Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.
Interpretation
Frank Ocean emphasizes the importance of both sound and narrative in music, suggesting that music creation can be a complex process akin to mathematics.
In this quote, Frank Ocean describes his dual focus on the auditory aspects of music, the 'sonics', and its narrative, or 'story'. He reflects on how the creative process in music can sometimes resemble solving mathematical problems, where achieving a desired aesthetic or emotional impact requires precise, empirical approaches. This perspective highlights the intricate balance between art and science in artistic expression.
In practice
This quote could be used in a music class to inspire students about the balance between technical skill and artistic expression.
Whenever I think about movies, I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited - that has music and rhythm and time.
It's about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness - sonic goodies.
I think we all change each other's paths. I don't know which law idea that is in physics, but I don't think any of us can live without affecting one another.
Work hard in silence, let success be your noise.
We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor - got her master's with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.
The work is the work. The work is not me.
I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief.
Her other mother smiled brightly and the hair on her head drifted like plants under the sea.
When I read a story, I relive the moment from which it sprang. A scene burned itself into me, a building magnetized me, a mood orseason of Nature's penetrated me, history suddenly appeared to me in some tiny act, or a face had begun to haunt me before I glanced at it.
Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.
In the 'Nude Descending a Staircase,' I wanted to create a static image of movement: movement is an abstraction, a deduction articulated within the painting, without our knowing if a real person is or isn't descending an equally real staircase.
Having a soul, they say, is like taking sadness and turning it into something beautiful.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.