It’s a balmy March morning in Los Angeles, and Mr Stephen Bruner is sitting at home when I call. Beside him, wearing a Mr Kobe Bryant jersey and licking herself methodically, is Turbo Tron Over 9000 Baby Jesus Sally – or, in other words, Mr Bruner’s pet cat. For those who know Mr Bruner – a technical beast of a jazz bassist who goes by the moniker Thundercat, and one of the chief architects of Mr Kendrick Lamar’s seminal 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly, for which Mr Bruner won a Grammy – this tableau is familiar. (For International Cat Day in 2018, he posted a picture on Twitter of his beloved Tron, as he calls her, sporting a rather natty piece of red samurai armour.)

What is unfamiliar, however, is the wider circumstances in which the 35-year-old currently finds himself. In the middle of what should be his North American tour, and two and a half weeks before the launch of his fourth solo album, COVID-19 is playing havoc with life as people know it. In the US, it has spread to all 50 states. Naturally, Mr Bruner has had to cancel all plans to support the release of his new record, It Is What It Is, in favour of self-isolation. His entertainment of choice in these trying times? Watching “hella anime”, of course. Also: sprinting down the street – naked.

“I like to ride the line,” he says. “You know, if you go streaking with the coronavirus mask, people can’t immediately tell who’s streaking. I mean, I do have a big Thundercat tattoo on my chest, but it’s for the culture, you feel me?”

Mr Bruner is adored not only for his prowess on a six-string and his buttery-smooth falsetto, but also for his oddball, joyfully punk attitude – one that sees him, say, contributing to a recent cover of Three 6 Mafia’s “Slob On My Knob” for Mr Zack Fox (in retort to a saccharine cover of Mr John Lennon’s “Imagine”, sung by some of Hollywood’s elite in a spectacularly misjudged bid to cheer people up). Or, donning spotted cat-ear earmuffs, red Muay Thai shorts, an oversized Gucci belt and a silk Mickey Mouse shirt as he attempts to woo comedian Ms Quinta Brunson, singer Ms Kali Uchis and the Haim sisters in the video for It Is What It Is single “Dragonball Durag”.

Despite his proclivity for things both comic and absurd, he is in a philosophical mood. “Life goes at you quick, and I feel like even with everything that’s been happening, I’m prepared mentally,” he says. “I’m not scared; I’ve seen a lot this last year, so this is one of those moments where I’m like, ‘I’m OK, I know times are difficult, but it’s gonna be alright’ – we’re not the first humans to go through problems like this.”

In September 2018, Mr Malcolm McCormick, better known as rapper Mac Miller, was found unresponsive in his Studio City home in Los Angeles. He died shortly after; a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol found in his body. At 26 years old, he was an artist in the mid of a powerful evolution, only just beginning to find the rawness and honesty in his music. And as a catalyst for LA’s burgeoning indie rap community – he offered up his mansion as a space in which the likes of Chance the Rapper, Earl Sweatshirt and Mr Vince Staples could meet and collaborate – the shockwaves of his death were felt even more keenly.

This is one of the things Mr Bruner is referring to when he says he’s “seen a lot”. “I lost one of my best friends, you know?” he says. “That in itself was a very, very painful blow.” The writing of It Is What It Is stalled. “In this specific case, it did become very difficult to sit down and focus my energy, because every time I would sit down, I would see Mac,” he says. “It hurt, and it would be hard to try to say the things that would come into my heart – that’s a very difficult place. I had to fight through that time, and when it became too hard I would just stop. You know, take a breath.”

With time, says Mr Bruner, things inevitably got better. He was, of course, able to finish writing and recording his new album. Co-produced with longtime friend and creative partner Flying Lotus, it is a typically bonkers, 15-track, genre-agnostic amalgamation of jazz, R&B, soul and funk that treads the fine line between light and dark.

Like his friend Mac Miller, Mr Bruner’s records have become increasingly personal, as he mines his experience of life – ups, downs and all. The one place where you need to be honest, he believes, is in art – regardless of how difficult it can be to track and process one’s ever-changing emotions. And while he was dealing with a “different stack of emotional cards” this time around, life is, and always will be, his chief inspiration. “There’s no way real life isn’t part of the process,” he says. 

To that end, It Is What It Is sees the South Central LA native exploring the tricky territory that comes with being a young, successful black American in the swaggering “Black Qualls” (which features Messrs Donald Glover, Steve Arrington and Steve Lacy); the loss of a dear friend in the poignant “Fair Chance” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B); the merits of keeping on, even when things are falling apart, in the bubblegum-pink frenzy of “Miguel’s Happy Dance”; and the ecstasy of love in the endlessly ebullient “Funny Thing”. But the one thing that runs through it all, is the staunch willingness to roll with life, with all its euphoric highs, ridiculous curveballs and devastating lows. “There is a lot of comedy in life, but sometimes there’s a lot of pain behind the comedy, you know?” he says. “That’s just the way it comes out.”

Our conversation moves on to Mr Bruner’s collaborations with OGs such as Mr Kenny Loggins and Mr Steve Arrington; “It’s important to let people know they’re an influence,” and the resurgence of jazz in the last few years, “It never left”, before circling back to life on Earth in 2020. When you think about it, It Is What It Is is not just the perfect expression of Mr Bruner’s state of mind at the time he was recording the album. It’s also an admirable way to approach life today – finding the silver lining amid the myriad hues of confusion, anxiety and stress. If you can’t laugh, he says, you might as well not be here.

“It’s a whole new world, man,” he says. “You just embrace it and go, ‘I’m not afraid.’ I don’t know what comes next, but I’m here for it.”