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Alex G Talks About Working with Frank Ocean on 'Endless' and 'Blonde'

In a new interview, the 23-year-old artist reveals he also worked on "Self Control" and "White Ferrari".

The credits for Frank Ocean's Endless and Blonde albums are as surprising as they are, well, endless, featuring everyone from Jonny Greenwood to André 3000 to Beyoncé. One of the most surprising among a list of high-profile collaborators who worked on Endless though was 23-year-old Philadelphia artist Alex Giannascoli aka Alex G, whose ascent from "the internet's secret best songwriter" to "Frank Ocean collaborator" has been amazing to watch.

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Alex G played guitar on the tracks "Rushes," "Slide on Me," and "Wither" from Endless, but it wasn't thought that he worked on Blonde, and his name didn't appear on the list of credits from either Frank or ASCAP. However, in a video interview for Run For Cover's 'Small Talk' series Alex talks about his involvement on both albums as well as how he and Frank started working together.

Frank Ocean's manager emailed him while the band were on tour in the UK asking if he'd like to meet up before the London show, Alex explains. After recording abroad, he said he'd receive requests "every couple of months" to go to Los Angeles to do more work with Frank. "I don't know why that happened," he adds, "But that's how it happened." He also reveals that he contributed to Blonde's "White Ferrari" and "Self Control."

"For "Self Control," [Frank] wrote the chords and he was like, "Can you just play these in a different way?" He, like, wanted me to play them more…soulfully or something? I forget," he says, "But then I did that and I did, like, little riffs on top of it. And then there's an ending part that's not me in 'Self Control.' I just did the beginning chords. On 'White Ferrari' I do the guitar at the end."

"Frank was a really cool guy," he adds, "I didn't talk to him that much but he seemed like a really nice person."

Watch the full interview below and read our interview with Alex G here.

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