BLK ODYSSY opens up about his recent musical metamorphosis in a candid conversation diving deep into his third album ‘1-800 FANTASY,’ a boldly cinematic, seductive, and angsty fever dream that bends and breaks genre while telling a story of desire and delusion, obsession and infatuation, romance and reckoning.
Stream: “LAST RESORT” – BLK ODYSSY
I discovered something about myself as a producer, as an artist, and as a creative that really opened my eyes, and it became deeper than just a ‘career move.’ It became something that was liberating for me as an artist to say, ‘I can do this sound as well.’
Forget everything you thought you knew about BLK ODYSSY.
To make his third studio album, Juwan Elcock had to deconstruct not just his own music, but his own self-image as an artist. The old sounds just weren’t working anymore, and after pushing the boundaries of alternative R&B, hip-hop, and funk on his first two LPs (2021’s BLK VINTAGE and 2023’s DIAMONDS & FREAKS), the Austin-based artist and producer found himself ready to flip the script, take a few risks, and try something new.
“I saw a bit of a ceiling to what we were doing with the first year BLK ODYSSY records, and when you see an end to a tunnel and you don’t want there to be an end, you defer – you take a different route,” the 27-year-old tells Atwood Magazine. “I’ve always had the high aspiration to have this catalog where I could play arenas, and BLK ODYSSY could be a part of something like that one day. I played a couple of festivals in some larger rooms, and I also opened for Erykah Badu, and I think there were probably 10,000 people at that show. I specifically remember the music that I was playing just didn’t seem to be moving the large crowds in the rooms that I had wanted to be in. It just didn’t feel like it was moving the people enough.”
“So I was like, first and foremost, I think we need to create something that’s higher energy, that we come out just swinging. I didn’t want to be put in a position where I did another album like DIAMONDS & FREAKS or BLK VINTAGE, and I wasn’t able to pivot anymore. It would’ve been impossible to pivot if I did it again, and I don’t think that we would’ve been a contender for some of the things that we are getting now because it was just too niche.”
What started as a career move to broaden his scope ultimately sent BLK ODYSSY down a rabbit of transformation and self-discovery, opening his eyes and his ears to new possibilities and leading him to make what he now proudly calls his favorite album yet: A cinematic, seductive, and angsty fever dream, 1-800 FANTASY is a breathtakingly bold concept album that bends and breaks genre as BLK ODYSSY builds a world that is his and his alone – all while telling a story of desire and delusion, obsession and infatuation, romance and reckoning.
There’s a naked girl in my backyard
I can run fast but won’t get far
My mom thinks that I’m an animal
I’m just looking for the antidote
There’s a British girl on my TV screen
She’s so hot she’s so mean
Burnt my body like it’s flammable
Girl, I’m still a fan of you
– “XXX,” BLK ODYSSY ft. Wiz Khalifa
Released July 19th via (EARTHCHILD/EMPIRE), 1-800 FANTASY hits hard and leaves a lasting mark on the ears and the heart as BLK ODYSSY breaks his own mold, holding nothing back as he meddles in matters of the head and the heart – exposing how fragile our psyches really are when love or lust is involved.
“I’ve always been into surrealism,” Elcock says. “I love the movies that just keep you on your toes, and then at the end of the movie, it sends you for a whirlwind of emotions and confusion and things that are mind twisting. I’ve often used or referenced film in my music, because I constantly feel like the way that I’m able to create is by scoring the different stories that I’m coming up with in my mind. This record is probably the most cohesive and fleshed out version of that, that I’ve been able to achieve so far.”
“It was just me really wanting to create this movie – I went to the label and told them, ‘I want to do a short film to this.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, that’s a lot of money. Why don’t you just make the album as cinematic as possible?’ So that’s what we did, and a lot of people gave it like a Fight Club reference. Overall, it’s a fictional story that essentially takes place in the ’90s or early 2000s; we left it subjective, but it’s definitely in the past and is based on a lot of nostalgia. We wanted it to feel nostalgic, which is where the sort of angsty punk-pop vibe and early 2000s MTV thing comes from.”
