Frank Ocean: Creative Advice, Protecting Your Energy, and How to Finish Projects

what can we expect next from Frank Ocean uh uh wait and see we'll see how it how it um trickles into the music and the final product I can't say much other than that album of the year that's fantastic yeah I'm I I'm I'm just glad people you know people received it you know because I absolutely did I want to show you a tweet from Kimbra it says with the current state of social media and possibilities for instant communication there's a real pressure for us to share their ideas as quickly as they come into our heads but despite the many opportunities that this kind of behavior can offer we will have to ask ourselves a question at some stage how is all this externalization affecting the creative work itself in this video I'm going to be looking at the model of Frank Ocean breaking down how his elusive attitude towards sharing informs his creative process investigating Concepts around self-ownership and artistic Independence and finding ways that we ourselves might manage our ideas and projects more successfully this following discussion looks at issues all artists have to position themselves against in some form so if anything comes up for you be sure to let us know in the comments below this is creating minds and thanks for watching [Music] [Music] I'm not gonna give any hits uh no no I'm not that nope I'm not doing that I I'm just if it goes well I'll call you and be like yeah it went well and then I might tell you now in a moment I want to jump into a magazine interview with Frank looking at his direct experiences around the sharing of ideas but first I think it's important to establish this artist foundation and Independence and the inherent link he places between complete self-ownership and doing his best work I don't know if it's about me but I think just creativity in general um just doing what you want is so important you know doing what you feel is is right and what connects with you is important and I know that might be you know cliche try corny sappy whatever you want to say but you know um one of the coolest things about what I'm experiencing right now as far as people responding though the songs I wrote and what I what I decided to do is that it really is me you know it's so when people say they put it it's like on me and that feels cool Frank obviously values that relationship between his identity and his work very closely and he exercises and protects that relationship by maintaining a tight creative control over every aspect of his projects [Music] as always in 2023 we're empowered by technology to choreograph all aspects of our output this ability to construct image can be a double-edged sword for some but looking back we can very much Place Frank in a generation of young artists who found their independence and creative control through the new tools of production and distribution I think we all change each other's paths you know they've um liberated my thinking in in some ways creative creatively and and a sense of knowing that you can do a lot of it by yourself you know um not just the songs but just taking control of your whole movement I was 15 when I first used that donut five years later for our label yet we own it I started as always it's interesting to look at examples of success and to try and build our own mini Empires based on online presence and distribution but for many this constant need to create both the main artistic output and a range of content to support it can lead to a problematic relationship between externalization and doing our best creative work here we see Frank as someone who protects their creative process as well as anyone out there when I worked on my first project Nostalgia Ultra Frank says I hardly told anyone even people I was working with at the time didn't know about it there's something that happens when you say what you're doing before it's done and most of it is not positive you're accountable for that version that you talk about when it very well may undergo change it's usually better for me to make what I make put it out or don't and then talk about it freely now this sentiment that Frank is expressing is definitely something I've felt in my own work but what exactly are we losing when we share our ideas with others in person or online to jump into this idea further I want to pull up an interview of UK rapper an all-around prolific artistic Force little Sims and I want to work on new music and I want to just knock myself away and just create it's cool to start projects knowing that you're you're going in to start a project but also not put in too much stress on it like just go and get out whatever you want to say don't focus on necessarily what you want the album to be or how many songs or the name of it or just say what you want to say you know what I'm saying it's the fun part where you just go and have fun and you just bang on the drums or I just grab a mic and just freestyle and you know what I'm saying [Music] [Music] [Music] Sims the beauty of starting a new project is the freedom and openness of that creative space and when we tell people what we're doing before we've done it we are limiting the space for our art to be discovered and transformed throughout the process of creation Now looking back to Frank we can see how his elusive approach allows him to protect that space for his art and himself shirking expectations around exactly who he is and what he's doing most people have a hard time predicting where I might be or what I might be doing if I'm not in the studio like I could be doing you know uh monkey form by the beach I could be doing indoor rock climbing I could be reading so we've seen how Frank manages his creative Space by staying off the map of online media but with the extent