Anderson .Paak dropped in to Arvos with Tommy Codling and, with both of them perched on the mixing desk as per A.P’s pre-interview demands, they chatted about his latest album Oxnard and all the intense collabs contained therein.

They also got into drumming while singing, touristing while touring and going (v politely) head to head with Dre in the studio,

“Yeah [Dre] mixed the whole record. Forty-two times. Haha nah – seemed like it… We’re both control freaks… I think we were driving each other crazy. I’d be like ‘ Ah, Dre do you think, um, I think the drums are just a little thin’… and he’d be like ‘I was listening back at the beach house and I wanna change this and that, and I don’t know about this song’. But it was cool to have a co-pilot, someone of his stature.”

Collaboration is integral to .Paak’s process and on Oxnard he relished the chance to witness his collaborators’ processes. From sending a track to the relentlessly in-demand Kendrick Lamar with fingers crossed, to working from the ground up with J. Cole, to watching Dre and Q-Tip build it old school brick by brick.

They also chatted about the hometown camaraderie that binds his band The Free Nationals, the late great Mac Miller, and getting tight with Kendrick. Listen to the whole thing up top.

Tune in to Arvos with Tommy Codling every Thursday arvo from 3pm.