ODESZA is looking to have a huge 2017 as the Seattle electronic duo announce a new album, A Moment Apart (due out Sept. 8 on Counter Records), along with an accompanying tour that begins in September. On top of that, ODESZA drop two new songs today: "Meridian" and "Corners of the Earth."
Complex spoke with Harrison Mills of ODESZA to get more intel on what fans can expect from their new album and tour. Read below for our conversation with Mills on A Moment Apart and check out ODESZA's upcoming tour dates.
The new album is coming nearly three years after In Return. What did you learn in that time span that you were able to incorporate into the new album?
When you’re touring with music that you made in a basement years ago, you really learn about your own sound. I think a big thing we wanted to do in approaching this album is how can we grow the sound? To still sound like us but still feel like we’re maturing. I think we were just kind of learning how to evolve. I think it helped that we were on the road for a lot of that, to hear a lot of different sounds from around the world.
Were there any artists or music that inspired along the way?
I feel like I always go back to a couple of groups that really inspire me. Air is one of the biggest for me; they’re a French duo. I think with this album we really tried to embrace the grandiose, epic, cinematic sound.
The live show is a very big part of your movement. What are you guys doing this time around to incorporate the new album into the live show?
We’re always trying to add different things. We’ve brought on a drum line, we have a guitarist, we have horns, all new production. It’s a lot grander and bigger, and we’re playing a lot more with sound design during our shows and trying to build these moments that break the tension and become nothingness to everything. I love catching people with little moments and teasing little parts of a song throughout, and then surprising people with it. We’ve always approached our live show as a whole other beast to the albums. They’re usually like 80 percent new versions of songs.
I think people wanna hear the song that they like too. You don’t want to change it to the point of it being, “Oh, this isn’t the same song anymore.” There’s definitely a delicate balance, but hopefully we’ve achieved it.
In Return was a moment where you guys expanded your sound by connecting with vocalists, and I feel like that paid off. For this new album, how did you choose the guests?
We thought it was really important to find people where our sounds complimented each other and not so much huge names that didn’t make sense for a collaboration. We’ve also felt like when you find who’s undiscovered too, they’re 10 times more passionate and are willing to try new things, and that’s something that’s really important to us.
We’ve always been huge fans of Leon Bridges, and we finally got to work with him. Regina Spektor, I’ve been listening to her since high school. We sent her this little demo and she was super excited about it, but she told us she didn’t want to send us her singing on it, we had to hear it live, which is crazy because that’s never happened to us before. So when she came and played in Seattle, she invited us to her hotel, we met her whole family; she had her kids and her husband. We sit down and she’s like, “OK, I’m going to sing it to you.” She played it off her phone and sang it to us live, and it was really an intense moment. She was like, “Do you have any changes?” I was like, don’t change a thing, that was beautiful. That was a pretty crazy unique thing to happen on this album, collaborating in that way, and trying to really just connect with the people more than just off an email.
Three years later, and In Return is still a top 10 album on the Electronics Albums chart, which I feel is one way to gauge its success and impact. How will you guys gauge the success of A Moment Apart?
To be honest with you, and this might sound like false modesty, but I really feel proud of it now. I feel like it was a success because we tried a lot of things, we got to work with great people, and I think the music expands our sound in a major way.
Of course I want people to like it, but I feel like if that’s how I gauge success I’d have a really tough time making music because I wouldn’t be thinking about what I like about it, I’d be thinking about what I hope other people like.
TOUR DATES
Fri, Jun 23 - Rothbury, MI - Electric Forest (Headlining)
Sun, Jun 25 - Heber City, UT - Bonanza Campout (Headlining)
Fri, Jul 14 - Louisville, KY - Forecastle Festival (Headlining)
Sat, Jul 15 - Birmingham, AL - Sloss Festival (Headlining)
Sat, Jul 22 - Centre Hall, PA - Karoondinha Festival (Headlining)
ODESZA 2017 A Moment Apart Tour
Sun, Sep 3 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot (Headlining)
Thu, Sep 14 - Auckland, NZ - Great Hall<~
Fri, Sep 15 - Melbourne, AU - Forum<~
Sat, Sep 16 - Sydney, AU - Enmore Theatre<~
Fri, Sep 29 - London, UK - O2 Forum Kentish Town>
Sat, Sep 30 - Paris, FR - Elysee Monmarte>
Tue, Oct 3 - Brussels, BE - AB Main Hall>
Thu, Oct 5 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso>
Sat, Oct 7 - Berlin, DE - Astra Kulturhaus>
Fri, Oct 20 - Los Angeles, CA - STAPLES Center*
Sat, Oct 21 - Sun, Oct 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Lost Lake Festival (Headlining)
Tue, Oct, 24 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl*+
Thu, Oct 26 - Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre*+
Fri, Nov 3 - Vancouver, BC - PNE Forum*^
Wed, Nov 8 - Minneapolis, MN - Myth*^
Fri, Nov 10 - Madison, WI - Alliant Energy Center*^
Sat, Nov 11 - Chicago, IL - UIC Pavilion*%
Tue, Nov 14 - Detroit, MI - Masonic Temple*%
Fri, Nov 17 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis*%
Tue, Nov 21 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory*%
Fri, Dec 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center*
*with SOFI TUKKER
>with Hayden James
>~with Running Touch
%with Louis Futon
+with Chet Porter
^with Kasbo
Tracklist
1. Intro
2. A Moment Apart
3. Higher Ground [ft. Naomi Wild]
4. Boy
5. Line of Sight [ft. WYNNE and Mansionair]
6. Late Night
7. Across the Room [ft. Leon Bridges]
8. Meridian
9. Everything at Your Feet [ft. The Chamanas]
10. Just a Memory [ft. Regina Spektor]
11. Divide [ft. Kelsey Bulkin]
12. Thin Floors and Tall Ceilings
13. La Ciudad
14. Falls [ft. Sasha Sloan]
15. Show Me
16. Corners of the Earth [ft. RY X]
