Sean Kusanagi Interview: ODESZA’s ECHOES Set up

“It takes a workforce” isn’t only a saying to ODESZA. As one of many greatest digital acts on the planet, Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight have constructed up their world following by surrounding themselves with individuals who not solely imagine of their imaginative and prescient however assist carry it to life. In actual fact, the band’s artistic leads are very a lot thought-about members of ODESZA themselves.

Significantly, SOUND+VISION Award honoree Sean Kusanagi. As a longtime pal of Mills and Knight relationship again to their school years at Western Washington College, Kusanagi has performed a pivotal function within the creation and evolution of ODESZA.

“I really ended up introducing Harrison and Clay as a result of I knew each of them and that they have been doing separate initiatives,” Kusanagi says. “Clay was doing BeachesBeaches, and Harrison doing Catacombkid. I used to be residing with Clay on the time, type of close to our senior 12 months, and I advised the blokes they need to actually simply get collectively and play some music.”

When he inspired Mills and Knight to satisfy, Kusanagi didn’t envision that the pair would find yourself forming one of the crucial famend touring acts within the nation or that it might without end change the course of his personal profession. Early gigs in ODESZA’s profession noticed Kusanagi carrying all kinds of various hats, from touring with the band, to enjoying guitar on the duo’s 2012 album Summer season’s Gone, to mapping lasers on the band’s Final Goodbye tour, Kusanagi developed as a powerhouse artistic power in his personal proper because the band ascended to stardom.

“My function is to make it possible for the entire artistic parts are working collectively,” Kusanagi says of his present function in ODESZA. “We’ve at all times been obsessive about cinema and films and constructing cinematic-type experiences. And the present’s no completely different. It’s like we’re telling a story, we’re actually constructing a film on stage for folks to see.”

“Music drives every thing and having the ability to work so carefully with my mates Harrison and Clay and Luke [Tanaka] pondering as an entire cohesive entity is the place simply loads of the magic occurs,” Kusanagi continues. “Generally it’s a visible that sparks the audio and generally the audio sparks a visible or a laser second or a pyro second or a costuming second or a choreography second. My aim is to only construct a world on the stage in order that when folks present up, they really feel immersed for these 90 minutes to 2 hours and really feel like they stay inside this ‘ODESZA world’ that may solely exist proper then and there.”

We requested Kusanagi what he believes to be the principle revolutionary elements which have modified ODESZA’s stay exhibits over the previous 20 years.

Inventive Innovation 1: Drumline & Visible Musicality

So this was one of many first parts that we actually dropped at life, relationship again to round 2015 or 2016. ODESZA being an digital group, they wished to carry stay orchestral and musicality to a present that’s persistently manufactured from computer systems and digital parts. I feel lots of people can agree that it’s not very fascinating to only watch somebody behind a pc. So it probed the query of how do you carry to life all the weather of their music, which is so layered and so textural and has so many several types of worldly samples? That was actually the very first thing that excited us.

The very first thing that we tried was including some drumming. Harrison and Clay initially simply began drumming on stage, really bringing a drum package up there. They introduced a SPD, toms, and crash to only add a few of these preliminary energies since that’s all they might afford on the time.

We saved eager to make it larger although because the exhibits received larger. It’s not sufficient only for the 2 of them to drum. So we introduced on a drumline to symbolize so many of those rhythms and kinds. It was nearly 10 years in the past now after we partnered with the Colorado College drumline, and what’s enjoyable is a few of these members are nonetheless with us now.

We wished to then preserve constructing on ODESZA’s cinematic musicality. That’s the place we thought so as to add string elements as nicely, and we introduced strings to certainly one of ODESZA’s first Crimson Rocks headlining exhibits. That was the second the place we began realizing there are all these alternatives to construct not simply round these digital moments, however round these musical and orchestral moments and make it come to life. ODESZA constructed on this “cinematic-ness,” which was and continues to be very future-thinking.

Inventive Innovation 2: Pyrotechnics

It’s very easy to only put an explosion inside a present as a result of now we have cash and it’ll simply make the gang hyped. However for us, it comes again to the query, “What’s motivating it? Why are we doing it?” We wish to take into consideration why we’re doing this and why it is sensible so as to add any type of artistic component into the stay present.

