Kat Says: “I Spoke To Odesza About 'The Last Goodbye'”
Some thoughts on the Seattle duo’s latest album, plus HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!
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What is “the last goodbye?” Does such a thing even exist? In the minds of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, it doesn’t. Not really.
As an album, The Last Goodbye very much exists, of course. Odesza’s fourth studio album dropped on the band’s Foreign Family Collective via the immaculate label Ninja Tune a handful of hours ago. It’s lush and emotive, complex and groovy, as beat-driven as it is moody and meandering.
It’s a culmination of all the things Odesza has ever been, marrying the narrative grandeur of its last LP, A Moment Apart, with the sample-driven scenes of its earliest releases. That was the point really, and the guys told me all about it when I interviewed them for a bio write up back in May.
“A Moment Apart was more about taking a step back from the group and being introspective, where this one feels definitely more about coming back to life,” Knight told me. “It's got a lot more communal energy to it.”
The Last Goodbye was made to be danced to, and it was made to dance to together. It was also made in the wake of Odesza’s biggest and most successful tour, which might have helped color that intention.
That tour was crazy. I covered the show in New York City for Billboard back in—wait a second, 2017?! Holy shit, Odesza was on that tour forever, lol. You can read all about my take on that tour. It was an absolutely brilliant production that celebrated symmetry and cinematic maximalism to wondrous heights. There were eye-popping visuals and a full drum line. It was great.
Further Reading: ODESZA’s ‘A Moment Apart’ Tour Stunned Brooklyn With Guests, Lights & Drums
When writing The Last Goodbye, you can tell Mills and Knight were thinking of the live show, especially on “Behind The Sun,” which features its own drum line breakdown, but they were also thinking very deeply about their roots—like, very, very deeply.
“We leaned a lot more into sample use, which I think was our bread and butter, and then AMA moved away from that a little bit,” Mills said. “We’ve returned to that, which I absolutely love because it has so much grit. The feel you get from those dustier pieces of audio really encapsulates the Odesza sound.”
Both guys also gave a huge hat tip to their side project Bronson for inspiring this record. Written and released during the height of COVID-19, Bronson saw Odesza collaborate with Australian producer Golden Features on music that forced Mills and Knight to look at production from a whole new angle. It’s a fabulous project, and if you didn’t give it a heavy listen, this is your cue to dive into it head first.
But when I say Odesza dug into its roots to write this record, I don’t just mean sonically. The guys became obsessed with their own personal histories. They watched a ton of old family movies, digitizing mountains of dusty VHS tapes and scattering the samples throughout the album’s nooks and crannies.
“When I look back on old videos, I am so much like my dad now,” Knight laughs. “It's crazy, like those Geico ads, how you are your parents? It really is like that.”
During out chat, we joked a lot about bong-rip #deepthoughts, like the fact that somewhere in your lineage, hundreds years ago, you have an ancestor who laughs exactly the way you do today. We’re all just genetic patterns playing out in cycles, and when one life ends, it continues forever in the eyes and hearts and smiles of the ones who come after.
That’s where The Last Goodbye title comes from. It’s not really a period on a thought, it’s more like a semicolon on an idea that lives as long as we remember it.
“We had a concern in the beginning that it would sound finite or really negative, but I really don't think that's the case,” Mills explains. “I even recorded my mom, I asked her what she thought ‘the last goodbye’ meant, and what's insane—and we didn't put it on the record because it almost sounded like I made my mom read the theme of the record because it sounded fake—but I was having a thought and she said the exact theme of the record.
“She was just like, ‘I don't think there is a last goodbye. That's just an idea. Because I think people live through you, through how you interact with them, and those you love are a part of you.’ And when she said that, my dad burst into tears behind her, which is really wild, ‘cause my dad is like, he's a tough guy … He had a rough past, and hearing that theme and how my mom was talking about it, then me talking with her about it, he was like, ‘Please name the album that. It means a lot to me. I think that's a great title,’ and that's how it became more of a serious thing, that we should call this record that.”
After that, the coincidences just kept coming.
“Even talking with Bettye LaVette,” Mills says of clearing the album’s titular track sample with the woman who originally wrote and sang the song “Let Me Down Easy”, “and her being like, ‘I thought that song was over. I thought no one would ever hear that song and no one would know me.’ Now it wasn't the last goodbye for her, you know? It's something that lived on through another cycle, through a new interpretation. It just kept feeling like a part of what the record was trying to say.”
