ODESZA is an American EDM music duo originating from Bellingham, Washington. Behind the facade of the group are Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, known individually as Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches. When asked of how their nicknames came to be, Mills, aka Catacombkid, said, “I got into Aesop Rock and he had a song called ‘Catacomb Kids.’ I thought it sounded cool.” Meanwhile Knight, aka BeachesBeaches, replied, “Honestly I was high in my bedroom making music one day…”
Early Career
The couple met during their freshman year at Western Washington University, where Knight studied physics and mathematics while Mills studied graphic design. It wasn’t until their senior year that they started to collaborate musically.
Name
The name of their musical duo, ODESZA, came from Mills’ uncle’s sunken vessel, where only his uncle and one other crew mate survived. The name of the vessel, “Odessa”, was already taken by a Scottish synth band, so they decided to branch off its Hungarian spelling, “Odessza”. They dropped a single ‘s’ and ODESZA was born.
Summer’s Gone
The magic began on September 5th, 2012 when ODESZA dropped its debut album, Summer’s Gone. A couple months later, they played their first show, opening for Teen Daze and Beat Connection in Bellingham, WA. It seemed to take no time at all for the duo to reach 1 million plays on SoundCloud.
My Friends Never Die
ODESZA’s first and only EP was released in 2013, called My Friends Never Die. After opening for Pretty Lights on his Analog Future Tour that fall, they kicked off their first headline tour in March of 2014.
In Return
As the EDM group grew confident performing on stage, they released their sophomore album, In Return, in 2014. Their rise to fame started to accelerate quickly and in the fall of that year, ODESZA reached 30 million plays on SoundCloud. Their 2014 In Return North American tour was vastly popular and sold out 28 shows. Due to high demand ODESZA launched its festival tour at Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Washington. Since then they have performed at countless other festival venues including Coachella and Governor’s Ball.
A Moment Apart
ODESZA’s junior album, A Moment Apart, was released in 2017. The album has by far been their most successful, and following its release, a world tour of the same name was announced. The 2017 A Moment Apart Tour was uber successful, and the EDM duo sold out huge venues such as Staples Center in Los Angeles and Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It was so successful that on December 4th, 2017, ODESZA announced a continuation of the tour, The 2018 A Moment Apart Tour. Flash forward to summer 2019, and ODESZA will be having their final A Moment Apart performance on July 26th and 27th at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Joining ODESZA on the stage will be Big Wild, EVAN GIIA, MEMBA and Ford. You can buy tickets here.
Most recently ODESZA released a single called “Loyal”. And on March 13-16, Foreign Family Collective announced its first ODESZA-curated festival, SANDARA. Held in Barceló Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, the four-day festival also featured major acts such as RL Grime, Rüfüs du Sol, Alison Wonderland and Jai Wolf.
