“I don’t think it’s going to be problem,” says Cuchna, unfazed. In past seasons, which have focused on records by Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, Cuchna has had a fairly large trove of interviews with the artists themselves to draw upon, but Ocean has barely spoken to the press in the past six years – meaning that for Blonde at least there’s little of the artist’s own interpretation of his work avaliable.
“It has all these overtones of what it means to be born into wealth,” he says.Ĭuchna says he’s “obviously” doing two episodes on the 10-minute Channel Orange track Pyramids because it’s “a song that tells is essentially the history of the black woman – from royalty in Egypt to the present day – dealing with issues in America”.Ĭole Cuchna: ‘It’s me proving that these are seminal works.’ Photograph: Spotify
He’s excited about the episode on Super Rich Kids, about a character that starts his days on the roof and by the end of the songs falls to his death. He says that some of the episodes will focus more on production while others will go line-by-line, exploring the narratives and themes emerging in the lyrics. “This approach is the only way you’re going to get to something worthwhile, it’s just a record you have to spend a lot of time with.” “It’s hard to write about, it’s so nuanced and complex,” Cuchna says. Speaking on the phone from his home where he is still writing and recording episodes for the series, Cuchna says only by going into that level of depth can you begin to unpick a record so rich in detail.
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Cuchna isn’t sure exactly how much Ocean based analysis he’ll end up producing, but believes it’ll be around 10 hours, a similar length to the Beatles’ landmark documentary series Anthology. On top of that, Cuchna is releasing bonus episodes with songs and interviews that don’t otherwise fit into the schedule (the first of which, focusing on early mixtape tracks There Will Be Tears and Swim Good, has already been released) – and a separate hour-long documentary giving a more general overview of Ocean’s life and work. There will be an entire 11-episode season on Blonde preceded by a six-part miniseries on Channel Orange, Ocean’s debut.
The third season of Dissect is an extravaganza of Frank Ocean deep dives. Photograph: PRĬole Cuchna, the journalist and music obsessive who makes the podcast Dissect, has given Blonde a lot of his time.