Electro Duo Odesza On That Time A Fan’s Smang Almost Derailed Their Show

Ever wondered how creative, over-achiever peeps landed their dream job? Cue Pez Profile – our content series which sees us chatting to legends killin’ it in their industries. This week we got talking to Harrison Mills & Clayton Knight A.K.A. Odesza, the Seattle electronic duo making ears melt with their atmospheric choons and Aussie remixes with Hayden James and RÜFÜS. The boys command stages all over the globe: they just played everyone’s fave regional fezzy, Groovin The Moo, and they’re currently wrapping up an ultra-successful tour of our fair country (you can still get tix to some sideshows!).

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn a caj music side-project into a globe-trotting, money-making, hit-churning business, look to Seattle electro duo Odesza for ya inspiration. Mates Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight started making sweet toones in their last year at uni, before uploading their tracks to Soundcloud and Hype Machine with zero clue if they’d actually cop a listen.
But their stuff did – big time – after frothers everywhere got hung up on chill anthem Summers Gone in 2012. Now Odesza tours almost every city the world over, dominating the bill of fezzies from Holy Ship to Coachella. The boys love them a bit of the Aussie music scene, too; as well as h/ting homegrown talent like Hayden James and RÜFÜS with sick remixes, they’re currently gracing our shores for the last of their sideshows off the back of Groovin The Moo (with Perth still to come).
We stole some time to find out how two humble dudes go from being your reg ol’ uni students to producers conquering the electro ~scene~ on an international scale. Over to you, bois.

HOW WAS ODESZA CREATED?



Harrison:
We met at Western Washington University in Bellingham. I was studying design and new media and Clay was studying physics. We met through a mutual friend and started making music together right after that. We each had our solo projects throughout college, but didn’t meet until our senior year.

That spring and summer we made Summers Gone and put it up on SoundCloud, figuring that we’d have to get real jobs soon. The album started to get picked up by some music sites, then we played our first few shows and it just kind of grew from there.

Where it all started: Western Washington University. ??: @bermanphotos

A photo posted by ODESZA (@odesza) on


TELL US ABOUT THE WORKING DYNAMIC BETWEEN YOU GUYS? 
   

Clay: I tend to enjoy more of the technical side of things, possibly from studying science. Harrison tends to be more on the artistic side because of his art background, but we each contribute equally to the music, and it’s not as formulaic as it might sound.

A lot of the initial ideas are made when we’re working individually, then we’ll send ideas back and forth. Some songs come together in hours, some take weeks. Harrison does all the design work for album covers, and then we all work with our visuals designer and lighting director on the live show.



Credit: 


WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF A LIVE SET THAT YOU MAY NOT NECESSARILY EXPERIENCE IN A STUDIO?


Harrison:
The crowd reaction is really gratifying – seeing these songs you created in your basement having an impact on people. The live show is also a lot different from our studio albums. A lot of what we are playing live are remixed versions of our own songs. We like to make cohesive headphone albums, and we learned early on that doesn’t always translate well to a live show. It’s a different world so we treat is as such.


HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO COLLABORATE WITH OTHER ARTISTS?

Clay: It can be helpful for songwriting. Sometimes we’ll send out a track for an artist to record vocals, and we’ll take their vocal track, throw out the original demo we sent, and build an entire new song around the vocals. That’s happened a few times. When we collaborate with an artist, it’s almost always with us working separately. It’s a lot easier to work that way, plus everyone gets to work in the space where they’re most comfortable.


HOW DO YOU GUYS RATE THE AUSSIE MUSIC SCENE?

H: We love the Australian music scene, there are a lot of amazing artists here that are also great people. It’s always a highlight of our year to come down over and see all our friends. Golden Features and Hayden James were two of the first people we met in Australia, and our first show was opening for RÜFÜS. All of those guys are now close friends of ours. 

WHICH AUSSIE ACTS ARE YOU VIBING ON THE MOST AT THE MOMENT?

C: Currents is an instant classic, Kevin Parker is definitely an inspiration. We put the new RÜFÜS album Bloom out in North America on our label Foreign Family Collective, that was a huge highlight for us. And of course Hayden James is an amazing musician, and a very humble and kind human. 


WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST EMBARRASSING LIVE-SHOW SITCH YOU’VE EXPERIENCED?
 

C: That’s got to be the sex-on-the-speaker story, from one of our first tours in Montana. It’s well documented*. 

*Which saw the guys have some serious sound issues during a gig in Montana. Mid-set, they noticed one of the speakers didn’t seem to be working quite as well as the others… It took them a while to realise that some ‘fans’ were taking part in a bump n grind over the monitor. Despite being sprung, one half of the couple creepily stared/watched Harrison for the remainder of the show. That’s some love-making music for ya. 

CAREER HIGHLIGHT? 

C: There are a lot of highlights, but playing Sasquatch Festival (in our home state) for the first time was a big deal for us. I remember thinking that if Odesza ended tomorrow, I’d be ok with that because we got to play Sasquatch


Sasquatch Fezzy, held at the bloody beautiful Gorge Amphitheatre ^^^

CAREER LOWLIGHT? 

C: No real specific lowlights, but we’re away from home a lot which can be tough. Family is really important for us, so we try to make time for family and friends when we’re home. 

YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY KILLING IT IN YOUR INDUSTRY, BUT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE KILLING IT? 

H: We have a good group of friends around us on tour, so even though the venues have gotten bigger, it still kind of feels like we’re the same band from 2012.

 


CURRENT INSPO? 

H: New Moderat album. 

CURRENT STATE OF MIND? 

C: Excited – for a couple days off of exploring [Australia].

LASTLY, CAN YOU TRY USE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING AUSSIE SLANG WORDS IN A SENTENCE? GOON SACK/FROTH/BUDGIE SMUGGLER  
 
Froth: Ah the suns out, I’m frothing. I’m going for a swim. 

While Odesza sold out a shit load of shows around the country, there are still a coupla chances to get your groove on at what is an absolute phenom live show. Grab your tickets below!

Fri May 6 @ Metro City, Northbridge, WA | Buy tix HERE
Sat May 7 @ Groovin The Moo, Bunbury  | Buy tix HERE

Lead image: Jordan Munns.
Photo: Bronson Snelling.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV