Why Leslie Odom Jr. decided to embrace imperfection on When a Crooner Dies
The Grammy and Tony-winning performer talks to Q’s Tom Power about his new album of original songs
For Leslie Odom Jr.'s new album, When a Crooner Dies, the jazz singer, actor and Broadway performer tried a new approach to recording, as well as to how he talks to himself.
In an interview with Q's Tom Power, Odom said, historically, he's been his own harshest critic.
"Nobody's ever hit me with a criticism that's worse than [what] I've said to myself," he said.
That self-criticism manifested itself as relentless perfectionism in the recording booth. Odom would often make himself do 100 to 150 takes in order to get a performance right. But for this album, Odom took a gentler approach that was influenced by a new interest in self-care.
During the pandemic, he started a self-care routine that involved, among other things, getting up earlier to journal and check in with himself.
"I realized five or six weeks into doing this [that] this is what loving myself looks like," he told Power. "Maybe for the very first time in my life, I'm consciously putting myself on the list, conscientiously taking care of myself."
Fatherhood has also played a role in Odom's new approach to his art. He said that having kids has been "healing" for him. "The only way I was going to make it through was to find my way towards something that looked like love," he said.
"I started being gentle with myself and trying to find the same grace with myself that I have toward my son, toward my kids, believing that I'm worthy of that kind of gentleness from time to time. It's not unrelated to the 150 takes that I used to do. I used to be so unforgiving of myself, and so rigorous and hard on myself in ways that I don't think, in the long run, were healthy."
A new approach to recording has also given Odom an appreciation for the uniqueness of his own voice — something he'd long appreciated in others, but struggled to see in his own work.
"I've long loved folk singers," he said. "My favourite thing is a human voice. The thing that touches me most is not the most perfect, pristine voice in the whole world. It's the voice that communicates something. It's the voice that sounds like a fingerprint. Sometimes that voice is weathered. Sometimes that voice is gruff, sometimes that voice is kind of croaking the notes out. It's just speaking the notes out.… I've long loved it in other singers, I've just had to find a way to allow myself to allow the light to shine through my cracks as well."
WATCH | Leslie Odom Jr.'s interview with Tom Power:
The full interview with Leslie Odom Jr. is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Leslie Odom Jr. produced by Mitch Pollock.
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