TOM ODELL: SŁAWA MNIE PRZERAŻA. O ciemnych stronach popularności

There's something so unnatural about walking into a venue and seeing your name and giant letters on the front. That I don't think I ever feel completely comfortable with. It's like very strange feeling. I'm a huge fan and genuinely like she's inspired my music, a great deal, particularly in obviously in the latter years. I think what she's done to the craft and the soul in the music is to me profoundly deep. So yeah, I love it. It's great. She asked, "It's like there's no brainer." I mean, it was more just we had to move a few shows around to make it work. But it feels like such an amazing opportunity. She's still so young. I guess do you often see some emotions that Yang Tom has during your. When you start your career, do you see the same emotions in her, like those days? No, because I think we're all the same, we're all human beings. But I think that level of success and fame that she has is so extraordinary. I never really have experienced that before. I've no varieties. There's people that do silly dances on TikTok that I have more fame than I do. It's really. I'm not really. I always like to feel slightly uncomfortable with sharing the songs. Not in a strange way, but just in a way of like. It has to reveal something, I think, at least. I would love to go to Ukraine and sing that song. "The past is a new world." Is it Spanish, F. Cragóvia? Spanish, F. Cragóvia. I must say sincerely mean this. I really, really like Cragóvia. A lot. It's one of my favorite places to come and visit. This is my second time visiting here. It's just a lovely city. I went for a run along the river this morning. The sun was shining. And then yesterday I walked through the town. There's that ring of kind of foresty. Yeah, planty. Beautiful. I had to go to the mall to buy some headphones. So I checked out your mall. I had to go to a shop there. Please check also the main square. I've been to the main square. It's so beautiful here. It's crazy. Really, really nice. I hope we get to come back lots of times. Yeah, see you soon because we were waiting for you. But talking about last concert, last show, how do you feel after the show? How do you handle that, Dreneline? Because people are crazy hearing you. We're all waiting for you every time. And I guess you're full of adrenaline after the show. So how do you handle that? You kind of snap out of it like the minute you walk out, the arena into the dressing room seems to sort of disappear. I find it much more difficult at my own shows. I don't know why. But I think maybe just playing for longer and hour and a half. And it's more exhausting and more energizing perhaps. But yeah, it is a challenge. I'd say it's the longer you do this job, my job, the more you perhaps learn tricks and ways to get around it. But in the first six or seven years of my career, you just wanted to keep the party going. Yeah, Rakan Rull. Which is fine for a bit. But it's better to kind of come down. But I do quite a lot of sort of like meditation and stuff at these days. I'm very, I'm like a monk. Yeah, room. So is it still going for you? Yeah, we yeah, there's lots of meditation and and yeah, I mean, I think the meditation before the show is great because it makes it sacred the show, which it is. It has to be every night. It has to feel like it might be your first and your last show ever. And and I think that the band that I play with also has the same feeling towards that. And we respect it greatly. And I and I hope that that is communicated in the shows because because we really we really care about them. And all of us have come from a background of live music. You know, growing up playing in bands, since we were young. And that kind of I guess that ethos that spirit of, you know, it's it's our kind of duty to let people forget themselves and and to feel. And and the more connected we can be and more present we can be on stage. The more chance are that somebody will also feel present. And I think in today's world, it's it's becoming ever more juxtaposed juxtaposed or it feels ever more kind of powerful that feeling of being making live music and. Just being there together with a lot of people in the crazy world. We are we all searching for the calm moments. Yeah, we got less of them. Yeah, but I was asking because you prefer much more meditation or chatting with Billy before the show. Oh, you have any chances to chat slowly and like calmly before the show together. They they have a they have occasionally they have these dogs backstage. All right. If you've heard that. Yeah. And there was a nice moment where I got to talk to Billy with poppies running around. They could pop yoga. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. But no, I think, you know, it the Billy tour and the Billy show. You know, I don't know if you've seen the Billy show. Not live. Unfortunately, it's an incredible show. I know. And and I think it's probably incredibly exhausting. And everyone is so everyone, you know, I think on that tour has a job to do. And it seems to me they treat it with the utmost respect as well. And so I think it's it's an amazing evening and and she's incredibly inspiring. And I just feel very grateful to be on the tour. Like it's amazing. You kind of feel in a strange way like you're at the center of the world each evening, which is certainly a new feeling for me. It's also nice to to be the support act like it's not your role usually the supportive role because you have your own tour. Now you're like pre training. But in a way, it's more natural. I think position to be in like there's something so unnatural about walking into a venue and seeing your name and giant letters on the front. It's like very strange feeling unsettling. And so to be on a tour where you know Billy's doing all the hard work, the heavy lifting, you know, she's selling all the tickets and I mean she sold all the tickets before we even got