So, there you have it. If you feel especially emotional while rinsing this one, it’s not just you. I mean, I’m fucking crying just thinking about it, but more than anything, I’m excited to see Odesza hit the road again so we can dance this shit out together!
Alsooooo
Speaking of interviews and artists that make you cry, I had the chance to speak to Porter Robinson a couple of weeks ago, too. That interview came out last Friday, centered around his latest single for the League of Legends alt-universe Star Guardian. That was a pleasure, as always. He broke down a few of the song’s key lyrical moments. You should read it, if you haven’t!
I also went out last weekend and had the most AMAZING time. I got to see Machinedrum absolutely smash at The Ground here in Miami, then I went down the street to ATV to watch DJ Swisha and Kush Jones got B2B on one of the hyphiest, rave-iest sets I’ve experienced in a fucking minute. It was thrilling. I was like “am I really dancing this hard two weekends in a row? It’s kind of sad because ATV is closing after this month. My buddy Zach wrote about it for Gray Area. You should read his essay, too.
Still, it felt good to know that #TheRaveVibes are still alive. I don’t have any plants to rave this weekend though. I’m actually going to see Incubus on Sunday, hahaha. I was OBSESSED with Incubus as a teen. Can’t fucking wait. Perhaps another nostalgia essay incoming!?
Okay okay, before we get into this week’s playlists, I need everyone to do a big special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MY MOM!! She’s a living icon. She took me to my first real concert when I was 11, and she sat me down and played me The Clash and the Sex Pistols as soon as she saw me listening to Blink 182 on MTV. She used to let me wear colorful wigs to school (you see where that got me), and she always had my back against the bullies, so shout out my mom, my first forever subscriber! Hahahahahaha <3
Absolutely Necessary
(This is the part where I share songs that are so good, they’re absolutely necessary to listen to. That’s it. That’s the bar.)
I made two Spotify playlists for this section that you can follow: one weekly playlist updated with just the new stuff every week, and one cumulative playlist that will host every song I pick ever (until Spotify tells me it's full). Check them out! I made them for you—and me, but mostly you.
Odesza - “Light Of Day” Feat. Ólafur Arnalds
Since I spent so much time talking about it, here is the last track from Odesza’s latest album. It’s beautiful and bittersweet, full of orchestral strings and heavy mood, but also perfect for letting go and dancing. It’ll get ya in the feels, for sure.
Manila Killa - “Liminal Spaces”
Another big congrats to Manila Killa who released his debut LP yesterday, too! I actually wrote about this track for Billboard Dance’s First Spin, but the link isn’t live by press time for this newsletter, so here you go! Spoiler alert: He should be coming to Kat Calls when we return in September! (Spoiler alert: Kat Calls will return after I move into permanent housing in September, lol)
Biicla - “Mini Skrt”
Another full-length album release, Biicla’s sophomore effort Yes Place is officially on the scene! I dig this track because it has a bassline similar to “Where’s Your Head At?”, which is to say it has a bassline similar to Gary Numan’s “M.E.” The history goes deep! Also though, I love this vocal work! This shit slaps!
Polo & Pan x Jacques - “From A World To Another”
I’m going to be honest with you. At first I was like “Idk if this song is all that great,” then it kept playing and I was like, “fuck this song is WILD.” So I had to include it. Also, Polo & Pan are great live. You need to see them on stage.
OKAY! That’s all I’m doing this week because I’m honestly not over playing the songs that I added last week to the weekly playlists, and I wanna sit with them more and SO SHOULD YOU!
I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend, and—one more big announcement—I REACHED MY FIRST 100 SUBSCRIBERS!!!! YAYAYAYYA, THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU SO MUCH, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE YOU BEING HERE!
Scheming a fun paid tier for those who would like to support me on this journey and get a little something extra for it. I’m open to your ideas. What would you like to see?! Interviews? Podcasts? Listicles? Moar essays? Lmk, ilu ;)
Thanks for tuning into my newsletter. Listen to the playlists on Spotify. One is updated weekly with all the songs from each edition. The other is cumulative with all the updates ever!