Travis Scott says Oasis helped inspire his upcoming album, the Houston rapper revealing the connection while talking to Variety about what’s next after 2023’s Utopia. He also described the project as something he’s still actively building, telling the outlet, “I’m working on an album right now, and that’s fucking amazing,” and adding that he’s “constantly pushing” to create something he “haven’t made before.”

In the same update, Scott tied his creative direction to both sound and spectacle. He named a range of influences on the album, including Oasis, Parliament, Don Toliver, Raphael Saadiq, and Daft Punk. He also referenced Van Halen as a point of inspiration for their “mega-choruses and hard bass lines.” And when he talked about the listener experience, he didn’t frame it as just a record release. He said the album is part of an attempt to “elevate the show to a more theater aspect,” specifically how to reach “the person that’s all the way back in the bowl,” not only the crowd close enough to feel personal.

That matters because Utopia was already a bet on ambition. In 2023, NME reviewed Utopia, giving it a three-star review, and described the album as a lofty concept with shaky execution. The publication also framed Astroworld as a clear thematic hit, noting, “Whereas ‘Astroworld’ was the perfect theme for Scott’s music - we’re going to a theme park! - in trying to navigate a lofty concept like finding utopia, his ambitions have led him back to someone who was far more formidable at it.” Whatever one thinks about the record’s balance, Scott is clearly leaning into the idea that the “experience” is the product.

Scott’s comments to Variety extend that experience-thinking into a specific show-and-media philosophy. He said, “Utopia was supposed to be a play. I want to try to bring back true experiences before they try to take them all down and make everything digital.” That line reads like an artistic manifesto, but it also maps cleanly onto how modern music releases tend to function commercially: sound alone is rarely enough. Live staging, audience reach, and the emotional clarity of a performance can decide how a tour lands, how fans talk, and how brands decide whether to attach.

He also indicated that touring has shaped the creative process. “I need to double down on trying to make something that can reach the person that’s all the way back in the bowl,” Scott told Variety. “So how do I reach them like the person that’s right next to me?” This is a practical problem musicians solve constantly, and it becomes even more important for artists whose shows rely on spectacle. Pushing for “mega-choruses” and “hard bass lines,” while drawing from influences like Daft Punk and Parliament, is a recipe for music that can hold up in large arenas where audio has to travel, punch through noise, and still feel immediate.

There is also a broader entertainment crossover happening around Scott right now. Recently, he appeared as an actor in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. In the film, Scott makes a cameo as a bard recounting part of the Trojan War. Nolan discussed Scott’s casting as well, explaining: “I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.” Scott had previously worked with Nolan before, recording the track ‘The Plan’ for 2020 film Tenet, and he contributed the end-credits song ‘When I’m Home’ for The Odyssey in collaboration with James Blake and Ludwig Göransson.

For executives and board-level decision-makers, this cross-format visibility is not just trivia. It reinforces a single storyline: Scott is building a portfolio identity that moves between album, tour, and screen. That can expand downstream opportunities, but it also raises the bar for consistency, because the audience that follows an artist across formats expects the same level of world-building. When an artist explicitly says the goal is theater-like staging and “true experiences” rather than a fully digital substitute, that can influence how stakeholders plan partnerships, merchandise ecosystems, and event design.

And then there’s the real-world context that sits underneath every entertainment strategy: culture is volatile, and the operational environment can change fast. Elsewhere, Tay Keith, producer of Travis Scott’s ‘Sicko Mode,’ has been found dead aged 29. The source doesn’t add details beyond that fact, but it’s the kind of event that reminds the industry how quickly creative teams and production pipelines can be disrupted. If the next album is being shaped to push new sonic boundaries and sharpen crowd reach, the people behind those sounds matter even more when the system gets shaken.

Put it all together, and Scott’s Oasis credit is more than a throwaway influence list. It’s a signal that his next record is being built to serve a larger, more theatrical ambition, drawing from classic pop-rock instincts like Van Halen’s big hooks, funk-soul energy via Parliament and Raphael Saadiq, and electronic propulsion through Daft Punk. If you’re an investor, label operator, venue stakeholder, or creator watching where the music business is heading, the strategic stake is simple: the winners increasingly treat albums as the front door to a fully designed experience, and Scott is telling you exactly which doors he wants to walk through next.