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.
What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values.
Often I listen to songs on repeat for days and days at a time. There's something hypnotic or meditative, and it mirrors the way that I am putting the sentence together, going back over the same phrases again and again.
Directing has completely changed the way I write and watch films.
Having books published is very destructive to writing. It is even worse than making love too much. Because when you make love too much at least you get a damned clarte that is like no other light. A very clear and hollow light.
It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.
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