Frank Ocean is known for his non-conformity. He rarely does interviews, and when does, they arrive in unexpected ways.
A previously unreleased Ocean interview have appeared on the internet, and no one is quite sure where it came from. He discusses the frustrations and creative process of making Blonde, which was still under construction at the time.
Read our Blonde review. Watch the interview and read the full transcript below.
"Right now I'm thinking that after said date or said moment or said thing occurs, right now it all just feels like a build-up to that.
This whole process has definitely made one thing clear. It's like DJing. The mix is always falling apart. Even when you feel like you're ahead... you can't just chill, you gotta keep moving.
I should said teleportation, but I'm really interested in flying. I'mma say teleportation instead. But then it just ruins the joy of flying.
I think making this project, I haven't shied away from the expectations. I really try to use it as fuel because people have a positive association of what I do and what I make and they expect something that's good. So, okay, how do you convert that into, I don't know, just a better moment, a better song, a better album, a better presentation?
The most frustrating thing about the process of doing this is there's been a bunch of times where I just feel like I really fucked up, like I've fucked it up. Like it's irreversible, it already happened, there's nothing you can do about it and you don't know if moving on even makes it better."
You gonna be here, you gotta keep it moving. You gotta move on, you gotta try. It's like momentum. Momentum helps with that.
"There's no fantasy on this record. It's all for better or worse, autobiographical, my experience. It's made me who I am today. In doing so, you come out with this thing where yeah, you do feel like you've defeated something.
I think I appreciate other people's ideas more than ever now."