Growing Hope with Odette

Photo Credit: Carl Os

Georgia Sallybanks, AKA Odette returns with Blink this week! The record marks the singer/songwriter’s first LP since leaving their label and becoming an independent artist. Check out our interview!

I read about your love of music for its ability to help with enduring the difficulties of life. That’s why I love it too! Can you share a bit on this and what music has done for you personally and professionally?

Georgia - "I think I started writing music when I was eight after my mom sent me The Sound of White by Missy Higgins. I felt like it was really speaking to me. Music helps me say the unsayable. I am a very verbal person, but I still find it hard to find the exact words about what is going in inside.”

I really love your vocals, they range from spoken-word, to killer falsetto, to full-bodied booming singing. When did you decide you wanted to sing and how did you find your vocal style?

“I feel like, as soon as I heard that (Missy Higgins) album and I found out you as a woman you could just play piano and sing about your feelings, I knew that was what I was meant to do. I was eight and I got really confident really fast. I definitely get embarassed, but when it comes to music, I don't. It's the only way for me to be free. In school assemblies with hundreds of kids and toward the end of the assembly I shot my hand up and I said 'I want to play a song' and they let me. It was so sad and depressing, they asked if I was okay. It was called "I Walk Alone" and it was all I talked about. My mom took me to record it. Then I got older I was signed to a major label when I was seventeen. I put out two albums with them. It was a lot cleaner sound then because I was trying to make my sound perfect. I was very much looking to seek perfection from my voice. I think Herald, branches out quite a bit. For Blink I spent five years overcoming mental health and substance abuse issues. I met Kiah Gossner and we got in the studio and I felt like our brains just hummed when we were together. He wasn't trying to seek perfection. I want to say, my first producer was phenomenal as well and did a lot with regard to believing in me. For this record, my vocal sound has changed a bit. I feel more power and bass and maturity in my voice and wield it.”

Blink represents your first record as an independent artist. What changed for you with the process of this one, that maybe was different when you had the backing of a label?

“Primarily, it was more money and a bigger team with the label. I guess when you're surrounded by a lot of people, you're getting a lot of reassurance. There's a lot of space for doubt when you're independent. There's a lot of room for your insecurities to rule your head.”

Blink is a record that is autobiographical, telling of the trials and tribulations of life, but also one of starting anew. Can you share some background on some of the themes of the record?

“I think the whole album is a big spiral. There is a lot of references to gurgling down a sink. It's a bit of a metaphor of how to be alive, in that we spiral at times before ultimately going down the drain. Eveyrthing is in the context of this existential fear. The main point is to inspire hope, despite fear. We can zoom into particular points, but it always pulls out and looks at how we move foward as people. My biggest message is we have to grow hope in ourselves. Rather than rumniationg on the fear. The track "Blink" is a bit satirical and tongue in cheek about taking things as they come and connecting to ourselves as people.”