So for us, sure, pyro is a large a part of our present, however we additionally wish to make it possible for it feels motivated for the way every thing is working collectively. I’ll use “Loyal” for instance right here, the place now we have this military of drummers on the stage and now we have this king that’s rising from the useless. They’re bringing this loyal king to life. And in that second we’re like, oh, hearth makes a lot sense right here so as to add on the stage simply because now we have this very nearly battle battle scene taking place, each with the drum line and the visuals. The hearth helps accent that.

We use pyro to assist inform the story of this ODESZA world that we’re in.

One of many challenges that comes with pyro is the numerous completely different stage codecs we discover ourselves in. With the drumline out, now we have lots of people onstage, generally 16 folks, whereas additionally attempting to set off pyrotechnics. We needed to work rather a lot on the choreography or reworked stage positionings to make it work on sure levels for certain. The entire thing will get underestimated, which is why you additionally don’t see it that always.

We’ve included pyrotechnics for the previous 5 or so years, however it was The Final Goodbye tour the place we actually dove in and constructed time code round our pyrotechnics and our particular results like confetti. We had each second deliberate. Each second is deliberate right down to the millisecond when it’s taking place and the way it’s firing and the way it’s being shot off within the present.

Inventive Innovation 3: Visuals

The mastermind behind the visuals is my associate Luke Tanaka. He’s the lead on loads of it, however he works with 30-40 artists from everywhere in the world to create the visuals at ODESZA’s exhibits.

We get to map out the present plan, and what kind of visuals for every track, after which work with these actually gifted artists throughout the globe to craft the narrative behind each present. That is actually Harrison, Clay, Luke, and myself determining what kind of favor we would like the visuals to be. Is it animation? Is it Cinema 4D, is it unreal? Is it after-effects?

What kind of program will we wish to use? What kind of visible artists will we wish to collaborate with?

An instance is our work with Aeforia, this wonderful artist up from Canada who did loads of the album design and album cowl design. He constructed these characters after which we began utilizing these characters as the principle illustration of the Final Goodbye souls that you simply really noticed as inflatables up on the Gorge and are additionally simply sort the narrative tie between every thing within the present.

We actually attempt to steer clear of constructing your traditional three-part loop for every track, which you’ll see the format of loads of occasions, and as an alternative get into what the precise narrative of this present is, how do all these visuals play and intersect collectively? After which most significantly, what kind of visible desires to symbolize the music in an entire totally new method so when somebody exhibits as much as the present they expertise a track and it evokes one thing completely different for them and permits them to listen to it in an entire new mild.

Inventive Innovation 4: Lasers

We’ve used lasers for a very long time, however we particularly leveled them up for The Final Goodbye tour.

Particularly, the lasers that we introduced into the Gorge have been a really distinctive new factor. I feel one factor that we’ve at all times tried to do is that if we’re at a particular venue [like The Gorge] we would like it to really feel additional particular. So we wished to see how we might use lasers in a brand new method.

We really put lasers behind the gang and shot all of them the way in which throughout the Gorge, with extra wattage and lasers than what has ever been at that venue earlier than. Projecting them throughout the gang and into the background created this expansive place for folks. The quantity we used was the primary time that that’s ever been executed in that capability at that venue.

I feel that’s additionally the principle ethos for each single certainly one of these items. How has it been executed prior to now and the way can we break that mildew and the way can we recontextualize it or rebuild it in a method that feels prefer it has at all times belonged on this set? And even whether it is pushing the boundaries of the visuals or the world-building or the lasers or the pyro, the primary factor for all of it’s that it really works collectively.

If it doesn’t work collectively, then all of it falls aside. I really suppose one of the crucial revolutionary issues is simply constructing this from mates and constructing this as a pal group, who’ve been collectively because the very starting and figuring out that these are a number of the greatest exhibits. I by no means thought that I might be on this place of artistic directing earlier than Beyonce at Coachella, however to have the ability to look over and see myself doing this with my mates whereas sharing a stage with Beyonce or Eminem, and do three nights bought out on the Gorge, that’s everybody’s dream.