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Music

Thundercat

THUNDERCAT with MAYLEE TODD at Wrongbar (1279 Queen West), Friday (November 22), 10 pm. $15. RT, SS, TW.


Stephen Bruner’s first-ever headlining North American tour won’t be lonely.

Sure, the bassist known as Thundercat is used to opening for best bud Flying Lotus. Or playing in bands (he was in thrash group Suicidal Tendencies). Or working with Erykah Badu or Snoop Dogg as a sought-after session musician.

But he’s cool with flying solo.

“I’m not thinking about the fact that it’s me by myself. I’m thinking about the fact that it’s not just me by myself,” he says over the phone from his native L.A.

To recreate his funky jazz-IDM album Apocalypse (Brainfeeder), he brings backup.

His brother Ronald Bruner Jr. is on drums, and a third Bruner, Jameel, might come, too. (Their father, drummer Ronald Bruner Sr., played with Motown acts like Gladys Knight and the Temptations.)

“[Jameel’s] a virtuoso piano player. So you guys may be one of the few cities that get to see me and my two brothers play together,” says Bruner.

Apocalypse was co-produced with partner in crime Flying Lotus, who Bruner says brings out the absolute best in him. “That’s my writing partner right there. If I were Stanley Clarke, he’d be my George Duke.”

Fitting comparison. It’s not difficult to see the influence of 70s jazz fusionists all over Thundercat’s music.

Released last June, Apocalypse built on the futuristic sound of its predecessor, 2011’s The Golden Age Of The Apocalypse, adding more vocals and, frankly, more heart.

Case in point: Heartbreaks + Setbacks, the stirring lead single whose inspiration Bruner would rather not reveal.

An oversimplified conclusion is that it’s about the November 2012 death of his good friend, jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Austin Peralta, to whom the album’s final song – A Message For Austin/Praise The Lord/Enter The Void – is dedicated.

“The outstanding thing that everybody [thinks the song is about is] Austin dying,” he says, “and even now [his death] really hurts.

“But it’s one of those things where it’s heartbreaks and setbacks. It’s the reality of life… how up and down it is.”

Bruner either can’t or doesn’t want to get more specific. He doesn’t have to, though. The song – simply sung and beautifully executed – says it all.

julial@nowtoronto.com | @julialeconte

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