Julie Odell

Julie Odell is an American singer/songwriter who recently released her debut album Autumn Eve. Coming from New Orleans, she took some time to chat with Today Radio recently about her writing process, taking her music on the road and being visited by small purple aliens.

For the first time in a while, Odell has been able to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the music industry and look back at her own journey into stardom. Her most recent album "Autumn Eve" was one that was supposed to be released a while back, but like many other projects, had to be put on hold due to the pandemic. "We were about to release it before the pandemic hit. It was just such a long process and I'm so happy that it's out and can move on from those memories and make the new music that I want to make." said Odell. Now that the album is out, she is able to leave that chapter of her life behind and move onto the next.

Although her music is often described as folk music, she explains that it has always been a bit more rock. "All the songs start out kind of with me playing a small acoustic guitar on my couch late at night and I'd done that for years. When I finally got my band, they're just one of those groups of musicians that get a song immediately and put it in a special pocket and immediately they became these loud, chaotic parts that I fell in love with it."

There's a lot of New Orleans in Autumn Eve, the chaos and life of the city reflected in her sound as she leaned into the chaotic nature of rock music. She explained that this gave her more emotional freedom to showcase what it's like in her brain. "It felt more right to give people more of a party, like an emotional party. So we just leaned into making things as loud and chaotic as possible and people really gravitated to it."

Because of this change, Odell has found out that she wants her music to be more malleable and not just one thing. This is an important aspect of the creative process as her band is able to inject their own takes of the song directly into it. "I want it to be more malleable... I think my favorite part about writing songs is pushing dynamics, having tempo changes and kind of bringing people on a whole entire roller coaster for each song."

© David Casey Johnson

The importance of this malleability can be seen when Odell goes on to explain the importance of the band. "I would throw out some suggestions and they are just very intuitive, a lot happened when we first played the song together and it would stick... They're so smart and sensitive and intuitive people, especially in music." she said.

The way she found this group was through her connections in New Orleans. "everyone is in everyone's band." She said. Being able to work with those that are passionate about their craft is a joy for her. She just wishes that she could work with them more often now.

She moved to North Carolina in order to start a family, thinking New Orleans wasn't the safest place in the world. Because of this, she is back to strumming her acoustic guitar on her couch late at night instead of having jam sessions with the band. "I just miss New Orleans so much, I'm extremely home sick all the time."

She will still go to New Orleans in order to record, but that is only so often and hardly makes up for the lost time with them. Luckily she and her friend, Tif Lamson, have another band called The Jelly Sisters. Throughout quarantine, Odell wrote an EP and the two of them recorded that together, adding strings and woodwinds. This will be released under Julie Odell's name. "I was able to hum some parts and they'd take their saxophones, oboes, clarinets and strings and put it to it. I'm really excited because it's a different feeling to the Autumn Eve record." Odell said.

This isn't the only time Odell has done something different with her music. In 2018, she decided to put together a small orchestra with around 19 people in it. The project went beyond music with Odell putting her craft skills to the test and she made the entire stage design using ply wood, lights and fabrics. After sending chord charts to her musicians, they would come up with their own parts. They only had one dress rehearsal before performing the real thing. Odell is extremely happy with how it all turned out, to have the community band together and put on a show in such a short amount of time. "I was very thankful for my whole community, to be able to throw together a tiny orchestra for my songs. So I know it can go different places and that's really fun."

When asked about the song Autumn Eve, Odell revealed that this song was based on the story of the birth of her child. And what a story it is. It was a difficult time for her, 11 days overdue in her pregnancy she decided she would force herself into labor. Unfortunately, this was taking place in a small cabin which was an hour drive away from her midwifes home and a snow storm was rolling in.

Odell and her partner decided that they didn't want to figure out how to deliver a baby alone in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm, so they made the long journey, now four hours thanks to the snow. After sliding down the mountain sideways in the car and being hit by "tidal waves of snow" they finally made it.

Once Odell was placed into the bath tub, she started to hallucinate due to the pain. She saw herself going through one of those 1990's screen savers where the white stars are flying towards you, then she landed in a UFO where multiple groups of four purple space people, dressed in silver, greeted her. She went in and out of this hallucination several times, to a point where she thinks in the back of her mind that it was somewhat real.

Eventually she was able to give birth in the middle of a snowstorm which she says left her filled with adrenaline for months afterwards. Even though she was told "expect it to be nothing like you've expected it to be." by another mom before hand, this was on a whole other level.

"It was extremely hard to go through postpartum depression, it's not something you can really explain to someone because it's so different for everyone." Said Odell. She remembers it being an extremely confusing time because she now had a beautiful new daughter, but also felt so detached from reality as if she couldn't "grasp onto anything". She was able to pull herself out after a year though, and this experience has given her new found confidence. "I can do anything at this point, I can go through everything, I'm stronger than I think I am."

This is what Autumn Eve is about, being able to overcome the darkest of times and seeing it through, not only for the ones that you love, but for yourself too. That is why it has to be a long song, because it is such a long story with, like life, it's ups and it's downs.