Interview & Article

The face of Donald Glover is a familiar one. He jokes, he acts, he sings; and as we all witnessed in the now-iconic “This Is America“ music video, he sure as hell can dance... lets just say he keeps himself pretty busy these days. Making music under the guise of Childish Gambino and having released countless mix tapes and an album, the hip-hop he’s responsible is something pretty special. Bringing with him an energetic show that well and truly gets the people going, it’s easy to see the passion that lies beneath all that he does.

We were lucky enough to spend some time with the powerhouse that is Donald Glover on his recent trip to Melbourne and like all good interviews should, conversation lead to turtles. Read on.

Australian Visits.
I love it here.. I may not go back. It’s really great here. There’s beaches everywhere, the girls are really pretty and really nice. Like, just so nice. I feel like in America its really hard to approach a girl and I feel like here its just different! We were in a car and there were these two girls walking who were really pretty and I sort of waved to them and they just smiled and waved back! I was so surprised -- in America they’d probably curse at you and speed off.

The Ladiezzz.
I haven’t been that bad on this tour, but my brother is a different story. My brother has totally been loving it here. He has this pink phone that he got off a friend to use in Australia so that he’s got an Australian number. It’s this big pink phone and he’s been meeting girls and just putting numbers in it. The other day we thought we lost it and he was like, “its like the Rosetta Stone and we’ve LOST it. We can’t leave without it! Every girl I’ve met -- her phone number’s in that phone!” It was just in the van. 

Keeping Busy.
I never really look at anything I do as just one thing. I was writing and writing got me into acting, then acting got me into standup where I was performing, then I realised I really like performing, which is when music came along. The great thing about music is its like all of it rolled into one. Its as if there’s something pulling me towards the things I do and once I feel like I’ve connected with them I get pushed somewhere else. 

Music vs. Acting vs. Standup.
I guess if I had to choose it would be music, well at least right now thats my answer. I don’t see myself going back to a lot of stuff, you know. I love performing, its the best feeling. The energy, the songs.. Sometimes it’s even like art, I mean songs are very personal things for people. 

Writing.
Sometimes I’ll wake up from my sleep with a beat in my head and just work from there, like for Royalty I was up and had it down in like 15 minutes. Sometimes I’ll just have like a song that’s in my head and I’ll record it and chop it up. I really just let things come to me, I mean, it’s just there or it’s not. If I hear something that really catches me I will isolate it immediately. When I sampled Adele the hook just got me, I just felt it was really cool. 

I feel like anything that really connects with you you’ll do a good job on and its got to be special if it connects to you! I’m kind of realising that music is an everybody process; albums are really just like compilations of groups of people -- its making a feeling.

I was writing jokes for so long that I’ve sort of always written with a lot of wordplay and humour. That’s just the way I think sometimes. I think I’ve learned lately that music doesn’t have to make much sense, words are just words. They make you feel things. Sometimes they can be funny, or even quite mathematical! But the best poems are the words that really hit you -- I remember reading one thats pretty much about a man drinking milk from a girls navel and its just this AWESOME poem. Like I loved it. It was very short and powerful and it was the imagery of it, the poetry and art behind it that mattered. So I guess I’m just learning that it’s all a process! 

I’ll know I’ve made it when...
Its funny you ask that question because I was just writing about how I hope I never make it. Like, never. Ever. If I ever have the “this is it” feeling then I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t name one person who’s music I’ve liked or respected that turned around and said, “Well I finally did it!” it’s all a process. It’s about pushing forward, finding what’s next. I mean, if you ever get that “Ahh, we did it” feeling then... You’re like a turtle. Because turtle’s don’t care. They’re not like, “I want a new computer on day…” No. They lay fucking eggs, they eat, then they lay more eggs and that’s it. So I hope I never ever make it. Well, I guess then I’ll know I’ve made it when I’ve given up.