Table of contents for Issue 68 - Spring Issue in Huck

GREAT GRAND-NEPHEW OF JOHN AND ALICE COLTRANE ATTENDS SAN FRANCISCO’S ACADEMY OF ART BUT DROPS OUT TO INTERN AT STONES THROW RECORDS GRANDSON OF MOTOWN SINGER-SONGWRITER MARILYN MCLEOD RESPONDS TO ADVERT ON ADULT SWIM LOOKING FOR MUSIC SUBMISSIONS 2006: RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM ‘1983’ 2007: SIGNS TO WARP 2008: RELEASES SECOND ALBUM ‘LOS ANGELES’ STARTS BRAINFEEDER, HIS OWN RECORD LABEL 2010: RELEASES THIRD ALBUM ‘COSMOGRAMMA’ COLLABORATES WITH THOM YORKE AND THUNDERCAT 2012: RELEASES FOURTH ALBUM ‘UNTIL THE QUIET COMES’ RECORDS DUALITY, A RAP ALBUM UNDER THE ALTER-EGO CAPTAIN MURPHY COLLABORATES WITH ERYKAH BADU, EARL SWEATSHIRT PRODUCES TRACKS FOR CHANCE THE RAPPER AND MAC MILLER GETS HIS OWN RADIO STATION – FLYLO FM – IN ‘GRAND THEFT AUTO V’ 2014: RELEASES FIFTH ALBUM ‘YOU’RE DEAD!’ COLLABORATES WITH KENDRICK LAMAR, SNOOP DOGG AND…

As the morning sun rises over Los Angeles, David Lynch gets ready for his day. He slips on a white collar shirt, along with battered beige chinos and scuffed black shoes, then buttons it flush-tight against his neck. He meditates, drinks coffees – plural – and sits at his multi-complex home studio waiting for his staff. Personal assistants arrive, as does a picture assistant, a runner, Alfredo the maintenance guy, as well as Dean Hurley, who runs his music studio. Then work can begin. Routine vs. Disruption David Lynch’s daily life is as paradoxical as his art. In his work, he plucks the abstract from the ordinary and creates chaos from order; he zooms in on the mundane yet illuminates the underbelly. This approach came early for him. Lynch remembers…

Tierra Whack has a tendency to interrupt herself with her own thoughts. “Yo, I’m so fucking mad Flying Lotus isn’t here,” she announces mid-conversation, scouring her surroundings for the experimental producer on a crisp Los Angeles evening. Sitting in the artist compound at Tyler the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, Tierra seems distracted. The 23-year-old rapper – who’s scheduled to perform at the festival the following day – has been abruptly changing subjects, only this time it’s to express disappointment that one of her favourite artists is nowhere to be seen. “I just thought he would be here, you know?” she continues. Reminded that he could always show up tomorrow, she nods and begins to settle, replying with a vague sense of optimism: “Today is a good day, tomorrow is…

Flying Lotus’s dog has got some flatulence issues. “Ooh… very deep, right?” says the musician, producer and filmmaker in a low burr, grabbing a stick of palo santo to clear the air. “Jesus. That’s rough!” The dog seems highly relaxed. It’s easy to feel relaxed here. Once you arrive at his LA home, it’s clear to see why the 35-year-old (otherwise known as Steven Ellison) is a hermit. He first signed to Warp in 2007 and has since built his own label, Brainfeeder. In addition to releasing five LPs, he’s collaborated with everyone from Odd Future to Thom Yorke and was Grammy nominated for his work on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. His house in Studio City looks like it’s been lived in for decades: every wall features modern…

Shintaro Kago doesn’t really do interviews outside Japan. The illustrator’s work has garnered a cult following around the world, celebrated for its distinct mix of horror, sci-fi and psychedelic erotica. But when the 49-year-old agrees to take a call at home in Tokyo, the idea of talking about himself or his art causes clear discomfort. Little is known about his life and he speaks in halted sentences: one-line answers that convey an air of secrecy. The path to this point started when, as a child, Shintaro would watch Monty Python reruns on TV (with Japanese voice-overs), nurturing a sense of humour that edged toward the surreal and absurd. “I would always find myself laughing at things that were taboo to laugh at,” he says. At the age of 12, Shintaro…