“You have this teenager in high school who is in love with this girl who’s unattainable to him. And he gets in touch with this sexy hotline, those hotlines that you would call back in the day. He gets in touch with it, and he gets on the phone with this character that’s very tantalizing ,and it draws him in. And throughout the story, she kind of exists as the devil on his right shoulder, telling him to do these things to get with this girl, how he could achieve her. So he starts to feel, through the story, that maybe she’s not telling me to do the right thing. But she always rebuttals that with picking at his character, and especially that comes out on ‘Bleach’ when he starts to say things like, ‘Who am I kidding? I’m just a waste of time. I’m kind of brain dead.’ He really starts to get down on himself, which makes him more vulnerable to listen to what she’s telling him to do.”
“As the record progresses and this relationship between him and the phone operator, as it progresses and gets a little bit more, I guess you can consider it ‘riveting,’ he starts to become manic and he starts to become a little bit more anxious and upset, and eventually it gets to ‘Last Resort’ where she’s like, ‘Yo, you need to just go. If you really want to profess your love, you have to stop being scared. Go to her front door and you have to bang on her door till she comes outside and show her the passion that you have.’ And he does that.”
“He gets to her house and then he’s banging on the door, but to no avail; it’s not working. And then he calls the phone line back and he realizes the entire time that he’s just been talking to himself, and that this person that he was talking to doesn’t really exist. So to me, the overhauling message of the record is really dealing with mental health and a lack of autonomy, and how sometimes we can create these things in our head to justify the craziness that we wanna do. I had fun with this one because I had the opportunity to tell a story.”
1-800 FANTASY acts as an exhilarating reintroduction to BLK ODYSSY.
Produced by himself together with Harry Edohoukwa and Victor Gaspar, and with consistent involvement from his longtime guitarist and collaborator Alejandro Rios, the record ebbs and flows in surprising ways as Elcock and co. subvert expectations at every turn, simultaneously challenging and enchanting his audience. “I’m BLK ODYSSEY – that’s my artist name, but I always say ‘we’ because there’s such a huge community of people around it that adds so much to it, that I always like to bring to the forefront so people can understand like the depth behind the project,” Elcock explains.
As for the sonic world he’s created, the artist and producer believes it gives an opportunity to bring more people into the BLK ODYSSY universe.
“BLK VINTAGE was a very Afrocentric and singular project, and I loved that because at that time, that’s where my head was and what I wanted to talk about,” he says. “Then DIAMONDS & FREAKS was a completely different thing. It spoke about sexual addiction, and it spoke about different things in that world, and that was cool because at that time, that’s what I wanted to address. And this one feels like something completely different, because the first two records felt like a tendency of serious topics, and that’s what we were known for. But this one broke the mold, which is what I felt was really important. Like I said, it’s brought different kinds of people. It’s brought different opportunities. It’s allowed us to dwell in other spaces that we might not have been able to with our previous two records. So once you see that, it’s like, okay, I’ve got to do something different after this, because you just wanna be all around.”
“If you’ve been following BLK ODYSSEY since 2021 when we first released our original record, then you’ll know, the reason I follow BLK ODYSSEY and the reason that I’m tapped into this world is because I know that I’m gonna be able to enjoy some common denominators in all of the projects and some throughlines, but I’m gonna get something different every time. And that’s what I think is exciting.”
Elcock cites Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly together with Pink Floyd and The Beatles as some of the album’s myriad influences, but he notes that most of his inspirations came from actual film scores.
“One of my favorite directors is Spike Lee; watching his movies over the years was an inspiration to me with film. I also got really into A24 around the 2020-ish time, and I was binging through those movies during the pandemic. My ex and I would go to the movies pretty much every day during the pandemic, because we had nothing else to do, and we would watch tons and tons of movies, which is really what got me in the headspace of creating theatrical music. It was film that really inspired it for the most part.”
