Odeal has an appreciation for the change that comes with a new season, and he’s letting the music give voice to the transformation.
The musician, who hails from the United Kingdom, has been using his artistry to connect with fans all over. On the heels of his The Summer That Saved Me Tour, he’s opening up about a new project, The Fall That Saved Us, noting that both have provided ways for him to sort through the nuances of life, love and relationships.
“When I was making The Summer That Saved Me, I was chasing the sun, you know, chasing the vibes and whatnot,” Odeal told Blavity in a recent interview. “And the funny thing is, I went back to the same location to make this project, but this time it was more like me looking inward, really looking in after the excitement of the summer and everything had cleared. It was me looking within, and just sitting with my own feelings, and that’s something that even the climate couldn’t really change. When I was just looking within, just thinking, ‘How do I really feel right now?’ you know, after the summer’s done and we’re going into a new period. It’s really just me being more introspective and looking within.”
The project boasts new tracks like “Addicted,” “Pretty Girls” and “Children of Yeshua,” and it even features Wizkid on the closing song, “N.I.T.S” — a collaboration that is a big deal for Odeal, who has been a fan of the Afrobeats artist for quite some time.
“Even at 17 and younger, I’ve always wanted to just make great music,” the “Miami” crooner said. “I’ve always listened to the greats, like MJ [Michael Jackson], Fela Kuti, Whitney [Houston], and just the level of musicality, I used to just think, ‘I wish I could make music like that.’ And there were loads of people as well, around the world, who were just starting to make music, and I’d think, like, ‘Yo, that sounds incredible, I wish I could do that.’”
He added, “My 17-year-old self would be really happy right now just to hear where the soundscape is at and even the topics I’m talking about because I probably wasn’t speaking about it that deeply back then. They would be really happy, proud. And even to have a song with Wizkid on this project, my 17-year-old self would be stoked because I listened to him a lot growing up. It’s just kind of a full-circle moment.”
Finding a superpower in vulnerability
Although he’s young, Odeal has quickly grasped the power that lies within vulnerability, which doesn’t always come from artists who look like him or are still navigating the lessons of their 20s.
“One thing about me is I’m very much honest with myself a lot of the time, when I’m like, ‘Okay, cool,’ even after I’ve had conversations with people and we all have opinions, strong opinions. But to be grounded and honest with yourself is one of my main things. I’m also spiritual; I believe in God. So that’s one thing that grounds me,” Odeal said.
“That allows me to look at myself like, ‘Am I doing the right things every time? Like, what’s my moral compass?’ That allows me to learn a lot about myself, look around, and just study how people move and how they go about different things. I’m also open to loads of different perspectives, and I like to understand how different people think and why because that’s something that we don’t really give ourselves enough grace to do. I think that’s what really allows me to be, you know, vulnerable, because I know my feelings come from an honest place, and that they can change sometimes. That’s really what allows me to be vulnerable because, also, I feel like within my music, just sonics alone, being able to be creative, that’s vulnerability. Being able to open up your voice to loads of people and try different styles of music, be willing to fail and then just move forward, that’s a type of vulnerability that I own because I know that it only helps me grow and only allows me to be better.”
A well-traveled man
Another unique perspective that Odeal brings to this art form is a strong sense of fashion, a result of being immersed in his father’s boutique in Spain, where he was immersed as a child, and likely due to being influenced by his parents, who used clothes as extensions of their personalities.
He was born in Germany and lived in Spain, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom, which is reflected in his music.
“When we travel, we figure out new parts of ourselves,” Odeal said. “When we travel, not just to party or holidays, but when we travel to explore and figure out what’s going on in different countries and adventure, you really come back with a different perspective or understand a new part of yourself. And with me traveling to look at these different places from young, I was able to get a strong sense of who I am and also what the world is.”
“A lot of times, ignorance and stuff are what really break the world apart. It’s what divides the world, but when we’re more knowledgeable about other cultures and other countries, we begin to have a bit more compassion and understanding for different topics around the world,” he continued. “I feel like, as a creative, one of the most important things is to be able to travel within your mind. Being able to travel within the mind, imagine, dream, and think of these other places and transport to these other places, that’s very important, to create, just to feel something new. I’m really big on that because for a long time I couldn’t even travel out of the U.K. Like being Nigerian and having a Nigerian passport for a while, I was kind of restricted from going to different places without a visa. But because of the places I traveled as a child, I could always transport to those places. And it’s also helped a lot of creatives because they’re like, ‘When I listen to your music, I can go here, or I feel like I’m here.’”
On ‘The Fall That Saved Us’
Odeal’s new project, The Fall That Saved Us, was released in November.
“What I want people to take away from the project?” he asked. “I want them to have a favorite song. I want the project to mark a point in their lives in the same way The Summer That Saved Me was, you know, a kind of healing project that marked their summer. I want this project to mark their fall or their winter, and just be like a theme tune to their life. They should really want to connect with the songs. I feel like their favorite songs are gonna change every single time, which is one of my aims because I really want people to look back and be like, ‘Actually, this song, actually that song.’ But really, I just want them to walk away connecting to the project in a way that I don’t even know.”