During a rainstorm in London’s Hyde Park, standing beneath an umbrella that’s balanced on the low branches of a tree, Josh Peacock is rolling a cigarette and reflecting on the mortality of tattoo art. “When you grow up with graffiti, you get used to the idea of art walking out of your life. But it’s horrible when people die on you. A friend died recently, and I’d done loads [of tattoos] on him. It’s like an extra layer of pain: you remember the tattoos and how much they meant to him. It kind of kicks you in the gonads a second time.” Our paths first crossed in Cambridge in the late 1990s. I was an English undergrad; he was a local graffiti artist who had grown up in the suburbs…

Early on in his career, when filmmaker Hiro Murai was in need of new ideas, he’d climb into his car – at night – and set off on a long and aimless drive through the shimmering mass of Los Angeles. He’d drift off into daydreams as he made his way through the city’s various pockets and neighbourhoods. “It’s like washing dishes for me: your hands are busy, but your brain can sort of float away and wander,” he explains. “But yeah, I do it less now. I used to do it more when I had a lot more free time.” Unsurprisingly, the 35-year-old’s schedule is somewhat fuller these days. Last March, the second season of Atlanta – Donald Glover’s unpredictable comedy-drama, in which Hiro serves as principal director and co-executive…

Tetsuo: The Iron Man SHIN’YA TSUKAMOTO (1989) A Japanese cyberpunk film that broke boundaries in modern-day horror. Final Fantasy VII SQUARE (1997) An action role-playing game that set new precedents across the board. ‘Players’ SLUM VILLAGE (1997) J Dilla production at its finest: a perfect beat mixed with hypnotic melodicism. Being John Malkovich SPIKE JONZE (2001) An unforgettable story of a portal that takes people inside the head of a movie star. Grid of Points GROUPER (2018) An austere album of piano and vocals that’s as stark as it is short. La Planète Sauvage ALAIN GORAGUER (1973) The lush score to animated sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet. 8 ½ FEDERICO FELLINI (1963) A masterpiece of surreal cinema inspired by a creative block. ‘54 Cymru Beats’ APHEX TWIN (2001) Six minutes of…

Talking to Shelby Sells is like catching up with an old friend. Squirting hot sauce into an avocado, she spoons at it with manicured fingernails painted the same fiery shade as her sriracha. “I’m gonna stalk your Instagram for beach pics!” she cackles, after learning that I’m calling from vacation. Speaking over Skype from her cluttered New York flat, the 27-year-old is disarmingly open and animated. Every so often, she waves a green juice around to emphasise a point. It’s easy to see why Shelby Sells (her real name) has become Internet Famous for intimate interviews with people about sex and relationships: she’s a great talker, and an even better listener. What’s harder to believe is that frank communication didn’t always come easily. Having grown up in a religious Idaho…

Georgia Anne Muldrow has a way of making people think she’s from another planet. Her ability to craft a cosmic blend of funk, jazz and R&B has brought all sorts of talent into her orbit, from Erykah Badu to Blood Orange. The results sound so forward-thinking that the rapper Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) once told the New York Times: “She’s like religion… I’ve never heard a human being sing like this.” “People just eat that quote up,” says Georgia, breaking into a laugh so warm that hearing it feels like a hug. “I’m thankful that he sees it that way but, man, I don’t know what he’s talkin’ about!” The 35-year-old is speaking on the phone at home in a quiet cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Las Vegas, the expanse…

Stepping into the Blizzard Arena can be a surreal experience. Converted from the original studio for The Tonight Show in Burbank, California, it’s now a state-of-the-art sports stadium for a new kind of athlete: professional video game players. Fans flock from all over the world to watch contests in both Overwatch League and Heroes of the Storm Global Championship – two of the most popular platforms in esports – and cheer on their favourite teams in person. Launched in December 2017, the place still smells new – and every inch of it has been designed to mirror a mainstream sports organisation, from the merchandise store in the lobby to the gleaming trophy cabinets upstairs. Inside the main stage, beneath a massive glowing halo, teams of six take up either side…