Words by Joe Williams

For the past two decades, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson has been quietly contributing towards an infinite array of musical projects.

Having started violin lessons as early as four years old, the Californian native was quick to tune his ears to the magic of music, with constant exposure to the likes of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms by his parents helping solidify a life-long passion.

Since then, Miguel has cultivated a vast repertoire of talents as a multi-instrumentalist, composer and conductor, providing music for film and TV projects such as FX’s hugely popular Dexter, and conducting the soundtrack for Marvel’s Luke Cage series. He’s also developed a strong network of close friends and collaborators — connection and communication between fellow humans is as important to Miguel as the music itself.

Dancing across all genres, giving equal love to classical, jazz, hip-hop and pop throughout his 600+ recordings and 2500 live performances, the amount of people Miguel’s worked with is astonishing. Outkast’s Big Boi, Lana Del Ray, Stevie Wonder and Shakira represent only a fraction of the gargantuan artists that he’s forged collaborations with. However, the most long-standing and close association must surely be with Flying Lotus, whom Miguel has known and worked with now for over 15 years — and whose close connection with the Grammy-winning Thundercat Miguel is, in a small way, responsible for.

This friendship and collaboration with FlyLo, and his legendary LA-based label, Brainfeeder, has yielded one of the most important moments in Miguel’s professional, personal and spiritual life: the release of his debut solo album, Les Jardins Mystiques Vol.1. More than just a collection of tracks, the album represents something closer to a diary, and marks the culmination of decades worth of artistic voyaging — and yet, as the first three-and-a-half-hour instalment in a projected trilogy, it also marks the beginning of a whole new chapter.

What was your main intention behind Les Jardins Mystiques Vol.1?

I'm not trying to be popular, I'm not trying to fit in. I'm not trying to win awards. I’m trying to be authentic, and share emotions and concepts that I find meaningful, intending to have some type of positive presence in the world — that's it.

What did the creative journey of this album look like?

Managing my expectations, it's allowed me to not be too uptight with how any part of the process happens. I've really enjoyed this; I've not been procrastinating, I've not been caught up with fear — I've just been working on it here and there. It's not like I've worked on it consistently. I've worked on myself as a human being consistently all these years, but, musically, I've mostly been working for other people. And then, when I have a little cash and a little time, I'll just do a little work on my album. So it's really just a joyful thing.

Is there a particular philosophy behind this album?

It's almost like sharing a diary. And I'm proud of my diary! I believe that if we dive into our authenticity, it opens up, to me, an infinite world. I believe in that process, and I think all the things that we must ideally wish for ourselves and our various communities are connected to us, as individuals, doing that. This album is kind of like my sonic diary of that. I have no expectations. I know it's not going to be for everybody. But I do think that some people are going to really like it. So I’m excited!

I have a long history in my life of being around diverse communities. Diversity of cultural expressions is the norm for me. That's actually where I feel most comfortable. I love studying every day: studying history, and benefiting from the wisdom and intelligence of every culture. I'm certain I can live a really happy, healthy life. For me, the way that I'm able to manifest that is by learning and then applying that knowledge and wisdom in putting this album together. I just let it speak to me, and I don't feel too attached to anything needing to be anything. So, one of my mentors is Dwight Trible, an amazing soul-jazz singer, avant-garde jazz, and creative jazz singer. He was one of the main singers of the last 20 years of Pharoah Sanders' life, and I've had the good fortune of touring with Dwight and recording with him a lot. I was on tour with him once in France, and I was just in the van for hours traversing the countryside. I was kind of picking his brain, like, “So Dwight, how do you improvise?” And he's like, “Man, I don't know, but whatever it is, it has to be undeniable.” That stuck with me, and I like that word undeniable — not necessarily to other people, but, as the steward of our art, making sure that it's undeniable to us.

In 2018, you said that you’d managed to distil 500 hours worth of music down to 46. Now, in 2023, the album consists of ten and a half hours over three volumes. How do you distil that down?

Mystiques isn't just a collection of music I like — it's a story. It's a narrative. And so, as I'm going through all these hundreds of hours of original music, I'm making copious notes. I have a Word document for every single track and any pertinent info. So I'm going through it, and formulating my relationship with these recordings and compositions. Sometimes I might have a recording of a composition of mine, but it might not be able to reach the stage of being able to properly convey what I was hoping to convey. That doesn't mean that I don't like the composition — I just may want to circle back. By going through this Word document, and then going through and making all these various playlists, this thing starts to emerge.

How did your creative collaboration with Brainfeeder begin?

