Tom Odell, the 23 year old British singer-songwriter has become a household name at this stage. After making his mark with the song Another Love, Odell has received huge amounts of support from both fans and peers. The last few years have been extremely busy for him, and he took some time out to talk about his experience, his musical style and interests and awards.
He’s been in the studio for a few weeks and talking about how the last few years have been quite a blur, and he has had so much going on in this time Odell says: “Time is a strange thing for one. But I think it went kind of quickly, but I mean in the space of five years. I started really writing songs and really going for it when I was about eighteen/seventeen. Well I mean I was writing songs since I was twelve” but it wasn’t until he was older that he was “really giving it every minute of my day.” With everything happening so seemingly quickly, it would be easy to lose yourself, however Odell feels that he has kept quite level-headed, despite the craziness that he is living through “It’s been very enjoyable and quite quick. But at the same time I think I’ve managed to sort of keep my proverbial feet on the ground. I certainly think we’ve done a lot of travelling in the last year or so, we’ve been around the world a couple of time, it’s been awesome, it’s been really cool.”
Talking about the song that really brought his name to the forefront he says “It’s mad just how well ‘Another Love’ did, I never expected it to be that song. It’s funny as a songwriter your sort of ideas of what song is going to do well and what song is not is sort of like completely contradictory to what’s actually going to happen. I always thought it was a great song but it just didn’t really sound like a song that would connect to me” Although it was not the song he imagined would get people’s attentions, he does not necessarily mind that it was “I’d be lying if I said I was annoyed by it because I’m very grateful that I had a moment where I could write a song like that and people can connect to it in a way that people have. I’m very touched and I’m very respectful of that.” This song is also one that he is nearly most proud of, however with each song he writes, he thinks he has improved: “”Another Love” I’m pretty proud of, but maybe that’s because people like it, maybe I’m swayed by that. I’m very proud of ”Grow Old With Me”, that’s the first track on the album. I think you kind of move on… I think I’m most proud of the songs that I’ve written recently.” Afraid of sounding arrogant, Odell admits that as a songwritter “you always think your last song is the best you’ve ever written… I probably wouldn’t be a songwriter if I didn’t think that, because then there would be no need to write a song in the first place. ”
His musical style has been called many things, and it’s not something that bothers him, he has never made a decision to sound a certain way. “The funny thing is I don’t really tend to have these sort of grand plans, I just sort of do stuff and you know, you see what comes from it, I’ve kind of been doing that since the start. I just started making that album [Long Way Down] and I just did what felt right and that’s what came out and I never really second guessed it. I’m making another record at the moment and I guess I’m kind of doing the same thing. I didn’t have any premature decisions about what I want the music to sound like.” As far as the new album goes, there’s not too much he can say but he does say that he’s happy with how it’s going: “[It’s] Getting there slowly, it takes time. I only finished touring in April, so it’s only been a month or so. So I’m just trying get the songs together and stuff. But it’s going pretty well I think.”
As well as having a devoted and strong fanbase, Odell has achieved critical acclaim and won the Critics’ Choice Award at the BRITs and Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards; talking about this experience he says that it is the latter award that was special for him: “the Ivor Novello to me means a lot, I don’t think you want to sort of lose sleep over awards, but the Ivor was important to me because it’s not voted for by a panel of mystery people, it’s voted for by other songwriters, songwriters that I really admire and in a lot of ways that inspired me to start songwriting in the first place so for me it’s like an incredible tip of the hat from them. For just a moment, I think for the first time, I felt a sense of achievement, because it’s an award that has such integrity and for a songwriter it means a lot to me, but I don’t just wonder around the streets of East London with it in my hands just like telling people about it! But I’m just quietly proud of it, but I try not to dwell on it too much.” Because he believes to do so can be “a dangerous thing to do.”
He stresses the importance of other songwriters as a source of inspiration, and also the huge variety in music that he himself listens to: ” I think probably songwriters [are the most influential], I’m very interested in that sort of craft of songwriting I love Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, I love Leonard Cohen. […] I’ll tell you what I’m listening to right now, I’m listening to Half Moon Run, I like that band, it’s really good. […] I love Royal Blood, I’m listening to R.E.M ‘Automatic For The People’, It’s an album I’ve never heard by them and I think it’s one of their best, there’s a song on there called ‘Nightswimming’ which I think is brilliant. I love Lou Reed ‘s ‘Berlin’ I think that’s one of his best albums. Kendrick Lamar I’m listening to ”The Art of Peer Pressure” I think is an ingenious piece of work. The Everly Brothers I’m listening to, I’m just going through my iTunes! Lykke Li “Love Me Like I’m Not Made Of Stone” I think that’s a brilliant song. I like a couple of tracks from the new Paolo Nutini album, it’s so well produced!”
With such a diverse taste in music, it makes sense that his songs appeal to all different types of people, all types of musicians, which in turn explains why so many of his songs have been remixed, this is something he himself is not a massive fan of, despite a select few that he enjoys, and Odell finds it nearly insulting when he hears a remix of one of his songs when he’s out and about. “It’s a funny old business. There’s one that Naughty Boy did, he added strings to it, I really like that guy I think he’s definitely on to something. But yeah, I like the one he did, I haven’t heard that many. I heard one in a bar and it was quite a big one I think in Europe. It’s pretty insulting, because you’re just kind of like… you put a lot of effort into producing something and they just do whatever with it.. it’s very flattering when someone wants to remix your song, and they do probably in some cases make it better which is annoying more than insulting.”
As far as the future goes, Tom Odell will be doing a festival run, which includes him coming to Ireland and finishing off the album, which he hopes to have out next year. After an impressive first few years on the scene, there should be no doubt that Tom Odell is here to stay and we are going to see a lot more from him.