involved and to just be able to it just feels it's like I'm able to enjoy it more actually I would enjoy the whole experience more because there isn't so much pressure. So it's really nice in that respect. I just want to talk with you about your music, but one last question man about Billy, I guess I don't have to ask how it feels when Billy suggests you go on tour together. Do you remember the first time you heard the information? We were going to go on tour with her or there was talk of it last year like we got shortlisted or they asked us whether we wanted to do it last year for a different tour. And what did you see first? I mean I'm just like I'm a big fan so like my wife and I were both like I can't really think of another artist we both like listen to more collectively than her. So I'm a huge fan and genuinely like she's inspired my music a great deal particularly in you know obviously in the latter years. I think what she's done to the craft and the soul in the music is to me profoundly deep and so yeah I love it it's great and what you know she asked it's like there's no brainer I mean it was more just we had to move a few shows around to make it work. But you know if it feels like such an amazing opportunity she's still so young I guess do you often see some emotions that young Tom has during your when you start your career do you see the same emotions in her like those days no because like I think. I think look we're all the same we're all human beings but I think that level of success and fame that she has is so extraordinary. And I think I never really have experienced that before like I've my no to riot is you know there's there's people that do silly dances on take talk that I have more fame than I do you know it's like it's it's really you should start that. I'm not like I'm not really. The right fit for it I don't think I fear that. I fear it I would be a bag of nerves were I to get any more face recognition than I already have. I guess don't start your ticket because we love your music and the emotions you gave us with your music. Yeah so that's enough for us and we're still waiting for the new album wonderful life which was created that's that's interesting during the tour. Yeah and I have to ask about the making process please tell me some some sneak peeks about that so we told lots last year. I'm touring lots this year as well and but last year I started writing the album in January and a lot of the words were written on planes and you know in a notebook yeah I've always kept a notebook always have a notebook on the go. I guess it's somewhere between you know I like to write every day and sometimes it feels kind of automatic writing sometimes they morph into songs and. I guess like a lot of the songs kind of took shape over the course of nine months and then we had a big sheet of paper. We had a big part of sheets of paper and we ran and recorded it in London at the end of September I think and we got it done through four months. Okay yeah. It would be so role as Black Friday yeah yeah yeah I think it's definitely very unpolished and it's much more live actually we recorded it really yeah quite live and. So you prefer a double way of like recording at the moment yeah yeah yeah at the moment I like that way but you know you tend to I tend to be drawn to. Whatever feels the most kind of fresh like I haven't like knew you know just kept in the moment yeah yeah it was nice to you know like my band. We've done so many shows together and there's such a kind of connection I think between us all it was amazing to record with them because it was it was you know we did it quite traditionally like. Have them all at the studio every day and. You know did takes and you know if we didn't like the take we're doing a number one you know and so on so. But yeah I'm really I'm really proud of the album I think it's very um it's exposing. In the right amount I think like like I always like to feel slightly uncomfortable with sharing the songs like not not not in a strange way but just in a way of like. It has to reveal something I think at least and. I think the songs reveal lots of things the am does so when do you know that the song is 100% finished and ready to go. When you when you feel that you can show your songs your album to the world. I mean like I don't like this term perfectionist but because I think it's kind of glorified and you know and it but but ultimately like. You work it till you can't work anymore I think you know until your hands are raw and that's how I've always worked you know like I'm probably quite an obsessive person. And I. I think one has to be to do this job to some extent because there's so much music that comes out every day you know. It's got to be extraordinary in some capacity or you've got at least believe it is and whether or not it is it's you know it's another thing but. The most important thing is it gives you that feeling of of of you me you know it gives me that feeling of of of this is something that I'm really really proud of and there might be problems with it which you have to accept and let go. And you know I listen to records that I put out a decade ago and all I still hear is problems and regrets in the fact that I did a certain thing like I couldn't but you just have to live with that much like life you know you you you you you have to learn to live with yourself in it all your. Your imperfections which you know let something go yeah yeah I think I think. And I think there's there's so much to be learned from making making music like anything doing it over and over again you learn stuff about yourself. What about the lyrics on your new album it's going to be some experiences and difficulties of relationships also as you did on your previous ones I'm curious about that. Relationships are everything or situations during your flight. Relationships are everything whether that be between you and me now or or me and a stranger in a lift