Odeal is feeling it. The crooner, who broke through with music lovers everywhere with his hit “Soh Soh” last summer, is in Paris at the time of our chat. His baritone voice is scratchy from doing double duty: working and partying. He’s enjoying Men’s Fashion Week while also fulfilling his DJ duties during the city’s Fête de la Musique celebration. A day later, he’ll head back to his native London for just a day before traversing to Belgium the day after to perform.
“This voice has to come back,” Odeal, born Hillary Dennis Udanoh (my Edo family), says. “But we’ll see. And after that, Portugal for Afro Nation.”
While all this country hopping could feel like a chore for some, for Odeal, it’s more of an adventure. He is a citizen of the world, gleefully digging through SoundCloud mixes of Afro tech and batida while flying from place to place. Born in Germany, he was raised between Nigeria, Spain, and the UK, so staying put is not in his nature. Travel, in fact, is what’s inspired his latest EP, The Summer That Saved Me, dropping on July 11.
“All of those different places I’ve been to, I’ve been able to make a summer project that doesn’t have your generic summer sound,” he says. “It’s the soundtrack to summer where you might be coming back from the club early in the morning, and it’s like a drive, or maybe you want to turn up, get to the club, or you might just be at the beach and you want to chill, or you might even be cleaning the house on a Sunday. I’ve taken inspiration from all the different places I’ve been.”
In addition to an epic feature from Leon Thomas for “Miami” (a collaboration that he first heard the final version of while working on a balcony in Dubai, by the way) and the hit single “London Summers,” destination references and global sounds are woven throughout the project.
“I feel like there are pieces of me in different countries, and you have to kind of just go and find them,” he says. “You go to a certain country or explore a certain culture, and you see something that resonates with you, and you’re like, yo, why haven’t I been doing this? Why don’t I live life like this? This is how I was supposed to live life. So it kind of just inspires me in a way where there’s more I get to learn about myself.”
A sun seeker, some of his favorite destinations involve beaches, good vibes, and setting up shop to make music along the way. No itinerary is wanted or needed. Top stops include Cape Town, South Africa, and Barcelona, Spain. Due to his early years in the latter country, he understands Spanish, though he can’t speak it. Odeal has his sights set next on Brazil, the Maldives, and, of all places, Houston. “You know why? I heard there’s loads of Black people in Houston.”
But nothing beats a London summer. Hence the title of his latest single, a Shae Jacobs and Jack Dine production that leans into Alte, R&B, Afrobeats, and nostalgic sounds, making it the perfect candidate for song of the summer. Made in LA, actually, the tune embodies what he believes are the unbeatable vibes of his home city during this time of year, when the sun is beaming.
“There’s so many different cultures in London, and you really get to see the beauty of it in the sun. London’s always miserable because there’s the rain, but for that little time that we get sun, everybody gets along,” he shares. “It’s like when you see all of the family, maybe like a dysfunctional family, get together at a cookout and have the best time ever.”
“It is so beautiful because you get to see all the different cultures and the music and people just want to be out, just at a park, having a beer or a wine,” he adds. “I had to sing its praises.”
But the song is universal. It’s meant to get you excited for the staples of summertime, whether you’re staying close to home or hopping on a flight to explore something new. The entire LP provides that soundtrack.
“With everything from streaming to TikTok, the world is more connected than ever. We see everything going on. So our enjoyment is in our hands now,” he shares. “So I feel like it’s going to be a really dope summer for self-discovery, learning things, unlearning things. It is going to be a very present one, and one of the most documented summers. And I wanted a playlist or a soundtrack that could follow people through that.”
He adds, “I want people to attach this project to this time, because in a couple of years, it’s going to be like, yeah, that was the year that this happened. This happened, and I was listening to this song and that song at this time. I really want this project to mark a point in time. I know that people are going to be the most present, right now, this summer. So yeah, The Summer That Saved Me will provide that.”
Listen to The Summer That Saved Me on July 11 on all streaming platforms.