Frank Ocean promises Channel Orange vinyl release, discusses split from Def Jam in new interview

When Frank Ocean speaks, fans listen. Thankfully, that hasn’t been as rare an occurrence as it once was, as the enigmatic R&B artist has had plenty to say recently. A public Instagram and chats with GQ and Gayletter have provided previously unprecedented insight into the former Odd Future member’s mind. Now, he’s back answering even more questions, this time in an interview with fellow stars for Dazed.

Between answering questions about his favorite dinosaurs (“… Are dragons, like, mythical dinosaurs?”) and laughing off the idea of having a “biggest failure” (“My biggest what? Excuse me? Lol”), Frank actually dropped a few revelations. The most immediately interesting may have been his response to Nile Rodgers, who asked when the Channel Orange vinyl might arrive. “ASAP,” Ocean responded simply.

The 2012 record has never been pressed to wax in an official capacity. Ocean has a history of delayed vinyl releases (see: the Endless roll-out), but the promise that he’s even working on a Channel Orange LP is exciting.

(Read: A History of Artists Releasing Two Albums at Once)

Ocean gave perhaps his lengthiest answer in response to JPEGMAFIA’s question about his separation from Def Jam. “How did it feel fucking over a label like that?” JPEGMAFIA asked, referring to the label release of Endless and Blonde’s independent drop one day later. “Old white n*ggas do that to us all the time, but how did it feel giving them a taste of their own elixir? And what did you build in the video for Endless? Can I live in it?”

Ocean responded,

“Eyy, Peggy! You know, it’s funny talking about it these days because I couldn’t really tell anybody anything for a couple of years. Couldn’t tell anyone at the label, obviously. But I also couldn’t talk with anyone at Apple because the industry is too small and it would’ve gotten back to the label for sure. So I kept it to myself and a few in my circle. I carried my hard drives around with me when I travelled because I used to not store anything online. Those drives became a physical representation of the stakes. If the files had leaked, everything would have worked out very differently for me. When August came around and both projects were uploaded I felt the euphoria, yeah, but mostly I just needed to sleep. I probably slept something like 15 hours. To answer your second question, I built a 12-foot staircase with my fucking bare hands some days before! It’s in my storage, you want it??”

There are a lot more silly sidebars in the Q&A. Ocean told fashion designer Ava Nirui he loves sugary cereals, responded to John Waters that he wishes he’d written the theme to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and revealed to Arca that the difference between the Frank Ocean persona and his Christopher Breaux birth identity is a matter of waves (“Christopher is a triangle wave. Frank is a pulse wave. I’m a little synthesizer. Xo.”).

Read it all over at Dazed.

Frank Ocean promises Channel Orange vinyl release, discusses split from Def Jam in new interview
Ben Kaye