Photo by Tim Saccenti

Yesterday, Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces, and Thundercat announced a new collaborative project called WOKE. They also released their first single, "The Lavishments of Light Looking", featuring Parliament-Funkadelic legend George Clinton. Pitchfork hopped on the phone with FlyLo to talk about the project's origins, working with Clinton, their future plans, and more.

Pitchfork: How did the project first come together?

Flying Lotus: The WOKE project started about three years ago. I, myself, and some screenwriter friends of mine started writing a script for feature film called WOKE. It was something that we developed for quite a while. Initially, it was going to star Ishmael [Butler] from Shabazz Palaces and Jeremiah Jae. We worked on it for a while, started workshopping, but there's always the financial issue—I haven't found anyone who is going to invest in the film.

But I wanted to keep the project going somehow. It's about music, it's about musicians, and so I decided, Why don't we just try and build up some momentum through music and maybe do the film after? We started working earlier this year on music. We did a few songs. We have a few things. We're just going to let it build naturally, see what happens. We're not going to rush to finish it. Jeremiah Jae is also part of WOKE too, but maybe more so as a producer. I'm not sure. We haven't really defined anything, really, other than the fact that we're going to keep working on stuff.

Pitchfork: Does that mean you don't have any plans to release an album?

FL: There's nothing set in stone. We have a bunch of ideas. There's about like nine songs kind of floating around. There's more stuff with George [Clinton], too. We've done a lot of recording over this year. I want to make sure that all the stuff that we do is in the same room together. I'm not trying to do e-mail shit; I really want it to be organic and a true collaboration.

Pitchfork: How did you involve George Clinton in the project?

FL: George—he kind of naturally started floating around too, man. He and I had been in touch earlier this year, and he joined me at Glastonbury. When he comes out to Los Angeles, he comes to the studio and we lay out some ideas. He happened to be around when we were working on the song, so it was perfect that it worked out that way. George is amazing. He's so sharp and he's got so many ideas still. It's such a crazy thing witnessing him and his process.

Pitchfork: Where did the name WOKE come from?