QUESTION 1: It has been five years since you released your last ODESZA album. Could you talk a little bit about the timeline and the process of making the album from conception to realisation?
Harrison:
Yeah, so we used some things that we’ve kind of had been working on throughout tour of the last tour we were on. So some stuffs kind of old. I feel like probably within the last two years is really where a lot of it came together. And a lot of new things were made for the record. But yeah, I think you know, COVID, like for everyone was kind of a weird time, especially to make stuff so it took a while to kind of get into a place where we were kind of getting into a groove and kind of finding a new way of working. And I think we’ve kind of slowly found that out. You kind of when you don’t make music for a while and then you try to re approach something. Not only is it a bit daunting, but we were also just out of practice, and just learning how to make music again.
QUESTION 2: How does it feel when you have actually finished it?
Clayton:
Yeah. I mean, it feels good. It feels like it’s never really done, though, you know, it’s like, you could always keep tweaking it. But I think where it’s at now we’re really happy with it. It’s definitely trying to use some new techniques and new sounds for us. You know, it’s a little bit of a different step than ‘A Moment Apart’. But I think, you know, it’s, it’s something we really enjoyed making. And I think I hope people kind of get the direction we’re going for, and, you know, it’s all singles right now. So it’s like, it’s tough to tell people, Hey, this is the new direction and just give them little tidbits. That’s why we’re so excited for everyone to hear the whole thing. And I think it will make a lot more sense and give context and you know, it’s something we’re just really proud of, and really, and really excited to go do shows too, because it’s definitely a bit of a more of a higher energy album, you know, a little more dance oriented. So I think it’s gonna be really fun to play some of these tunes in a live setting.
QUESTION 3: In 2020 you released an album as BRONSON with Golden Features from Australia. How do you think that project has affected your new album?
Harrison:
I think Bronson kind of was born out of just us being really good friends with Tom (Golden Features) but also wanting to just try something really different. We had been touring for so long on that album, we had kind of heard our own music a lot. And we were just ready to kind of get out of our comfort zones and do something new. And so that was just really exciting to just try a lot of different stuff. And because of that, I think when we got to approach the new ODESZA record, we had a lot a lot more skills from just trying and experimenting with new different kinds of ways of making music and trying different pieces of technology, different synths, different guitar pedals, all sorts of stuff that we had never really played with and just kind of like a fun way to experiment for a while and not feel like it has to sound any which way. And it just made us I think better producers. So when we were approached this new record, we had a lot more tools.
QUESTION 4: You already mentioned the affect COVID and the lock-downs had on the writing process. How did it overshadow your new album?
Clayton:
We got done with ‘A Moment Apart’ the finale show, like three years ago now. And then, you know, we’re planning on taking a break anyways, and then, you know, we didn’t realize how long that break would be because COVID kind of hit, things just kind of stopped. But I think, you know, it was throughout the time, I think a lot of people got the ability to step back. So it was the first time for us that we were actually able to be off the road for a sustained amount of time. You know, three years not touring was unthinkable for us prior because that’s just kind of the way we were doing it and kind of momentum. So we’re on the road almost like six years straight. So it gives a lot of time to kind of like self reflect, unpack, you know, take a good perspective of ourselves and kind of like, take a fresh look at things and also try and write. And I think a lot of people have the same experience, you know, it’s just the ability to just kind of Whoa, zoom out. So and also getting off the road, you know, you get a little chance to kind of reconnect with family was a big one because we hadn’t seen them and so long, reconnect with friends that we had been away with, and kind of just building like, what would you know, kind of felt like a normal routine for the first time, which was so you know, kind of out of the realm for us because we had been in a new city and a new place almost every day, every weekend. There’s something going on. So to just almost stop completely was quite a new experience, but one that was I think, really healthy for us, and allowed us to like yeah, really kind of work on the music and ourselves in a good way.
QUESTION 5: Did you already have a concept for the album in mind before actually working on it?
Harrison:
You know, usually what happens is you have a lot of concepts, you’re thinking of a lot of different things, what is this album about? How am I feeling you kind of trying to understand what you’re making, which is kind of an interesting thing.
But as you start to complete more songs, and talk through ideas, I think it starts to kind of form itself. And you can’t really stand in the way, you know, if you’re feeling a certain way, or the songs are starting to go a certain direction. If you try to fight it, I think it doesn’t become. it, it’s hard to put out a record you’re not proud of, and I think you’re proud of the thing that’s natural to what you want it to make. So we just kind of slowly chiseled away at these different ideas until they kind of became fully formed. ‘The Last Goodbye’, it’s, it’s more of the idea. Talking about if there is one, if, you know, there’s some serious like, symbolic ways you could go with this. But also, I think, for us, because we had stopped for the first time after touring, and we had taken this long pause to kind of look inward, we found that the people around us and the people that have helped shape who we are, are so much a part of us. And whether you even know it or not, it might be subconscious, I think these people become a part of you. And we thought there’s kind of this nice thought about humanity that, the people you love around you do become a part of you. And in a way, they become a part of everyone else, you know, because you spread that same energy throughout life, or this influence and impact that they’ve had on you. So it became just kind of a guiding light to these songs that we were trying to think of how the songs kind of tell a story. And a lot of ways it felt like almost a lifecycle. And we’re thinking about that in a lot of ways. And so hopefully, that kind of comes across. And I mean, we don’t want to over explain, we’d like when people kind of take away what they want from it.
