Thundercat at Astra / Tuesday, 04.05.2021

Brainfeeders bass slapper extraordinaire Thundercat returns to Berlin for a special live concert at Astra in Friedrichshain this April.

Stephen Lee Bruner (born October 19, 1984), better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American multi-genre bass guitarist, record producer, singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. He has released four solo studio albums and is most noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies. Thundercat appeared on Kendrick Lamar’s critically acclaimed 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track “These Walls” from To Pimp a Butterfly.

Born into a family of musicians, Bruner began playing the bass at an early age: by 15 he had a minor hit in Germany as a member of the boy band No Curfew. A year later he joined his brother Ronald Jr. as a member of the Los Angeles punk band Suicidal Tendencies, replacing former bass player Josh Paul.

<a href="http://thundercat.bandcamp.com/album/drunk-1">Drunk by Thundercat</a>

Along with his band duties Bruner is also a session musician, acclaimed for his work on Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah (2008) and Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma (2010). He released his first solo album in 2011, The Golden Age of Apocalypse, which featured production from Flying Lotus, and was influenced by 1970s fusion artists such as Stanley Clarke and George Duke. The next two years saw a return to the recording studio with fellow Brainfeeder artist Flying Lotus, with contributions to the Lotus’s Until the Quiet Comes (2012) and You’re Dead! (2014), and the release of Thundercat’s second album Apocalypse (2013).