Fast cars fuel rapper's ride to the 'unknown'

Don Toliver mixes trap, R&B and electronica in his latest album, 'Octane.'

- BY CERYS DAVIES

THERE'S something about when I play the very first song on the album and I'm driving ... it literally puts me in like a video game," says Toliver, with his Audi.

(CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times)

When Don Toliver set out to make his new album "Octane," the rapper was first fixated on Los Angeles' San Gabriel Mountains. Though it wasn't the sparsely green terrain or occasionally snow-capped mountains that caught his eye, it was instead the historic collection of white domes and solar towers that make up the Mount Wilson Observatory. Something about the astronomical site "fully ignited" the Houston-born singer's need to create.

"Astronomers would sit at that telescope for hours and hours waiting for a planet to be visible. It's the same concept as being in the studio," said the musician born Caleb Toliver. "Making music can be sitting there, waiting for a sign or a feeling to be visible for me to understand what I'm doing and connect to it."

In line with his celestial fascination, the 31-year-old singer describes the creative process of his fifth studio album as being caught in a "black hole." But instead of getting devoured by the abyss, he says over Zoom, he honed in on making something "unknown."

To Toliver, uncovering the unknown on "Octane" was all about being consumed by his art and allowing his gut to guide him accordingly. He even jokes about creating a sound so fresh that AI wouldn't be able to replicate it.

A year and a half ago, the Texan released his fourth album, "Hardstone Psycho," As someone who’s been entranced by cars ever since high school, Toliver uses his car obsession as a vehicle for his own sonic discovery. He says, through cracking phone reception, connecting his sound and his vehicle is a relationship he’s been waiting to master.