Internationally renowned musician Kamasi Washington builds epic worlds through his music. His short film project As Told to G/D Thyself is a visual representation of his album Heaven and Earth, an immersive story based in music, silence, and stories from his youth. Hear how he formed a collective which pieced together mind-bending visuals for an experience that transcends.

Key Insights

Creating music can be a “visual” process.
Collaborating is a way to create together in an open forum. When collaborating, you can communicate your vision with your creative team through images, music, writing, etc.
When creating a video for music, even with no dialogue, a script will give your team the arc and visual references of the story.
For Kamasi, creating music is centered around construction. When making films, his process shifts more to deconstruction, pulling things apart.
Silence is a very powerful sound, a tool you can use to pull your audience into a moment of focus, contemplation, or to emphasize an intense beat.
Telling your story and creating your art generates empathy and understanding; “it’s hard to hate something you understand, it’s definitely hard to hate something that you love.”

Kamasi Washington

Advisor

Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist and producer born and raised in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Forming his first band, the Young Jazz Giants, with Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Cameron Graves in high school, Washington went on to study ethnomusicology at UCLA and play with Snoop Dogg, Raphael Saadiq and more. more...