ODESZA looks to shatter Glass House this weekend

As a live show, ODESZA has been an act that believes in the value of live improvisation and human performance. It has shed the restrictions of a DJ set for a live setup that allows them to remix the group’s entire discography, creating new combinations of its sounds to fit each crowd. 2015 will be a banner year for the duo: they’re returning to Coachella for the second year in a row, this time on the main lineup, as they continue their worldwide takeover as part of the In Return tour. While they’re in California, they’ll be performing a number of more intimate shows around the region, including a show this Thursday at the Glass House in Pomona. In anticipation of this performance, Harrison Mills of ODESZA spoke about the group’s crazy journey over the past couple years and their plans for the show at Pomona.

For previous shows, each member would be on his own laptop, with Mills controlling melodies and his partner Clayton Knight handling drums and bass. This time, though, they’re consolidating into one live session so they can both have complete control to remix any of the elements in their music. Mills highlighted the compatibility of their stage presence, and the importance of their partnership. “I would say we complement each other in a lot of different ways. At first, I didn’t really like dance music, but Clay was super into dance music. He made me find the more abstract dance music that made me like that music more, especially pop music. Now we have so much of the same music that we share back and forth.”

Mills described his budding musical tastes before ODESZA as deeply rooted in hip-hop, citing The Notorious B.I.G., Nas and A Tribe Called Quest as influences, among others. Whereas Clayton was more traditionally trained in classical music, Mills learned the art of electronic music through the technology he interfaced with.

“I stuck with feeling and went with more of emotion than going for a jazzy chord progression that would be harder for me to play,” he recalls, adding that working together improves each other’s abilities to bring forth their style of expressive music.

Given that the duo has been touring continuously for more than a year, they spoke on whether had been inspired by the cultures they experienced while on tour, considering the influence of their home roots in earlier albums.

“I would say more music scenes have impacted me more than the actual locations, mainly because when you tour a lot, unfortunately you really don’t get to see much,” Mills said. “But I would call Australia our second home. We have a lot of real close musician friends out there. It’s one of the only places we’ve gone abroad and went into the studio with someone and been inspired by the energy that’s there. There’s something in the water.”

MIlls also spoke about the challenges ODESZA faced in the past, and how that has impacted their outlook on the future.

“The biggest roadblock was probably learning how the music business works, and also realizing you’re not going to be home for a long time. It’s really hard to cope with knowing that if you want to really take up every opportunity, you’re not going to have a life outside of music for a long time. But it’s definitely worth it, not something I regret whatsoever, and it’s been a really awesome ride,” Mills said.

ODESZA will be playing a number of California stops during these next two weeks, including sets in Pomona, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Indio and Arcata.