After spending the past year establishing themselves as one of the more exciting names emerging on the scene, Belgian trio ODO are now looking to cement their dynamic legacy to date with the release of their eagerly-awaited debut EP 'The less we are, the more I am'.
Featuring the previously shared singles 'What A Life', 'One Last Time' and 'Long Way Down', this new seven-track collection makes for a wonderfully fresh and vibrant listen. With its warm and effervescent indie-rock textures, soaring atmosphere, and killer hooks throughout, 'The less we are, the more I am' sees them returning with some of their most anthemic efforts to date.
So with the new EP available to stream now, we sat down with them to find out more about their origins and what has been inspiring them most over the years.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
I think that the first instruments we fell in love with, are the instruments we played on the record. This meant for James it was the guitar, for Tijl it was the bass guitar, and for Max, it was the drums. Even though these instruments are our main instruments, we’ve experimented with some others, like the piano or the trumpet.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
I think al three of us got our first introduction to music through our homes. So we’ve grown up on a lot of records by the greats like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Little Richard, Prince, and so on… These artists have also been a big influence on our own musical journeys and serve as a great source of inspiration when writing music.
What was the first album you remember owning?
Some of the first albums we owned were: Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Regatta De Blanc.
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
A song that we wish we could have written is Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac. Rumors is an important album to all three of us and we find ourselves returning to that album time and time again and with every listen a new song or a new element of a song stands out that makes it our favorite. Currently, that song is Go Your Own Way, the song pulls you in from start to finish with every member of the band giving it their absolute best, making it one of the best love/breakup songs of the last decade.
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
Our songwriting process kind of varies. Sometimes one of us comes up with lyrics and sort of a rough structure for a song and we finish it together. Sometimes a song is the result of a jam between the three of us, we later decide to turn it into a full song, writing lyrics together or seeing if we have some lyrics written beforehand. And other times one of us writes a full song and the rest of the band just adds their part to it. So we don’t really have a very structured way of writing our songs which results in our EP containing a lot of different types of songs.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
Some artists we’ve been listening to when we're together are Wilco, Anderson Paak., Bruno Mars, Talking Heads, dEUS, and The Black Keys, just to name a few.
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
An artist we would love to open for is the Arctic Monkeys. They have been a really big inspiration on our musical journey and all three of us are big fans of a lot of their work.
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
The most rewarding part about being a musician is putting a lot of work into something and having it pay off. For example, putting a lot of time in rehearsing for a live show and having the concert go very smoothly. Another example is putting a lot of work and passion into recording music and having people sing along with your songs when you’re playing a show.
And what is the most frustrating part?
I think for us, the most frustrating part about being a musician is all of the logistics that go behind playing in a band and promoting yourself as an artist. There is a lot of work and time that goes into putting yourself out there that requires a lot of different skills. Luckily we complement one another pretty well when it comes to our skills behind the scenes.
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
One piece of advice we’ve received that’s been very helpful is to really try to master what you want to play and to take your time with it and not rush the learning process by trying to show off too much. Another piece of advice that’s really important to us when playing live is to just have fun onstage and have that be your main goal. When you have fun onstage, the audience can tell and they’ll have fun too.
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ODO's debut EP 'The less we are, the more I am' is available to stream now. Check it out in the player below.