While there’s an effortless flow to 1-800 FANTASY‘s theatrical, sonic, and cinematic journey, Elcock says it was hard-won.
“The vision going into it, when I got off the tour last year, was completely different than what we had come out with,” he admits. “I didn’t expect to go into this pop or pop/rock-ish world, but as the sessions progressed, it just felt natural to me. I was so weird – I would have never considered to have gone in this direction. I wanted to do something more upbeat, and I knew that, but I figured it would lean closer to the hip-hop side of things, and in the sessions, I was with my engineer who I work really closely with, Victor Gaspar. I work really close with him, and the reason I do is because he’s so critical of what we do. So I’m playing him some of the beats that I made and I’m like, ‘This is the direction I’m feeling for the new record,’ and he was like, ‘Nah, man, this isn’t it.’ And I would get pissed at him and I’d be like, ‘What are you talking about, man? This is it.’ I would storm out of the studio and then come back later and I’d be like, ‘All right, so if this isn’t it, then what is it?’
Those back-and-forths continued for a while, but eventually Elcock and his team homed in on something they felt was both exciting and different. “We spent a lot of time just doing that, just talking about, ‘Where do we go next? What is gonna be unconventional? What is gonna be fresh for the industry to hear?’ We got into this sound, and we were like, ‘Damn, this feels really good.’ It was shocking to us, but we were very open to it. We were like, ‘Alright, let’s just run with this.’ I was trying to do the classic BLK ODYSSY style over these beats and my engineer would literally say, ‘Yo, this sounds like shit.’ It was such a frustrating process at first. We spent the first three months making this record of just arguing in the studio, because I would be in the booth and they’d be like, ‘Yo, that’s not it. That’s not it. That’s not it. That’s not it. That’s not it.’ And I would just be like, ‘Well, what is it then. What are we doing?’”
“I remember we were so frustrated that we even changed studios for a different environment, and I remember hitting a breakthrough at the new studio. I realized I needed to drop whatever BLK ODYSSY had been, up until then, and to get into this method acting back of this character, and mentally put myself into the story. I need to be this person in the studio in order to really sell this character to make these records sound genuine. That’s when I started watching a bunch of movies, and I started watching a bunch of different interviews and I started by really diving into the story. I started writing out the story more and really fleshing out exactly what this was.”
“I even started changing my vocal tone. If you listen to my vocal tone on BLK VINTAGE and DIAMONDS & FREAKS versus this one, it could sometimes sound like a completely different person. But that was just me really, really getting into the character, which is what I found liberating. To me, it’s like when you watch your favorite actor in a movie – the best actors, you can tell the difference between them in one movie and a different movie. I almost look at it like, I don’t know if you’ve seen this new movie Long Legs, it has Nicolas Cage in it. I had no idea that Nicolas Cage was in the film until at the end when it said Nicolas Cage in the credits, and I was like, ‘That was Nicolas Cage?!’ I was so inspired by that, because to me it’s really cool when artists can shift whatever they have been known for and create something new. That’s what I was really, really clinging on with this record. I wanted to be this character while I was creating this album.”
The album takes its title from this special hotline that we hear the protagonist dial into on the album’s title track, right after watching an advertisement for it on TV.
“You’ve reached 1-800 Fantasy. Press 3 to fulfill your deepest desires,” a woman’s voice says on the other line. And with the push of a button, we’re drawn into this intimate world of heavy, hearty saxophones, glistening keyboards, thick bass guitar, assorted percussion, and so much more. “Hi baby, let’s play a little game,” the voice continues. “I want you to tell me your deepest darkest secrets, then I’m gonna play with it.” So begins our foray, and it’s from this entrypoint that BLK ODYSSY builds out in every direction imaginable.
From the feverish “XXX” and the sonically and emotionally charged “GEMINI” to the smoldering, white-hot “STANK ROSE” and beyond, standouts abound on the road from “”HELLO?” to “LAST RESORT.” While most tracks are sole BLK ODYSSY ventures, notable album features include Wiz Khalifa (on “XXX”) and Joey Bada$$ (on “STANK ROSE”).