of secrecy he holds over his process I feel like there's something else going on here too I'm working with the string arranger right now and Rio Frank says and every time we go back and forth because I don't put things on the internet I have to send a drive with someone to Rio or I have to go myself now when you're Frank Ocean obviously there are practical concerns around leaks when sharing your work but reading this I wonder if we're witnessing something Beyond rational protection and moving towards the fetishization of his creative process now don't get me wrong I don't necessarily see this as a negative thing artistic ideas have to exist in some special realm and perhaps a lesson we can all take away here for our own practice is that The Closer you protect them the more forceful and motivating they can become providing us with that energy we need to push her a project Nostalgia Ultra making that was was a labor of love it was like difficult you know to make not like writing the songs or arranging the songs I mean that had a level of difficulty too but just piecing together all the resources to do it you know at the level that I wanted to like the quality of record I wanted to make and not you know not really know how to make beats and not really know how to engineer like that and um really only being a singer songwriter at the end of the day you know it was it was difficult I had a level of difficulty here we recognize again the Deep level of creative control Frank holds over his projects and in this final section I want to take a step back and look at the necessary confidence that sits behind that and how we can all develop more trust in our creative talent and Instinct I guess that project really as I'm making this new record it's like the I don't know like reminder that you can do it you can like you can do a body of work and you can you can complete an idea and finish because a lot of people can't finish a lot of people suck at finishing Frank's Journey with Nostalgia Ultra demonstrates how we grow our own positive relationships with self-drive and creative confidence Frank builds stories of success behind him and uses those to gather momentum and self-belief here we see him doing it with an album but before that we can imagine this process occurred many times over finishing a verse became finishing a chorus the chorus became a song demo and so on and so forth as artists and people it's easy for us to focus on the negative things around our work and our creative shortcomings but here we learn the power of remembering and collecting the small winds knowing that our larger future goals are only many of those same actions linked together my demons were about finishing right Stephen pressfield a novelist who discusses a creative practice until then I got into the 99-yard line on every project and compulsively blown them all up I couldn't get to the end but the good news is once you finish even one time you'll never have trouble finishing again come into a close now I want to take a look at one final tool that we can all look to to build more confidence and internal momentum for our work but just before we get into that a quick note to say that if you're getting value from these videos make sure you subscribe to the channel and consider dropping a like down below okay enough meanderings and to introduce this final concept we're going to jump into some words now from Steve Lacy an artist I'm looking to feature further on the channel I found like a new confidence in music um that without ego though this confidence of my love for something I was like I could be confident because I'm someone who loves music I'm a person that will be doing this regardless of the number one regardless of the Grammy nominations like I will still be in the studio making music because that's just what I do here we see a foundational piece to Artistic confidence that's available to all of us Lacey finds this for a commitment to the art itself as opposed to the approval structures that might or might not come from the output of his work as always living inside a market-driven society these foundational commitments can offer us the freedom to move in directions that might feel true to us but not look to represent huge financial value or approval at the end of it all when it comes to building projects the final word always has to come with us and it's us who remain responsible for maintaining standards and deciding what defines success from our creative output if I could do anything you know from from today not even looking at it in years but today on it's just really about trying to do whatever it is I do at a level of excellence and that's that's really all I'm trying to do while I'm here so that's it from me for part one of this series but as I've said before I really want these videos to be more discussion starters and personal essays so if you have any thoughts on the content that's being looked at here I invite you to share your stories or responses in the comments below as we play out we're going to listen to some music that's been supplied by artists from this community and you'll find links in the description to their work along with information of how to send over your own music if you'd like the opportunity to get involved now with that said thanks so much for watching make sure you're subscribed if you like to see part two and peace in whatever you're working on this week

Channel: Creative Minds

Views: 155,878

Keywords: Frank Ocean, Franc ocean, Channel Orange, Frank Music, Frank Ocean Album, Nostalgia Ultra, What artists can lear, art tips, music advice, production advice, writing advice, creative minds, How to write, How to make music

Id: xrILfpFN2P8

Length: 11min 55sec (715 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 05 2023