Bass Guitar and Vocals | b. 1984

Thundercat is the stage name of Stephen Lee Bruner, born October 19, 1984, in Los Angeles, into a family of professional musicians: his father Ronald Bruner Sr. drummed for the Temptations, the Supremes and Gladys Knight; his mother was a flautist and percussionist; his brothers Ronald Jr. and Jameel are a drummer and a keyboardist respectively. He started bass at four, joined crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies at sixteen alongside his brother Ronald Jr., and after leaving the band reconnected with childhood friend Kamasi Washington and the West Coast Get Down collective. Flying Lotus signed him to Brainfeeder for "The Golden Age of Apocalypse" (2011), which established his approach: jazz harmony, funk, soul and psychedelia built around a six-string fretless bass with a technical vocabulary far beyond what most pop and R&B music required. He appeared throughout Kamasi Washington's "The Epic" (2015) and contributed bass work described by Rolling Stone as central to Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" (2015). "Drunk" (2017) brought Herbie Hancock, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald alongside hip-hop collaborators. "It Is What It Is" (2020), was written partly in response to the death of close friend Mac Miller. Rolling Stone placed him among the greatest bass players of all time. Bruner remains active and based in Los Angeles.