10 Questions To… Odd Chap

Interview With Odd Chap (10 Questions to…)

Odd Chap – I’m sure you know and love his songs very well. I do too! :) It was a great challenge for me to interview him, because Odd Chap cares a lot about his fans and every now and then answers their questions in a Q&A published on his YouTube channel. But as you know, I really enjoy such challenges and it made for a really interesting conversation about the behind-the-scenes production of his tracks, collaborations with other Electro Swing artists and musical inspirations. I present to you 10 questions to… Odd Chap, and if you read this interview carefully, you will find out that this fantastic (and incredibly nice!) producer has prepared a special surprise for you on the occasion of this interview and shared a playlist of his favourite songs!

01. LadyDot: Oh, Sam, you don’t even know how happy I am that I finally got to interview you! Well, I have to admit that I procrastinated for a long time because I was afraid that… you’re too busy, haha! It seems to me that as an Electro Swing producer, you probably release the most tracks and don’t actually take any breaks. I’m very curious, where did your music production story start? Did you graduate from music school, or are you totally self-taught? How did you grasp all this stuff related to producing, releasing music, handling all these programs? How long did it take from learning how to produce music before you said to yourself, ‘Okay, I’m ready, now I’m going to turn the Electro Swing world upside down with my tracks!’?

Odd Chap: You’re too kind! It’s an absolute honour to be interviewed by you Ania! I read so many of your reviews and interviews!

I guess my story started way back in 2009, my cousin showed one of of the things he was mucking around with in his spare time which was this computer program called “FL Studio” (software for making music.) I had been jamming around on the guitar for a year by this point, writing and creating, but having access to this software to create and arrange music all inside a computer completely blew my mind and thats where the addiction to music production started haha.

From there I was more or less reliant on YouTube tutorials and a lot of trial and error to figure out how to actually create music with it. I did end up going to university in 2014 to get a degree in a bachelor of recording arts which helped me refine my skills and learn about all aspects of music/sound/recording. One year later after starting in 2015 is when I started making electro swing, so a good 6 years after first getting into producing music. But listening to Caravan Palace, Lyre Le Temps and Parov Stelar in early 2015 on the way home from Uni non stop definitely helped influence my decision wanting to try my hand with electro swing.

02. LadyDot: You made your debut on Spotify in 2016 with the single ‘The Little Man Who Wasn’t There’, which already has over 5 million plays, congratulations! On YouTube, your first published single was the brilliant ‘Sound 101’. What did you feel when you uploaded these tracks online? Were they immediately successful and well received by listeners? Or did you have to wait a little longer for spectacular results and in the meantime wondered if this was definitely the right direction and if your style would appeal to potential fans?

Odd Chap: Thank you!! Sound 101 was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. On one hand, I was really glad to start the odd chap journey and just get music out there that I was creating, but on the flip side starting a YouTube channel (and this is where I only first posted my music for the first while) was really really hard to start from scratch, I didnt know what I was doing and really wanted it to grow it since I was inspired by so many other YouTube influences at the time! So the fact that Sound 101 kicked started odd chap and my YouTube channel still makes me very happy. I still love that track.

With ‘little man who wasn’t there’ it took a little while to grow, I knew from the get go that track was something kinda special, it was just so catchy and fun, got stuck in my head constantly and it came together so easily as well! It just needed a bit of time of time to grow and people to share it, but this was for sure the sound and direction I wanted to take my music in and I guess it resonated with a lot of people.

03. LadyDot: You released the fantastic album ‘Collaborations’ at the beginning of March, and you invited well-known and loved Electro Swing artists to collaborate on this album. Please tell us how long it took you to work on this album and how did you manage to involve so many brilliant singers? Or do you have any interesting story behind the production of ‘Collaborations’?

Odd Chap: I’d say around 3 years from the conception of the idea of the album to the release date! It took a long time indeed but I’m so so happy with it! I pitched my idea to Freshly Squeezed after doing a string of remixes with them and they were keen to work with me on more tunes. So I spun this super ambitious idea to them about having an album with 10 singles and all with different vocalists! And to top off that album idea, I also listed dream collaborators and they replied, “we love it, let’s make it happen”.

One thing I will mention is during the creation of the album, I amassed a massive folder of different demos for the collaborators to access as a sort of sketchpad of ideas, I didn’t just want to approach the collaborators with nothing to show I wanted to have a bunch of different ideas to spark their interest so we could further create from there. And for almost all the demos, I had my predictions in my head on which demo each of the vocalists would possibly want to take since I figured it some lent into their sound that they’d done in the past. Would you believe it, every single vocalist chose a complete curveball of demo that I was not expecting at all haha, but they all turned out absolutely incredible!

04. LadyDot: 6 EPs released, 5 full albums, lots of singles… That’s a really impressive result! In retrospect, which of your albums do you rate as the most polished and which production did you spend the most time on? Which of your songs do you have the most fondness for?

Odd Chap: I typically don’t sit on music for that long, once it’s done I just want to share it with the world asap!!! I’d say the albums/singles that are collaborations with others are most polished. With solo stuff that’s just me involved, I blast through it at my own pace and don’t slow down at all. I just have too many ideas that I want to try and get carried away, next thing you know most of the song is done.