Through my friendship and musical compatibility with Flying Lotus. Well, first I met Thundercat in 2005 when we were playing in Leon Ware’s band together, and we just hit it off. Then I met Flying Lotus, and I went over to his house and it was the first time we ever recorded together. I remember that Lotus was about three weeks into learning Ableton and he was already, in my opinion, a master. I remember saying, “Man, you should connect with my friend Thundercat, you guys would make the most amazing music.” I really impressed this upon him. So, I won't take complete credit for putting Thundercat on Flying Lotus’ radar… but I will take some credit. It's one thing right to be friends with somebody that you relate to, but it's another thing if there's artistic compatibility. We had Thundercat and Lotus, myself, Austin Peralta, and many other people. If I'm not mistaken, Brainfeeder wasn't created until about 2009, or a little bit later. But all these friends and communities were percolating for a while.

What are the differences between making music for records and film/TV?

With TV and film, I've enjoyed it, but it is hellacious — and the turnarounds are insane. Communication is so important, and I love communicating with people, and I love human beings. But it is overwhelming. I find that the people in TV and film who do it best have a stable of engineers, composers and producers. I do not have that. It needs people that just have exceptional production skills and engineering skills. I'm a very good engineer, but I'm not an exceptional engineer. However, as I continue to create my stable, you know — resonant engineers and capable people to help me manifest my vision — then I'm hoping to do more TV and film as the main composer.

You’ve repeatedly referred to works as “ongoing dialogues” or “conversations”, placing a particularly large emphasis on communication. How does this relate to your collaborators and audience?

My philosophy is a work in progress, but the consistent part of my philosophy is facilitating music, happiness, harmony and respect among all the human beings involved. I take cues from Duke Ellington, and John Williams, in their approach of celebrating the individuals — and specifically Miles Davis as well. When Miles Davis was talking about his 1960s Quintet, he said that he wanted to make both the weaknesses and the strengths of each individual member a strength for each composition, for each recording and each of their whole experiences. I think that's very important. There are a lot of producers, music directors and composers who will have an idea of how they want their music to be manifested. Sometimes how they go about it is they can be very demanding, asking the individuals to fulfil their vision. I don't relate to that approach as much.

What’s your approach?

I'll try once or twice, revisiting something if I want it to go differently in the studio or rehearsals — I've had great success in not pushing people too far. If I'm finding that people are not enjoying trying to manifest what we're going for, if they're not capable, for whatever reason, move on. Just keep it joyful. John Williams does what Duke Ellington did, and writes the first name of the people playing his music on the sheet music. So they’re speaking to their soul, but then trying to make it in the context of all these wonderful people that they’re around, and finding this thing that's, in my opinion, even more exalted than the original conception — the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. That’s the reality. And I think that's what a master does: they find a way to celebrate as much reality as possible.

How did this philosophy evolve and what did the process of discovering this importance look like?

I had a big breakthrough around age 18 when I started my Buddhist practice and started to learn how to take more responsibility for my feelings and goals, instead of blaming my ill feelings on others. Being 43 now, the last 25 years have included me working with thousands of people around the world and learning how important it is to be a good listener to everyone/everything, be an advocate for everyone's happiest heart including my own, and feed positivity. It's the best approach I've found so far that creates the most bridges of possibility and facilitates the most fun for all. People want to be respected and feel seen for the amazing individuals that they are, and I want to be a facilitator for that.

What specific tools do you think music has given you to navigate the world? 

I consider music my religion. And even more so than that, the practice of being a healer. Music is my preferred vehicle for all of this. A lot of the time, music continues to kick my ass in the most enjoyable ways, showing me my incongruences and blind spots — and all the immediately pleasurable stuff, too. The tool I have been left with is the confidence to continually jump back into my inner emotional/spiritual world and figure out how to make my ideals manifest.

Which film composers do you love?

I'm all about Bernard Herrmann. I'm obsessed with him and I have been for the last 30 years. And Jóhann Jóhannsson, who’s unfortunately no longer with us. I like Johnny Greenwood a lot. I'd say that he's probably the guy that I relate to the most out of the people that I'm aware of.

Are there any films you’d like to rescore?

I like all the Akira Kurosawa films. I tend to like films from like 80 years ago. Or films created in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s. I kind of live in that era in a lot of ways — but I am a nature freak. I grew up in Topanga Canyon, going out in nature by myself. From an early age and just walking and hiking and just being off in nature, so… I want to score nature documentaries. 

Les Jardins Mystique Vol. 1 is available now courtesy of Brainfeeder / Ninja Tune.