“The Wiz Khalifa and Joey Badass thing was totally a blessing, man,” Elcock beams. “I was really excited that they were down to be early cosigns for BLK ODYSSEY, ‘cause we haven’t really experienced much of that in the industry. So it was definitely meaningful, and I was excited to bring them into our world and have them over my production. That was a really cool thing.”
“The rest of the artists like Harry Edohoukwa and Jackie Giroux are artists that we signed; my brother and I have a company called Earthchild, and all the records that you hear on Harry’s Spotify are produced by us, and we’re getting his stuff to the next level. And then the artist on ‘Gemini,’ Jackie Giroux, is someone that we literally just brought on before we released the album. We could have spent a lot of time searching for other features that would have brought more clout to the project, but at the end of the day, we’ve always been interested in investing in our own and building the people around us. So Jackie and Harry being on the project was huge for me, because it just means that as we gain success, so do they.”
For his part, Elcock has plenty of favorite moments on the album, but the finale is a definitive highlight. “I definitely just love ‘Last Resort’ and ‘Bleach,’ especially ‘Last Resort,’ though, because it gave me an opportunity to highlight acting points on the record,” he grins. “I have the take that I did on the record on video, and it was definitely a highlight for me because some of my favorite stuff in music coming up was the really, really theatrical stuff. I don’t know if it’s paid attention to enough in music anymore. Personally, I didn’t have to think about structure too much in that, which was kind of relieving for me. I was like, okay, I think that up until this point on the record, we’ve been able to tell the story, but at the same time, keep the structure of the song. So when it came to ‘Last Resort,’ I was like, I’ve done what I needed to do in that region. Now I can use the closer of the album to really make this as cinematic as possible.”
“So there’s a lot of breathing and heartbeats and actual dialogue and emotion, screaming, crying. There’s a lot of that on the record, which really brings the emotions that he’s been feeling on this record into a piece that can explain it the right way. I didn’t want to overdo that in the rest of the record, so I just used that as the space to do that. And I thought ‘Last Resort’ was the perfect title for that, because it felt like the ending of the project and it felt like the mental breakdown – it felt like his meltdown. And then at the end of the record, for his mom to bang on the door and tell him to wake up ‘cause he has to go to school, and to know that everything that just happened on the record was a dream the entire time, it felt like the kind of movie that I would like to watch.”
I’m afraid that I lost my mind
I think it’s all in my head
I just came to say hi
No I can’t say goodbye
Til you open this door
I see you closing your blinds
Baby let me inside
I don’t even know what to do
I ain’t got gas in my car
I just climbed her roof
Why didn’t you tell me to stop
What if she calls the cops
Baby I could get shot
Look, I just broke my wrist
trying to climb your roof
I’m a little tongue tied
I’m reaching for the door
I’ma bang my fist on this shit
‘Til you come outside
I wanted to try something new, and I feel liberated to do that.
Whether we hear this album as one teenager’s intense erotic fever dream, the product of a 27-year-old rethinking what his art can look, feel, and sound like, or something in-between, 1-800 FANTASY is a unique, unparalleled musical experience: A creative and conceptual triumph that finds BLK ODYSSY successfully redefining himself, taking control of his own narrative while telling an instantly memorable and enthralling story.
“I think what I’m hoping to be a part of with this record, not to say that we’re the cure to this, but I want to be a part of the artists in this generation that bring back the appreciation for long-form content, and to kind of have some sort of attention span when it comes to art,” Elcock shares. “We made this record 30 minutes, under 40 minutes, on purpose because we wanted people to be able to press play on their way home from work and listen to the entire thing and say, ‘Wow, I enjoyed genuinely this whole body of work and it worked cohesively as a long-form piece of content.’ And it wasn’t a 30-second thing. It wasn’t a one-minute song. It was songs that are developing, and some of them are in the same key and they’re moving together so we can enjoy this project as a cohesive start-to-finish thing. That was one of the main goals on this project. I wanted to be an artist that advocated for long-form content and long-form art, and this is an album that is 100% better listened to from start to finish.”