QUESTION 6: What’s the most challenging part for you in the writing/prodcution process?
Clayton:
There’s a bunch of hard stages, I think one of the harder ones is though, you’re near, you know, you have, let’s say, we had probably like 20 tracks together, that we really liked, obviously, we’re proud of, but you know, some of them, you got to kind of cut and that that can be a tough period of time, because you get this emotional connection to these things, and you’ve put so much effort into it. So it can be like, you know, putting stuff down or cutting stuff out is can be really hard. And even with, you know, some of the songs, they all have so many pieces at times, like a big process for us is going back and removing stuff that’s kind of extra and cleaning stuff up and, and really letting the elements that should shine shine by removing others. And that can be a tough thing. Because it’s you again, you’re pretty attached to these pieces that you’ve been working on for three years, basically. So it’s, it can be a tough one to go but the product and like at the end of the day, the album’s way better for it because you’re making room and creating space for stuff to live and breathe a little bit better, instead of you know, cluttering it up with stuff that necessarily doesn’t need to be there or doesn’t make perfect sense to be in there. And, you know, some things I forgot to saying is but like, you know, the album’s not done, or the songs aren’t really done until you find out there’s nothing to take away not to add. That’s kind of the approach we’re taking with it. So that that can be a tough phase. And there’s other ones but that was definitely you know, can take some time really.
Harrison:
And I think that that’s such a nice part about being in a duo is that we’re able to talk through things and, and defend things to each other on why we think certain things work. And I think, honestly, compromise sounds like a dirty word, but I really don’t think it is it’s kind of like coming to a solution almost.
QUESTION 7: Your work always seems very visual. Do you have images and sceneries in your mind while writing a song? Do you sometimes share a common visual image and talk about it before or while writing a song? How does it work for you?
ODESZA:
Harrison:
I think we’re just like, really big fans of film scores. And so we definitely, probably both have, we’d never like talk about what the imagery is. But I do think we both kind of I don’t know if you feel the same way Clay . But I feel like I feel like I’m always thinking I’m just kind of like, a mood, a tone of a place we’re at. I think, you know, it’s like a story. There’s always something kind of like a little movie playing in my head when I’m thinking about music. But I don’t know, we know, we don’t really talk about that. I think that’s kind of the nice thing is we’re kind of talking without using words, you know, a lot of time, right? making music together.
Clayton:
Yeah, I always see it. You know, each track has like this kind of color around it, in my mind, a little bit of like an aura to it. And then Luke, you know, our visual artists that does a lot of our live stuff, Luke Tanaka, he is actually incredible at taking the music and putting what he’s seeing to it. Like, I don’t know how he does it exactly. But it really does, they connect so well and seamlessly. It’s just yeah, that’s why I mean, if you ever get a chance to check out the show, his stuff will be forefront center. I think, you know, a lot of the success of our show is due to his visual effort. Because it’s, you know, he’s got this ability to kind of hear stuff and connect stuff in a way that I think we don’t because we’re just musicians, and he’s a visual artist. But yeah, I think there’s definitely something I don’t know if it’s subconscious for us, because we’ve never really, you know, intentionally gone out and make music with that stuff in mind. But it is something that I think lives in the back of our minds. Most of the time. It’s like, be it like set up a little narrative or even just a mood or just a feeling in general. You know, that’s always something that is a really good starting point for inspiration.
QUESTION 8: This album also features some great singers. Do you think about what kind of vocal you need or even a particular singer when you start writing a song? Or how does that work for you?
Clayton:
You know, that’s always tough. So it’s usually we’ll have a demo or a beat kind of put together. And it’s usually do we hear a male or a female vocalist, and kind of start there, obviously, you know, the tone of the demo, can decide whether we go with someone that maybe lives in a little bit of the indie world, or the pop world, or more than more electronic. But honestly, we like to kind of take artists that maybe live in one world and kind of push them into a new one. So someone that’s you know, makes more indie bass music, you know, we’d love to try and take them out of that just to touch and add some more electronic elements. So it’s really about kind of working with the vocalist and their vocal take in, in a big way. Because what we do is most of the time is we’ll send out a demo, it’ll be really rough, maybe just some chords. And, you know, the vocalist will hear it and be like, Okay, I can jam on it. And they’ll send us back some vocal ideas. And then once we’ve kind of refined what the vocal is, we basically start over with the tune. So we strip the instrumental down and rebuild everything kind of from the ground up around their vocal tone and delivery. And that’s yeah, it’s kind of a fun project to almost remix around the vocal, but it really just customizes and you tailor you know, the instrumentation around everything they’re dealing with, you know, and some of the points is really important to highlight, you know, especially with the lead vocal.