or me and my wife or me and my friends or in me and my parents or cousins or sister or brother you know that they they they are everything is is is it's. And a bottomless pit of of of inspiration maybe some dates from the past dates with women's not many of those no no no no no. But you know I would say it all goes into the same pot you know I think the other interesting thing is that like I always think like songwriting is like you know if you go to sleep at night and you have you dream and you wake up in the morning and sometimes you remember them sometimes you don't but. They they're so abstracted from our reality you know you dream about something that happened 10 years ago you dream about something that has never happened or. Like I find songwriting is the kind of same thing you might my my journey as a songwriter sort of runs parallel to my own life but. Sometimes has very little connection to it and might be like a few years behind or a few years ahead and and. I think the least appealing songs to me are when they kind of to dimensionally. Diaristic like this thing happened you know four weeks ago and very literal you know I had this conversation and it and it hurt me or like it's like they have to tap into something like transcendental they have to tap into something mysterious. Because people don't go to songs they don't reach to music. For for more. Monday feelings yeah we need we reach to songs for. Extremes but also missed the mysticism of life is is and and the am big the moral ambiguity ambiguity is the thing also I'm interested in always is. How life endlessly seems to distort this idea. Whatever ideas I or anyone might have of about the world I think we all need the deeper meaning and that's the good point to start to talk about another love because you heard the question many times many times but are you impressed about the fact that this song when viral again. According to the situation in Ukraine maybe and all the stuff going around the world so what are your impressions about that my impressions are I feel incredibly. Grateful and touched and. More than a decade I guess yeah that people still connect with that song in such a profoundly meaningful way and obviously there's a kind of. Sentimental or bitter sweet feeling when it's attached to like horrifying situations. But in a you know it does make me feel more connected to them if I'm being honest with you like I do feel. A connection to the to the to the world and. It can be hard to to to know what to do with that feeling. Because you know I would love to go to Ukraine and and sing that song and. But one doesn't I'm so scared of it ever coming across as opportunistic you know and and. You know probably over think it slightly and and I'm not doing it but like I think I think. It's a strange. Tight rope to walk as a musician is is is to accept that. Your music is going to be used in in a load of different ways that you can't control and. And to know when to dip in and out of those worlds you know. If that makes sense but I guess it's so wonderful when you see all those tiktoks where people. In Ukraine this into the songs yeah and feel better. Yeah just the way it is just what I don't know if I feel bad. I guess yeah I guess you keep them hope with your music yeah yeah and and that inspires me to make more you know if anything and you know I think. I have genuinely like made much more albums in the last three or four years and I think that is inspired by. Feeling like the work I'm doing has collected with with people in a in a in a meaningful way you know in a way that isn't. So what's the word I know transient like it feels so yeah I just I just feel profoundly grateful for that. To who I don't know but to somebody we still play another love on our MFFM so I mean it's mad is mad that song it constantly. You know every time I think it's gonna die down and disappear it sort of like comes back in some other capacity and you know it is wild I don't really know why either like I can't like what to me it's it's a good song but. You know I do if you ask me to do it again I don't I wouldn't know where to begin and also many artist cover your songs and this is a good moment to. To show you something because have you probably seen some of the cove us and I would like to show you absolutely stunning performance of a black Friday covered by two our Polish artists great. And David Potsyad was doing on to check it out yeah absolutely so that was in which I probably know as you mentioned so. That was a hard attack. Is he quite good very good it's a hard song to sing I guess so it's so high to sing also yeah yeah. It's amazing his proper artist right yeah like the most known artist in Poland right now so yeah wow who's this person this is that is of your off she's like doing big shows in a like big venues in Poland also. I love watching people sing sing my song it's amazing makes me so happy. What do you feel about that what are your emotions during like this performance I prefer it to me. Because I get to enjoy it. Do you feel you can join them on stage maybe these are your emotions watching that. No I wouldn't want to join them. Why? Because they're doing a good job. Yeah well maybe if they are some of their fans are listening to this that they can ask them if one of them wants to come and stage for me in. Yeah in November if they're around if they're around yeah so we just need to ask them yeah November is it November the 17th yeah you get them to come and sing. So they already know the it's two artists isn't it yeah that it and David yeah yeah well whichever one both maybe. So you're part of the yeah please feel invited yeah if they're just I'm sure someone maybe you've met them you met them yeah yeah you can ask them. They're super cool yeah easy going yeah yeah great. Don't think so much for the chat thank you have a good one in Poland yeah and see you in at them yeah thank you so much thank you yeah cheers thank you.