The Stokemobile Report: Catching Up With Odesza Before Minus Zero Festival at Mount Snow

Odesza performing back in 2014. Adinda Uneputty/Flickr photo.

The TGR Stokemobile is continuing its tour throughout the Northeast with our partners Outside TV and BLDG Active. 

But, with the ski season snowpack beginning to thaw, the Stokemobile has started to shed its winter coat and look forward to the summer by shifting its attention to music festivals, starting this weekend with the Minus Zero Festival at Vermont's Mount Snow.

And, in preparation for the wild weekend, we decided to reach out to a couple old friends of ours who happen to be headlining the festival: Odesza.

The Seattle-based duo rose came together while studying at Western Washington University–a school steeped in mountain culture–and before long caught our eye and appeared on our Almost Ablaze and Paradise Waits soundtrack.

We got them on the phone to ask them a handful of quick questions prior to the festival.

TGR: Let's talk about your history with TGR. How did you guys first become aware of TGR and how long have you been fans for?

Harrison Miles: I think the first time I heard about TGR was in college, at Western Washington. There’s a big outdoors scene there and some of our friends were really into big mountain riding. 

Odesza's music has drawn them scores of fans in the action sports community. Tonje Thilesen photo.

Around the same time, I was getting hit up by some ski filmmakers to have music from my solo project, Catacombkid, in their videos. We really came to appreciate that intersection of music and ski culture, and TGR was a big part of that. A few years later we were playing the afterparty for Almost Ablaze at the Mangy Moose in Jackson. 

Western Washington University has a reputation for breeding some absolute rippers. How, if at all, has mountain culture influenced your music?

HM: Yeah, Luke Tanaka, who was a friend of mine from the design program at Western, was a pro skier before we pulled him in to run the live visuals for our show, and he’s been with us ever since. 

I think there’s a lot of introspection that comes with being in the mountains, and that shows up in our music. There’s also this grandness and scale that you can only get in the mountains, and that has a big influence on us. On this last album, we did a lot of the initial writing up near Lake Chelan, a few hours outside of Seattle. 

We've obviously used your music on a few of our soundtracks, but why do you think your music has been so well received by the snow community?

Clayton Knight: That’s hard to say–music is such a subjective thing. We’ve always been going for a very cinematic sound, so I think that pairs well with big mountain riding.

Odesza always brings a solid light show to their concerts. Julian Bajsel photo.

There are also a lot of hip-hop elements in our songs, and obviously that’s always been a staple of the ski and snowboard communities. 

How are you guys feeling about playing Minus Zero? Is this your first time visiting the Green Mountain State?

CK: We’re looking forward to it! It’s not our first time to Vermont, but it’s been too long. Last time we were there was 2015, and we did two shows in one night at Higher Ground.

I remember something went wrong with our bus on the way to the show and we were scrambling to get everything set up in time. Everyone at the venue was super helpful and the shows were great. It’s going to be nice to be back. 

Odesza is making its first trip back to Vermont in three years. Julian Bajsel photo.

Any other festivals on the lineup for the rest of the year?

HM: Yeah, a lot of festivals this year. Right after Minus Zero we fly to BC for Snowbombing, then we start gearing up for Coachella. Hangout, Firefly, Panorama, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, and our first time going to Japan, for Fuji Rock. That’s definitely a bucket list show for us. 

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It all began with a dream and a little cash scraped together from fishing in Alaska... Since 1995, we've been an action sports media company committed to fueling progression through our ground-breaking films (37 and counting) and online content.