Frank Ocean says his new material is inspired by different forms of "club" music

In a new interview with W Magazine, Frank Ocean has given a glimpse of what his next project might sound like.

When asked what he's "looking at and thinking about these days", Ocean replies, "I’ve been interested in club, and the many different iterations of nightlife for music and songs. And so the things I look at now have a lot to do with those scenes: Detroit, Chicago, techno, house, French electronic…"

Upon being pressed about any release dates for new projects, the Blonde artist says, "My answer to that is that I’m always working on music and other things. Right now I’m working on doing four underwater laps in the pool."

Ocean also provides a bit more insight to the themes that he's exploring on his new material, "I believed for a very long time that there was strength in vulnerability, and I really don’t believe that anymore. "Strength" and "vulnerability" sound opposite as words. And so to combine them sounds wise, but I don’t know if it is wise. It’s just this realization that hit me: "Oh, right, it’s a choice whether you will be truthful or a liar." If I start to tell a story and then I decide not to tell the story anymore, I can stop. It’s my story. The expectation for artists to be vulnerable and truthful is a lot, you know? - when it’s no longer a choice. Like, in order for me to satisfy expectations, there needs to be an outpouring of my heart or my experiences in a very truthful, vulnerable way. I’m more interested in lies than that. Like, give me a full motion-picture fantasy."

Speaking about how he avoids storing music online, Ocean adds, "I’m working with a string arranger right now in Rio, 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."

The artist also goes on to say that he's "toying with format", and reveals that he's looking to explore that more "because technology for a long time has dictated what the format is, and as punk as we want to be, we’re all kind of existing as recording artists inside of a technology, whether it’s the software we record and edit our music on, or whether it’s the medium that we press our music to distribute it."

He also shares some information about another upcoming project, "I’ll be shooting a photo series project that I’m doing in collaboration with another visual artist. I can’t say who it is yet, but he’s supertalented, and I’m playing a character in this sequence about a particular music industry practice that’s been going on for a long time. It’s a narrative in photos, and I want the edit to be really tight. But I think it’ll be cool. I’m excited about it."