Seattle electronic duo Odesza are set to perform in New Zealand this week.
Seattle electronic duo Odesza are set to perform in New Zealand this week.
Their last show here was one of their favourites, but Odesza promise to deliver an even bigger electro-pop party this time around. They talk to Chris Schulz.
Harrison Mills remembers his last time in New Zealand all too well. He had to perform in his togs.
"I haven't seen a crowd that excited before," he says of Odesza's January show that saw him and bandmate Clayton Knight turn Auckland's King's Arms into a sweaty human bath.
"It's the first show I've ever played in swimming trunks. It was one of the most fun shows we've played overseas."
When Mills and Knight take to the stage in Auckland on Friday, it'll be just eight months since that sweltering show had punters wringing sweat from their shirts outside the venue.
There'll be one major difference this time around: the Seattle duo will be playing Auckland's recently re-opened St James.
The upgrade shows just how far the pair, who create summery electro-pop that makes you instantly feel like buying new jandals and heading to the beach, have come in that time.
On the back of two albums, they've been touring constantly, making regular festival appearances and releasing high-profile remixes in their spare time.
Odesza performing live.
Mills singles out Odesza's late evening Coachella performance - complete with the USC Trojan Marching Band - as the point where he and Knight felt they'd moved from an underground concern and into the mainstream.
"It was the most nervous I've ever been for a show - especially as it was being broadcast. We had never done anything like that before. There were so many moving parts and we'd worked for two weeks to get the full drum line, horns and singers ready for the show.
"It went off incredibly, I couldn't have had a better time."
One song that stood out was the horn-heavy closing track Make Me Feel Better, a trap-heavy reworking of an Alex Adair song that had fans screaming in delight. Despite plenty of press and increasing demand from fans, Mills says they've chosen not to release it.
"Everyone really wants it but it's not really a track we think represents the kind of music we make," he tells TimeOut. "It was a heavy trap track that we made for fun while joking around, and got more press than we expected."
Seattle electronic duo Odesza.
It's an example of the strict quality control Odesza have exacted over two albums - 2012's Summer's Gone and 2014's follow-up In Return, a record which saw them add more guest vocalists to their dreamy soundscapes.
But Mills admits their current direction is leading them more towards Make Me Feel Better's blow-the-roof-off attitude.
"We've dialled in our horns more and added them to different songs. We're definitely going in a more orchestral route, adding epic, cinematic (elements) and heavy drums ...
"I don't care if they're waving from side to side slightly, or going crazy. As long as people are enjoying it, I'm enjoying it."
Who: Seattle duo Odesza Where and when: Friday, St James, Auckland. Also playing tonight at San Fran in Wellington