QUESTION 9: The beautiful album title track ‘The Last Goodbye’ is based on Bettye LaVette’s 1965 song ‘Let Me Down Easy’. What was your first encounter with the artist & song? And how did the collaboration come along?
Harrison:
We were working on that track for a really long time. I think even since like 2018, or something. On tour, we were working with pieces of that song, but we hadn’t, there was no vocals on it. And we knew there were some really, really cool pieces of that track. But we couldn’t quite figure out why parts of it just felt like they didn’t really take you. There wasn’t anything guiding you throughout the song. So we were having a tough time trying to figure out how to make this feel like it had real flow, it felt like something would happen. And then you’d wait and then something else would happen. So once we found this, we were always looking for new music. So when we’re digging through old records and found the Bettye LaVette one, one, we were just fans, we just really liked the song, we didn’t hear it and go, this will go over our tracks or we’re making, we just thought it was incredibly powerful. I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of her. And I just was listening to her music more and more. And then we realized they were in the same key. And we started toying with putting it on top of each other. And as that started to form these down sections of the song, we realized how much power they gave the track. And then we really started pushing kind of the ride the whole track takes, and so at least for me, I don’t know how clay feels. But that’s one track where I feel like I’m extremely proud of because it’s always changing. There’s always something new happening. It never stops, it’s six minutes. And all of that seems to work and it takes a lot of hard right or left turns whatever you want to call it. It takes a lot of turns and to make that feel cohesive and not feel like it takes you out of the song was really difficult and it took a lot of versions to get there. But yeah, that song to me at least I’m extremely proud of that one. I love that track.
QUESTION 10: The album seems like the sequencing of the songs must have been very thought out and it has a narrative feel to it. Is that what you intended when choosing the tracklist?
Clayton:
Yeah, I mean, the tracklisting is also because like, what’s your paring down? You know, the tracks that are going to make it the tracklisting kind of comes next. And that is, you know, you go, we went through man must have been like 30 or 40 different versions of how to play this thing. And there’s no wrong answer, right, they can all kind of work and you kind of build, once you hear it one way you kind of build a narrative around that. And each one kind of has a unique story. But yeah, this one took a while. And I think it really was based on kind of like energy level. You don’t want to start too high. You know, if you just jump in with like, ‘Behind The Sun’, that may be too abrupt. You want to ease into the energy and then maybe take it down and you want to kind of go with this ebb and flow. That’s really important. And I think, you know, that’s something we’d pay attention to a lot and it’s not just the album but the live shows, and we are really conscious of that. And that’s, you know, I’m glad again, you guys got into it, because it’s it’s definitely something we care a lot about.
QUESTION 11: What do you hope this album will be to those who listen to it?
Harrison:
You know, with anything I think, hopefully people feel a kinship find some release or relief within it. I feel like I fell in love with music because I felt a part of something while feeling very alone. And so I hope that people can find something in this to whatever it may be, you know, whether it’s hope, or even just feeling sad together, whatever it is, but you know, if it makes anyone feel better, that’s that’s a win for me.
Clayton:
I think it is kind of like a record, I think about coming back to life for you coming out of COVID. You know, we were so separated. This has such a communal kind of feel to it. You know, there’s, there’s the dance energy, I think, just subconsciously brings people together like something you want to play out with your friends. And again, it’s something we can’t wait to play in a live setting, because I think that will really lock in how this next phase goes. Because it’s been so long, you know, we’re all in a tough a tough spot with the COVID stuff. And I think hopefully, it can be the beginning of the next chapter where we can kind of move out of this and be a we can be a part of that.
QUESTION 12: The Album will be released on four different formats. Do you have any thoughts of which format would be most appropriate for listening to it?
Harrison:
You know, I think there’s certain formats that probably have the best quality. Like as far as the sound goes, but to me this album is meant to be heard in full, and I think stopping it to change a record or flip the cassette isn’t necessarily what I would prefer. But to me, it’s almost like this record, ideally, in my mind, is you start listening to it towards the end of a night by yourself. And then you end up with a group of friends having the best night of your life. And then it ends with you coming back home safe and sound.
Clayton:
Yeah, I would agree with that. I love the vinyl. And it sounds great coming off the needle. But yeah, there’s something about those micro pauses in between, I think can kind of disrupt the flow, we spent so much time trying to get those transitions, right. It’d be like a bit of a waste. And then yeah, I mean, if you could set it up, so it’s like, I guess in some sort of playlists that loops are my I guess you could do on Spotify. But yeah, where you can kind of repeat it. It’s meant to be played back to back you know, so I think that’s really important. Important setup. And it should feel like it keeps going, just keep repeat.