“More than anything, What I Never Told You wants to capture a moment in time, with all of its imperfections.”
Odina is an artist that makes beautiful music from limited resources. Her first releases were home-grown, recorded in the basement of her parent’s house: ever unconventional, she’s since moved onto recording elements of her debut in a Norwegian church in London. Following the release of her stunning debut album What I Never Told You in August, FUZZY caught up with Odina to discuss moving from Catalonia to London, Bob Dylan, and growing into adulthood.
FUZZY: Your new album, What I Never Told You, was released last week. Congrats! Could you tell me a little bit about it?
It's been the outcome of a lot of years of work. It's my first album, so it feels very special to have it out there, I hope people will enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it. FUZZY: It's been described as "encapsulating" your "journey of figuring out life as a young adult and the chaos of moving to the UK to start a new life." Could you elaborate on this?
It's a record that I've been writing for during the last few years, but at the same time, it feels like I never purposely wrote a single song for it. It feels like the product of everything I have learned, and of becoming a more confident writer, producer, and person. It more than anything wants to capture a moment in time, with all of its imperfections, which for me has been these last few years where I have slowly tried to figure out what it means to be an adult (even though in many ways I still don't feel like one). FUZZY: How does the UK music scene compare to your roots in Catalonia?
I think the Spanish music scene has some very incredible (and maybe more underrated) bands out there - I love artists like Mavica, St Woods, Marem Ladson, Nuria Graham... I only started really playing music when I moved to the UK, so it seems hard for me to compare the two scenes, but I think they are both really rich in their own way. FUZZY: Your music has been described as "alt-pop", which is a sub-genre that is certainly on the rise at the moment. What does the future of alt-pop look like to you?
I think pop music, in general, is changing, more and more people are doing things differently these days. I think that's creating more variety which for me is a very positive thing. FUZZY: Elements of the album were recorded in Sjømannskirken, a Norwegian church in London, which is super interesting! Why was this chosen as a recording venue?
I made the decision of recording some of the album live. When it comes to recording live, you are relying on the feeling of that particular take to be just right for the record, so choosing the right venue felt very crucial. Tobin (who engineered and mixed the record) and I thought about recording in a church, because of the acoustics (I'm a big fan of that church reverb) and went looking for the right church all over London. We found this space, and it just felt right. The space had this special something, it made us feel like we were doing something bigger than any of us when we recorded there, it was almost mystical. FUZZY: Building on this, other elements were recorded in your bedroom and in your parents' basement. How did it feel to make the transition from home recording to studio recording?
It was obviously a big change, in some ways, there's more pressure to get it right when you have limited time to record something (as opposed to being at home), but I like that pressure, I think it helps the creation. I think they each have their own pros and cons, I'm still a big fan of recording at home, It feels like there is this intimacy that I don't get anywhere else. FUZZY: Finally: if you had five minutes to ask one musician/band one burning question, who would it be and what would you ask them?
I would ask Bob Dylan how he gets the inspiration to keep writing more and more albums. It seems like such an inspiration to me that he just released another album, especially considering his age.
Words by Eleanor Noyce.
1st September 2020.
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