Interview: Odesza

interview by Sam Knight

I've been a fan of the Seattle based production duo Odesza ever since their released their mind-blowing EP Summers Gone and I am was very thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to Clay and Harrison about what's new with them, about the success of the EP, future plans and... well, find yourself! Enjoy!

Firstly, could you give a little background of yourselves and solo projects Beaches Beaches and Catacombkid for those who do not really know, and what brought you both together to create Odesza? Had you planned to work together for a while or was it pretty spontaneous? 

Clay: I have been playing various instruments since I was young. I played piano for many years and switched to guitar later on. I first got into production at the end of high school by just messing around with different recording software and have been addicted to electronic music ever since.

Harrison: Played around with the family keyboard when i was a kid but didn't really get into music until end of high school. Saw a beatmaker  using an MPC live, was really inspired so I  saved up and bought one my sophomore year of college. Got into hip hop production then slowly shifted into a bunch of different electronic stuff.

A mutual friend in college introduced us and we were into somewhat similar styles of music but both really enjoyed producing. The whole process was pretty impromptu and really had no planned origins.

Summer's Gone seemed to burst out of nowhere, were you surprised at the level of success it had in such a short space of time? What were your main influences and motivations for creating the EP? 

When we first talked about releasing music we thought we would maybe grab a little attention from some blogs but that’s mainly it. We did not expect the sort of response we got at all and were pleasantly surprised to have so many people enjoying our tracks. The influences from the album range from all over. When it came down to it we just put out music we both enjoyed.

SoundCloud seemed to be a pretty important platform for the success of the release, and you both seem pretty up to speed with social networking, what advice would you give to new artists hoping to use social networking to spread their music? 

The best advice we can give is make honest music and then show it to anyone who will listen.

Obviously don't go around spamming and annoying people on twitter with "YO CHECK THESE NXTLVL BEATZ" but find blogs who showcase similar artists and try and make a connection with them. Be polite and honest, I think people respond to that.

Right now is a great time to be a fan of experimental, electronic and techno music, who are you guys listening to at the moment? What was the last track played on your ipod?

We have phases and go in and out of all different styles from Motown to ambient to tribal… the list goes on. Currently we can’t stop listening to whatever Brainfeeder puts out. They just signed Lapalux and we've had most of his tracks on repeat.

I noticed you just finished your first tour, how was the reaction to Odesza live? Are there any plans in the near future to tour outside of the States?

From what we took away from doing only a few shows we would have to say pretty positive. The crowds were decent and no one booed us off stage so the first round of shows were a success in our book.

And I did notice on your Facebook page a small mention of another upcoming EP very soon, what can we expect from it & when could it be available for download?

We have a couple of tracks that we want to release but want to make sure we put something out we both really like and am excited to show people, so it’s a work in progress with no real set date.

 

Thanks a lot for your involvement with Stereofox! Is there any last thing you would like to say to followers of the site?

Thanks for taking the time to interview us, appreciate all the support you've shown!

Don't miss out on the latest of Odesza by stopping by their website, Facebook, Twitter or Soundcloud!

The amazing pictures used in the interview are made by Dan Solomon and Mery Beth Coghill.