BORN in Barcelona but raised in the Catalonian port city of Tarragona, Odina forged a love of songwriting following early exposure to The Beatles and Bob Dylan. After moving to London as a teenager, she began uploading her self-produced music online – and quickly garnered a reputation as a master of sorrowful, soul-bearing pop.
She released her debut EP, ‘Broken’, in 2016, and followed it up with a number of well-received singles – including a haunting cover of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. Her debut album ‘What I Never Told You’ was recorded at Sjømannskirken – a small Norwegian church in South East London.
Glass caught up with Odina following her recent return to London to talk through her story so far.
Odina
Your album What I Never Told You has been with us for a little while now – how have you found
the reaction to it?
It’s been amazing. It’s such a weird time to be releasing music in general, but I’m happy that it is out in the world now. Some of the messages and love I’ve got for it have been so inspiring.
The record gets described as a ‘coming of age’ album a lot, and listening to it I was taken aback by how personal and intimate the songwriting feels. How do you navigate putting so much of yourself out into the world?
I really do throw everything out there! It’s an aspect of doing music that doesn’t necessarily get spoken about. People are always going to judge art, but when it’s something so personal it puts you in a slightly vulnerable position. I try to make music for myself because it helps me process what’s going on in my life. But equally it’s important to distance myself from I put across in my music to an extent.
How do the people that know you best react to your music?
Sometimes people that I know listen to the lyrics and think I’m talking about a certain situation or person, even when I’m not. I suppose people will always put themselves in a song and relate to it in a way that fits into their life. In a way, that’s the beauty of what I do!
A lot of people in my personal life tell me that because I come across as such a happy, smiley person, they don’t understand how I can write such sad and depressing songs. They think I’m two different people! I’m a person that’s quite reserved generally, and I keep a lot of feelings to myself. So often it’s through the music that everything bursts out of me.
It’s been a long time coming, too – you first started to release music in 2016. Has it been a case of getting the album right?
It’s been a mixture of things. Everything I’ve been working on has prepared me for this album. I produced it myself, and I come from a place where I’ve learned how to do everything by trial and error. I wasn’t ready to make a body of work until this year.
Odina
What was the moment where you realised ‘I’m ready to make an album’?
I think I’ve just become so much more confident in what I do. I know what I want my music to sound like. I have a much clearer identity in terms of what I want to say. There’s also the visual side – we live in a world where the music can’t be separated from the visuals that come with it. The visual aspect is always present, every time you listen to a song it’s paired with a video or artwork. I collaborated a lot with visual artists and things like that to get it done.
What are some of the things you want to say?
The album chronicles the rollercoaster of emotions you feel in becoming an adult. It’s about self-doubt, falling in and out of love, the up and down journey of existence. I’ve lived in different countries, made different choices and been on a process of self discovery. There’s also the idea of what I consider home – my relationship with Spain and now living around London.
How have you found being a musician in London?
I’ve been lucky to get to know a lot of musicians. It’s a real community where you constantly feel inspired by other people all the time. We go to each other’s gigs and push each other to be more creative.
What do you have planned for next year?
I would love to get out and tour, but my focus is to make another album and release it as soon as possible. It’s time for me to get more music out there – that feels like the best thing to do at the moment. New music has been written, a lot of it is being born out of a piano and they all feel much more minimal.
by Daniel Jeakins