Blood Orange aka Devonte Hynes has been living in America for almost a decade.
The thing that ultimately keeps him here is New York.
OnNegro Swan,Hynes aims to expand the more vulnerable parts of himself.
Credit: Carl Timpone/BFA/REX/Shutterstock
It isnt a cheesy All You Need Is Love message, though.
She came over to my studio and just started talking and I started explaining songs to her.
I have this reference book that I keep of pictures and things that would go into the album.
I gave it to her and she started writing all sorts of things and I recorded the whole experience.
Hope is one of the strongest tracks off the album.
What stood out was Diddy conveying and professing his emotional vulnerability with regards to love.
Which sort of just reflects back to the Puff stuff.
He just did that, there was no like, cue to do it.
It was just an instrumental section with the piano.
I feel like that completely changed the direction of the song.
There are so many moments on this album in particular where that happened.
Steve Lacy is someone Im quite friendly with.
The only other exception with this record is Project Pat.
Ive gotten to know him off-the-grid.
And to a certain extent, the same with Steve.
It was sort of just like, Hey, see you around sometime!
because we had a lot of mutual friends.
Traffic sirens and general chatter are scattered throughout the record.
Around 60 percent of those are natural due to my old studio space in Midtown.
The rest are edited in for texture.
You posted on Instagram that many of your songs start out as piano pieces.
Its usually a mix of things.
Im always fiddling production-wise.
Usually, everything ends up finishing around the same time.
As in it wont relate to me.
I can always, from a physical standpoint, keep tweaking til I haveChinese Democracy.
Because, well, its not gonnachangeanything.
Maybe because I view it like that, I can get over it and let it go.
Were you hesitant about mixing it yourself?I pretty much knew what I wanted.
That was maybe the most fun part.
However, once I start getting into the mix and it becomes fun to just nerd out and study.
Im a hired hand to play an instrument.
Thats been really fun and I think Ill do more of it later this year.
Do you enjoy taking a step back vocally and acting as a backing musician or producer?
Or do you prefer working on something wholly your own?I would happily never sing again!
That would be easiest thing for me.
I sing as a way to get the point across.
If someone said they wanted to come in and sing, theyre more than welcome!
