Ni o, keyboardist Surya Botofasina, and drummer Deantoni Parks BM '03-for collaborating with him to bring about his new sound. These people here on stage are really responsible for helping me to get to that place, he said. Its the first time that Ive been in a serious collective where everybody was popping at the same time.
During the hourlong panel, Andr 3000 and his band answered student-submitted questions about Benjamins artistic journey and the production of New Blue Sun, their approach to creativity and originality, the bands practice of spontaneous composition, and much more. Read on for highlights from their conversation.
On the Evolution from Rap to New Blue SunIn response to the notion that this new album was a reinvention of his artistic image, Benjamin clarified, It was 17 years since the last time people really caught a full body of work [from me]. So what may appear to be a reinvention is really just a continuation for me.
Im just happy to be a part of it, he said about the new album. I think it just came at a perfect time. Of course I selfishly just enjoyed it-just the way it sounded. It wasnt a big plan or anything. It was just what was happening in my life, just the same way Speakerboxxx or Stankonia or ATLiens, any of those things . . . they were never planned-out situations. So Im just sticking with the same formula Ive always stuck with, and it happened to take me in this direction . . . where I was able to meet individuals that pushed me in a certain way, invited me into worlds they created.
At the same time, the compositional method for the album was in sharp contrast to some of Benjamins earlier work. I started producing for Outkast at the ATLiens album. I would sit down and go through records, I would go through playing instruments, sampling myself, and it was more constructed. And Im an only child, so I would spend a lot of time by myself with the drum machine, or with the ideas first, and then I would bring it to the studio for Big Boi to check out. . . . When I met Carlos Ni o, he introduced me to a way of recording that was completely in-the-moment. There was no other way to think outside of that. And that opened up a whole new world of things. . . . Thats how we recorded this album.
How Andr 3000 Fell in Love with the FluteThe continuation-not reinvention-of Benjamins artistic identity was spurred, in large part, by the discovery of his love for the flute. From the very first day that I got my first flute [a wooden Maya flute made by the craftsman Guillermo Martinez], I just found myself never putting it down, and waking up really getting excited to play, he said. He would wander around and play, hearing the way the sound moved through his surroundings-it sounds so great in nature, or in spaces where you get reverberation off the hallway, so it was always kind of a quest to walk around and play. . . . I would do it daily for years.
However: New Blue Sun is not a flute album. We do so many other things on the album besides play the flute. I think because Im not rapping on it, they say, Well this is a flute thing. . . . People lean into the flute thing a lot more than they should, because its a vast array of sounds.
To Stay Original, Stay Excited
Left to right: Andr 3000, Carlos Ni o, Surya Botofasina, Deantoni Parks, Lil John Roberts
Image by Elizabeth Friar
When asked how he keeps his music original and unique at a time where making music feels formulaic Benjamins response was simple: I have to enjoy what Im doing. Plain and simple. I just try to keep myself excited with what Im doing. And that leads to exploration, trying to find new ways to do it, trying to find new things to keep yourself excited.
If its coming from your heart, added Ni o, if youre feeling it-whatever form it takes-if you love it, thats it.
Botofasina also commented on the value of dispelling a negative, critical outlook on others music: A great way to not become formulaic is not to be a critic of others who are trying . . . Be a fan of music who happens to be at an instrument; or use your own pers
