Malay Shares A Few Tidbits About Frank Ocean’s New Album

The hunt for clues about Frank Ocean‘s long-awaited Channel Orange follow-up has been pretty fruitless, and to be honest it’s completely refreshing to not hear an onslaught of false alarms and misdirection and rumors about a highly touted album in the digital era. You can just sit back and not spend any mental energy building it up or speculating about its direction and just let it happen on the artist’s terms.

That being said, it is our civic pop duty to bring you any tidbits about Ocean’s sophomore album that do turn up. And this time there are a few in Pitchfork’s new interview with producer Malay, who worked with the singer on the vast majority of Channel Orange‘s tracks and most recently was an architect of Zayn Malik‘s solo debut Mind Of Mine.

“A lot of the stuff on this new album was done with a handheld mic sitting in the control room,” Malay told the site about Ocean’s project. “Frank’s exploring different vibes completely on this album. I wouldn’t say it’s vocally looser but just his mentality; it doesn’t seem as meticulous at certain times.”

As for a timeframe? There’s still only one person who can shed light on that, but Malay shared his outlook on the topic: “I always tell people: When he’s ready, the world is gonna get it. It could be tomorrow… well not tomorrow but maybe a month [laughs]. We’ve all been working hard. He’s been working super hard. I feel like he’s working harder than he’s ever worked in his life. I’m excited for everyone to hear it. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, for sure.”

(That “working hard” thing is especially salient when you consider earlier in the interview, Malay recalls Ocean “logging 30 consecutive days of in-studio vocal takes” for standout “Pyramids.”)

Malay also offers up plenty of inside info on the making of Mind Of Mine, so read the full interview right here.