His
latest single "Black Friday", also the title of his new album
released on Friday, appears to follow suit with its themes about
self-deprecation and anxiety, and has been used for videos
displaying those subjects on TikTok.
"I've always had anxiety and over the past five years, it's been
up and down, a struggle with my head and it still is, I would
say, a struggle," Odell told Reuters in an interview in late
October.
"But... there is some solace in writing about it and there's
even more solace in then subsequently feeling that other people
feel the same way."
The 33-year-old, whose accolades include winning the prestigious
songwriter of the year prize at the Ivor Novello Awards and the
critics' choice award at the BRITs, says the secret to writing
good songs is telling the truth.
"When we listen to something, we know what is true and what is
not and as a musician, it's so easy to become cerebral," he
said.
"When music is felt, it's something that is intuitive and it's
from the heart... It's something deeper and our job is to get
rid of the cerebral and find the stuff from the heart."
Being a hit on social media has given Odell more time, namely
not having to continuously promote his music.
"When I first started my career... so much of my time was spent
promoting the music, flying around, doing radio stuff and TV and
I do so little of that now and I think a lot of that is because
of social media," he said.
"It's allowed me to have a direct relationship with my audience
and I feel very lucky to have that but when I make records, I
have to kind of switch that off to some extent."
(Reporting by Rollo Ross; Editing by Toby Chopra)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](column_spacer.png)
|
|