But with collabs everyones on their own schedules, time zones etc etc which can be good to slow down and enjoy the process even more, because the process and creation is just as fun if not more fun than actually listening to the final track I find!

The most fondness for…. I don’t think I could name a song, it’s always albums since they take the most time and it kind of feels like during that time, a chapter of your life is captured in the album.

05. LadyDot: I think anyone who is a fan of yours is well aware that you are friends with Offbeat. You produced his album ‘I Don’t Normally Like Hip Hop But This Is Alright’. Was working on this album easy, quick and fun? Or, on the contrary, was it not so easy at all? Please tell us about it! And while we’re on the subject, are you and Offbeat planning to produce any new tracks?

Odd Chap: Yes! This album was such a massive project but an absolute masterpiece! Offbeat did a crowdfunding campaign to help fly all the way from the UK to NZ to see me and work on the album in person and we spent a little over a week together working on the album and then a year after that remotely working through Skype to finish it. I finally then headed over to the UK to celebrate the album release and have a holiday! Some tracks were super easy like “i’m late” and some tracks were really hard “tis the season” He had a set vision for that track and I knew the sound but it was quite difficult to create! (We got there in the end though) Overall, insanely fun project, we get along great and we both put in sooooo many hours into it.

Yes me and Offbeat are planning to do more music, working on new tracks at the moment so watch this space!

06. LadyDot: Electro Swing originated in Europe, there are the most Electro Swing artists here, there are various events, parties and festivals to promote this type of music. Have you ever thought about moving from New Zealand to Europe for a while and producing and promoting your music here? Or would you much rather produce music at home than organise live performances?

Odd Chap: Yeah it’s a weird feeling having electro swing absolutely pop off in Europe but not even make a splash here in NZ. I haven’t thought of moving to be honest but I definitely want to do some trips seeing everyone in person and working on new music at some point and maybe a few shows. I definitely got a big taste of the scene when I was over in 2018 and experiencing boomtown festival with other electro swing artists, so I will be back at some point. But nothing’s stopping me from creating music here and releasing new tracks when I can :)

07. LadyDot: Listening to your songs, the immediate thought is that you are inspired by a lot of totally various music genres. I’m very curious to know what your favourite artists are, which songs (apart from yours of course, haha!) do you listen to most often and who is your absolute musical guru? Or maybe you have a playlist of your own and would like to share it with our blog readers?

Odd Chap: My top 3 favourite artists easily have to be Odd Chap, Odd Chap and … Odd Chap hahaha. On a serious note, yeah I’m definitely inspired by all kinds of music and styles, I listen to almost everything. (I’ll create a playlist of the top tracks I’m listening to right now for you!) Favourite artists at the moment are Neon Dreams, Lost Frequencies, Camo & Krooked and INXS. Weirdly, none of them make electro swing but I like to pull in ideas/inspiration from their music and throw it into my own to make my Electro swing unique!

08. LadyDot: Are you a full-time music producer, i.e. that you only produce music in your professional life? Or do you do other things as well? What do you love most about your job?

Odd Chap: I split my time between Odd Chap stuff and also my ecommerce job ‘Antidote Audio’. With my ecommerce job I create music sample packs for all sorts of EDM genres, so music producers can download these and use them in their songs. I love doing both, odd chap music is purely creative and so much fun whereas the ecommerce stuff is mixing all kinds, strategy, creativity and business! Ultimately the thing I love about both is being able to create stuff for a living and the freedom that comes with your own schedule and responsibility!

09. LadyDot: I’m guessing that you produce your tracks in your home. Can you tell us about what your recording studio looks like and what equipment and software you use to produce music? Surely a lot of Electro Swing fans would like to get started in making their own music, so maybe you can give them some good advice in the process?

Odd Chap: My home studio is very boring if I’m honest! Haha. I can do everything from inside my laptop and that’s what I love about it, I literally have the ability to create anywhere at all as long as I’ve got my laptop on me, it’s so good! But I will shout out Ableton (the software I used to make music) and a piece of gear I have, the “Moog Sub Phatty,” it’s a great synthesiser I use to get some big basslines for my tracks!! So good!

I’d say for producers, try not to get ‘boxed in’ to make specific genres, music is meant to be creative, so anything goes. Go try ideas that may seem unconventional or weird, you never know what you’re gonna get! Youtube tutorials are definitely your friend when starting out, actually scratch that, at all periods of producing haha, been producing for 15 years now and will never stop learning. Enjoy the process and remember, comparison is the thief of joy!

10. LadyDot: Finally, my favourite question. What are your musical plans for the coming years? What would you like to do more of? Maybe make even more music, maybe create some new project? Or are you thinking more about touring, for example in Europe?

Odd Chap: Upcoming years…. I think my most immediate plan is to be super consistent with new stuff, so expect a new tune around once a month! That pushes me to create heaps, try new stuff and what not. I loved blending Electro Swing with Drum & Bass in a track I did recently, so I might try more genre crossovers. Even more collaborations for sure! Touring… I wish haha. Definitely want to come back to the UK and other parts of Europe maybe in 2026 for at least a month to collaborate, do shows etc etc. That is the plan :)

Interview by LadyDot; Date: 2024-08-26