Beaumont Music Festival: Odds interview

Odds are a Vancouver rock-band who toured with The Tragically Hip and Barenaked Ladies, and went platinum in Canada. Their most recent album release, Crash the Time Machine, came out in 2023 and the band is looking to a new release. 

After their set at the Beaumont Music Festival, The Gateway sat down with Craig Northey, the band’s guitarist and singer, to chat about their recent and upcoming releases, and the beginnings of Odds. 

“We started out writing out music and being Odds, but then we started a phony British invasion band. We did it as a house gig, four sets a night on the Granville Strip in Vancouver. We dressed up in disguises and had different names and it was a lot of shake, but mostly comedy. We did the music very much in the spirit and close to what it was. We were changing the words as we went and insulting the crowd,” Northey explained.

“We were the Don Rickles of bands, all insulting the audience. And people loved it. And we loved that people didn’t care about anything, they lined up around the walk to see it. That gave us the resources to keep going as ourselves [Odds]. We used that money to record everyday and then we didn’t sleep for a few years. It was all comedic, tongue in cheek I would say,” he added.

Northey said the “comedy died when [they] started making records.” 

On their most recent release, he said that there was a consistent element to the record. “We finished it during COVID[-19] and we started it during the desperation before that. And we lost a lot of friends during that time.” 

During their set at the Beaumont Music Festival, they called out The Tragically Hip, as a song on their recent release, “Walk Among the Stars,” is dedicated to the Hip’s singer, and Canadian icon, Gord Downie. 

“If I didn’t say it was dedicated to him, it would have been pretty obvious with the title,” Northey says

“That’s why there was a shout-out to the Hip. We are their friends. And we lost one of them and the world decided what was going to become of them before them,” Northey explained. 

“A couple of the songs are dedicated to John Mann of Spirit of the West, who was our dear friend who passed as well. He died of early onset Alzheimer’s,” he added. 

“There’s grief and celebration in the record, and there’s a line through there. There’s a bunch of songs that tie together that idea,” he said. 

On taking part in Downie’s legacy, Northey said that “the best part is having been his friend. He was a wonderful guy and we had a lot of fun. And we have a platform, if something inspires us or an image comes from our lives or memory, we expand it into a song. And if I didn’t say it was dedicated to him, it would have been pretty obvious with the title,” Northey explained. 

While “Walk Among the Stars” has a narrative that the Odds feel is obvious to the listener, but they usually write ambiguously, Northey said. 

“A lot of our songs are stories that only we understand. And then somebody can get what they want out of it. Stories are universal, you don’t have to know the specifics. The last vestige of obscurity is the pop song, you have to figure it out.” he said. 

On a new record, Northey said “we’ll have to make it first. We haven’t started. But there’s plans, there’s always plans. We’ve written some songs but they weren’t very Odds-like. And we’re the last people to know what Odds-like is.” 

There’s been some changes in terms of personnel in the band over the years, and Northey said the band views the new members as making a new era for the band. 

“Different people make different sounds,” he said.