When it comes to buzz names in the electronica sphere, Odesza is often one of the first that comes to mind. The Seattle duo, formed by Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills in their senior year at Western Washington University, have enjoyed one of the warmest welcomes in recent electronic memory, quickly scoring rave reviews for their debut album Summer’s Gone while courting a vastly loyal fanbase that has continued to grow exponentially. The release of last year’s vocal-centric In Return, which featured crossover hit collaborations with Zyra and Shy Girls, garnered radio support and millions of downloads.
It’s easy to hear why their tracks have struck a chord. Forgoing the cheap tunes of many of their contemporaries, Odesza’s intoxicating mix of lush, ambient sonics with bouncy synths and a driving rhythm makes for something that is familiar in its tools but refreshing in execution; summery indie tracks for the EDM kids with as much in common with Animal Collective and Washed Out as Flume.
Odesza has a long summer of festivals coming up, including high-billed sets at Bonnaroo, Firefly, Governors Ball and Lollapalooza, so we took the chance to catch up when we could. We chatted with Odesza’s Clayton Mills ahead of the duo’s sold out gig with Little Dragon at House of Blues tomorrow night about collaboration, influences and putting together a live set.
ALLSTON PUDDING: Both of you had your own solo projects [Clayton in Beaches Beaches and Harrison in Catacombkid]. What has made this a successful collaboration?
CLAYTON KNIGHT: That’s a good question. When we first started sitting together and writing music, it started with a similar appreciation of music we were listening to. We’re both big fans of a lot of weird stuff, or eclectic types of music that’s pretty unusual where we’re from. That was a good start. Then the workflow—we get on the same level. It’s easy for us to figure out when something needs to be added, changed or shifted. There’s never a problem with balance; we’re on the same page most of the time.
AP: How would you describe your approach in the studio to writing a track?
CK: Each track will differ of course, but usually one of us will have a very simple idea, like some piano chords or a melody that they’ve been writing. Once we have something like that we sit down and figure out potential. We sit the the same room and break out all our gear, then go back and forth adding layers—a drum, some more chords, maybe a synthline and then go back and sort through the material to write it out in a structure.
AP: In Return was the first time you guys worked extensively with outside vocalists. You and Harrison obviously have a pretty connected creative process, what was it like bringing other voices into the writing?
CK: It was definitely a challenge. It was something new for us. We worked with a lot of different vocalists on a lot of different tracks, and not all of them worked out in the end. We tried to give them a lot of room to say what they were thinking and push their ideas. There was a back and forth process until we got something that we were both pretty happy with.
AP: Beyond the vocalists, there’s a noticeably different sound to In Return than Summer’s Gone, and also the EP. Have there been any influences to that change, or has it just been a natural progression as you and Harrison continued working together?
CK: A lot of what we’ve put out is influenced by what we’ve been listening to at the moment and what’s around us. When we were writing the newest release we went back to what we fell in love with early on. I’m a big fan of Four Tet and M83. Those influences and ambient music really affected the progress of the last album.
AP: What are you listening to right now?
CK: I just got out of my hip-hop phase! I was in a big hip-hop phase for a minute. From there I went to more of an ambient phase—darker ambient music, through, more cinematic stuff. We started writing a little bit, so we’ll see how this next project turns out! You’ll definitely hear some stuff that’s very hip-hoppy. We’re kind of all over the map.
AP: How do you and Harrison split duties onstage?
CK: It’s a lot of live triggering and a lot of live drumming. How we have it set up is that he has control over all the drums and bass and I have control over all the top-end. Basically, he can mess with the kick and snare and mix and match high hats, then I can play with synths on the top line and vocal chops. That gives us a lot of freedom to make some interesting, unique sounds.
AP: With the rise in popularity, have you given thought to expanding the show with more musicians?
CK: That’s what we’re working on right now. Today we’re finalizing the set that we know, then tomorrow we’re bringing in a horn section and hopefully some vocalists.
AP: Yourselves, Porter Robinson and now Madeon have released albums that veer considerably outside of traditional electronic territory but are attracting that level of fandom. You’re also playing live shows instead of DJ sets. Do you see more and more artists heading in a similar direction down the line?
CK: I think so! I think the DJ world and heavier, noise-oriented EDM will fade a little bit. Porter’s album is just really pretty music and has a lot of energy to it at the same time. I think both of those styles will become very prominent as we move forward. The market has become so saturated with bigroom EDM and it all just kind of sounds the same, so I think a lot of people are going to become frustrated with that and look for something else
AP: You’ve also recently launched a label, Foreign Family Collective. What inspired that?
CK: It’s been a passion project of ours for a long time. We’ve wanted to do something like that since we started hanging out, and it’s finally come to fruition! There’s so much music that we respect that we wanted to give an outlet to, and that was the idea behind the collective.
AP: Do you have any new releases in the cards?
CK: Yeah. We’re working on a lot of music but the live set is dominating a lot of our time. Once we get that tuned in we’ll be playing a lot of shows, but we’ll hopefully get more writing time over the summer. Next year we should be in full writing process and ready to put some stuff out.
Odezza hits the House of Blues tomorrow night, 6/03, co-headlining with Little Dragon. Tickets are sold out. If you’re lucky enough to be headed to Governors Ball this weekend, don’t miss the chance to catch them on Friday!