BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition October 2017

ODESZA
CASCADIAN EDM DUO GIVES THEMSELVES SPACE TO EXPLORE
CLUBLAND
YOUR MONTH MEASURED IN BPMS
ALAN RANTA
BPM
Fall is in full swing, but there is still plenty of stuff coming to Vancouver that is sure to pick
you up. The season of soft hoodies, long pants, and comfort food; there’s no better time of
year to enjoy some inside entertainment. Don’t forget to tip your servers and bartenders!
The Pharcyde
October 6 @ Fortune Sound Club
Okay, so it’s just Fatlip and Slimkid3 from the original crew. Spain-born producer J-Swift
seems to be laying a little lower these days, after being screwed over by U.S. Border officials
on his last visit to Vancouver, while Imani and Bootie Brown are apparently off doing a
Gallagher Too thing. That said, a little Fatlip goes a long way. He knows what’s up. Ask
him. He may fool you. Seriously, it’s the 25th anniversary of Bizarre Ride II, easily one of the
greatest hip-hop albums ever made, and the boys are gonna perform it start to finish. Time
to pass the pipe and pay your respects.
Cascadian EDM duo gives themselves space to explore.
VANESSA TAM
Seattle was and will always be the home to a
plethora of internationally recognized artists
across multiple genres, one of which being EDM
wunderkinds Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight of
Odesza.
“I was [actually] born in Wisconsin,” explains
Knight. “I moved out here when I was younger to [go
to] school at Western Washington University where
[I first met Harrison]. We’re basically full blown
Seattleites at this point; I have a place down here
[and] we live right next to each other. We [also] have
a studio here, so it’s home.”
“[While] L.A. is kind of the epicentre of the
electronic music scene, we have deep roots here,” he
adds. “You know we have family here and we love
writing up here. [It’s] a very unique vibe and setting
that I think we’ve both grown really fond of. And
for the writing process [of our new album] we did
pop down to L.A. quite a bit but we’d always come
back and be able to set up in our homes and kind of
lose ourselves in our own little world. I think that’s
a really important thing to have, that comfortable
headspace to write and be creative in.”
With new singles being dropped on Soundcloud
every day in a battle to be seen as the most relevant
person of the day, Mills and Knight continue to stay
true to themselves as by giving themselves the time
and space to create longer form albums at their own
pace.
“Albums have just kind of been [the] way that
we like to release music because it gives you a
chance to show people a little more range opposed
to just a couple singles here and there,” explains
Knight. “When we first start writing, we usually just
start with a bunch of ideas and during the writing
process, we created close to 50 different tracks. We
try to make as much as we possibly can and show as
much range and diversity as we can. But you gotta
take breaks and come back to it. Keeping up and
being relevant is important, but [this is] just how
we’ve learned to enjoy music. We love albums that
you can just put on and sit with for a while and you
know, kind of take you on a journey.”
When it comes to watching a live performance
by Odesza, most expectations are blown away by
their larger than life productions that often feature
live instrumentalists and, more recently, a marching
band.
“For the U.S. tour we’re trying to bring more of
that with us, you know strings and whatnot,” says
Knight. “We’re [also] revamping a lot of the songs
so we’ll do for the live show. What we’ll do is take a
lot of these songs that have some lower energy on
the album and kind of remix them ourselves to give
[them] a little more live energy. So we’ll do some
dance remixes, some special VIP edits that make the
sets feel a little more special instead of just you know
playing tracks from the album. I think, eventually, as
we get better at performing and doing live sets, a lot
of it will just be custom for that moment. So a lot of
the music you’re gonna hear [at a live show will be]
unreleased and reinterpreting stuff that you might
[already] be familiar with.”
“Something [else] we’re working on right now [is
doing] more in studio sessions,” he adds. “So what
we’ve kind of done is taken songs that have a lot of
production, like “Line of Sight” and “Higher Ground,”
and kind of pared them down by [adding in] some
real basic piano lines and strings.”
In addition to their unexpected sound, the duo
love working with artists that aren’t known to
work with other electronic acts in order to create
something never heard before like their latest
single “Across The Room” featuring soul singer Leon
Bridges.
“We’ve been huge fans of him for a long time;
getting Leon and Regina [Spektor] as well as the
others to work with us was a big step. We’ve
always been huge fans of Panda Bear [from Animal
Collective too] so hopefully at some point we can
work with him. We really like taking these indie
artists that live in different realms than us and
then working with them because it usually makes
something pretty unique.”
Odesza plays the Vancouver Forum on November
3 and 4, and their new LP, A Moment Apart, is now
available on iTunes and Apple Music.
Lords of Acid
October 8 @ Red Room
If you don’t know this legendary post-industrial/techno act, you might want to check out
some clips before going to their show. Since the late ‘80s, the graphic sexuality and sordid
drugginess of their lyrics has been matched only by the hardcore nature of ringleader Praga
Khan’s myriad production styles. They’re going for the jugular here, dropping their most
bad-ass album, 1994’s Voodoo-U, alongside some raunchy, raucous hits. Not for the faint of
heart.
GRiZ
October 20 @ PNE
That bone-rattling beer baron, Michigan producer Grant Kwiecinski (a.k.a. GRiZ) is back to
sax up some sexy, soulful funky beats. This is the Good Will Continue tour, celebrating the
second installment in his Chasing the Golden Hour mixtape series as well as his personally
perfected Chasing the Golden Hour Ale. Alongside Los Angeles producer Big Wild, he’ll be
supported by Opiuo, the brilliantly lush Melbourne-based knob-twiddler who is worth the
price of admission by himself.
Zombi
October 27 @ Fortune Sound Club
If this doesn’t get you into the Halloween spirit, nothing will. The Pittsburgh duo of bassist/
synthesist Steve Moore and drummer Anthony Paterra took their name from the Italian
title of Dawn of the Dead, and their layered space-rock/synthwave sound is very much
indebted to Goblin. The horror movies practically write themselves in your head while
listening to them.
Chelsea Wolfe
October 31 @ VENUE
With her blend of black metal, industrial electronic, gothic-folk, and imaginative fashion,
this American songstress always brings a spectacle to the stage. She was in full force on her
latest album, Hiss Spun, so expect to see heads exploding in the crowd for this one. You
could not hope for a better way to spend Halloween night than an evening with Wolfe.
Chelsea Wolfe
photo by Bill Crisafi
October 2017 21