“Other than that, I wanted to push some boundaries when it came to putting theatrics in music and really making things cinematic. I wanted to be a part of that wave, just getting out of the box and not letting whatever it might be, your genre or your skin color or anything of that sort, conforming to a certain sound. I’m proud that I’m a Black artist that’s testing things out in the, whatever you want to call it, indie rock or indie pop, alt-pop world, I’m glad that I’m not an artist that they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s doing R&B and hip-hop.’ I wanted to try something new, and I feel liberated to do that. So those were the things that pushed me the most on this record.”
As far as what he’s listening to these days, Elcock recommends folks check out the artists he’s working with – Lyra, Harry Edohoukwa, and Jackie Giroux. “But outside of my own team, I’ve been listening to a ton of Mk.gee as well. I’ve been loving that stuff for a minute now. Remi Wolf, Jessica Pratt, the new Willow stuff… but I would say that my favorite artist, honestly, is King Krule. I’ve listened to King Krule every day for the last five years. He’s the one that I listen to. Like my Spotify Wrapped for the last three years was all King Krule, number one. I’ve been DM’ing him for years. It looks bad at this point, but I’m going to keep doing it until he responds.”
Dive into the full record via our below stream, and peek inside BLK ODYSSY’s 1-800 FANTASY with Atwood Magazine as Juwan Elcock goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his third studio album!
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:: stream/purchase 1-800 FANTASY here ::
:: connect with BLK ODYSSY here ::
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Stream: ‘1-800 FANTASY’ – BLK ODYSSY
:: Inside 1-800 FANTASY ::
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HELLO?
“HELLO?” sets the tone for the album, it brings the listener into the nativists. It introduces the fantasy hotline, which is one of the main elements of the story.
XXX
“XXX” was inspired by the early 2000s MTV era along with elements of OutKast. The song is intended to bring a certain element of nostalgia.
PHASE
“PHASE” brings another element of nostalgia while giving a fresh take on the genre. “PHASE” begins to show the audience the main character’s obsession with his love interest.
WANT YOU
“WANT YOU” is co- produced by Grammy award winning producer Tyler Johnson. The significance of the song is that it blends punk and pop. Want you continues to show his love and beginning stages of obsession with his love interest.
DELILAH
“DELILAH” brings a retro soul feel to the album, its intended to put the listener in a different time space where they experience “old school love.”
BLEACH
“BLEACH” is where we get the first real interaction between the main character and the hotline. We see traces of instability, we see how the main character really looks at himself. It is a self reflective and lamenting track.
CHANGES
“CHANGES” is an anthem with a adolescent feel. It highlights the frustrations that one faces when they truly love someone or something.
CREEP
In this track the main character expresses the insecurities that the he feels about himself and how he feel the world looks at him. This is a major turning point in the record as we begin to see how these insecurities feed his instability.
STANK ROSE
“STANK ROSE” is where the main character acknowledges that his love interest does not really know who he is. We also see glimpses throughout the song of how he is still hopeful that one day the will still end up together.
R U STILL THERE?
This track highlights the battle that the main character is facing internally. He is asking himself in this track “ R U STILL THERE”? Or has he checked out completely.
CHASING FANTASIES
“CHASING FANTASIES” is that moment of bliss one has before they officially have a mental breakdown. The main character realizes here that his chances of getting her are non existent and he has been chasing a fantasy.
LAST RESORT
This song takes you through the moment when he is outside his love interest house. He has finally gain enough courage to tell her how much he truly loves her. He does this not realizing that his antics are at a such a heightened level that it terrifies her . Last resort is where he has a complete mental breakdown.
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:: stream/purchase 1-800 FANTASY here ::
:: connect with BLK ODYSSY here ::
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© Bethany Reed
© Bethany Reed1-800 FANTASY
an album by BLK ODYSSY
