Erik Odsell is an award winning Swedish songwriter and recording artist. For several years he has worked as a freelance musician behind many well-known Swedish artists and he has written music for artists both in Europe and the United States.
In the fall of 2015, Erik Odsell’s debut solo album Searching For Lost Boys Island was released. Erik also released 3 singles from the album which were all well received.
When Erik’s debut single, and the title track for the album Searching For Lost Boys Island, was released the newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet (the major newspaper in southern Sweden) wrote: “Erik Odsell moves barriers… The music is radio pop, defined by a modern sound but with a foundation of musical craftsmanship which makes him stand out from the crowd”.
The single Searching For Lost Boys Island won the category Best Adult Contemporary/AAA at the prestigious 2016 Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
Erik’s second single, As Long As I’m With You – featuring Sascha Dupont, had great success on the Danish music chart, ChartBase Top-100 during 9 weeks.
Erik’s third single, Unapology, has been listed for airplay on radio stations in UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and the United States and the single had great success on the Danish music chart, ChartBase Top-100 during 13 weeks. The official music video for Unapology was awarded Best Pop Video by the Akademia Music Awards, Hollywood, in February 2016.
Since February 2016 Erik is included in the Live Nation roster.
The album got great reviews in both Swedish and international magazines and in a lot of international music blogs. The album was also awarded Best Album Pop/ Rock at the Akademia Music Awards, Hollywood, in February 2016.
Erik’s second album, called Human, was released on June 11, 2021. An album focusing on the current state of the world but also personal reflections about getting older, the fear of losing loved ones and what it means to be human. Human is an album where Erik explores a more electronic sound but without losing his well known “trade mark” – the strong melodies, hooks and relatable lyrical content. The album has been well received with stellar reviews in many international music blogs. The video for the title track was also noticed by national press in Sweden and international music blogs when it was released in October 2020.
“I may not be Peter Pan but I sure as hell am searching for lost boys island”
As a small child there were two ways to always make Erik Odsell calm and almost meditative. One way was to put him in a car and go for a drive, the other was to put him in a baby chair in front of his parents old grand piano while his father was playing.
– Well, I still do love cars and music is still the nearest thing I know to a feel-good-out of body experience. Listening to a mind-blowing flawless note or just thinking of a part in a song I truly love still makes me shiver and it still makes every hair on my arms rise. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is says Erik.
At the age of 7 Erik started playing the piano and also started singing in a well-reputed boys choir in Sweden. At the age of 13 he started playing in his first band, learning how to play the guitar by listening to a wide variety of his favorite records and trying to make the guitar sound like what he was hearing on the records. Since then music has been the common thread through Erik’s entire life.
Years of playing and singing background vocals with well-known Swedish artists as well as writing music for artists both in Sweden and across the world has given Erik a solid ground to stand on figuring out who he is as an artist and as a songwriter.
– To write a song for the Eurovision Song Contest or to write a song for an indie album is two very different things but it’s also kind of the same… It’s just melodies says Erik with a smile.
In 2012 Erik wrote a song for a Swedish artist that was supposed to be an entry for the Swedish qualifying round of the Eurovision Song Contest. With very little time left before deadline the artist decided not to record the song. Erik’s publisher couldn’t find a new artist on such short notice, which ended up with Erik sending in the demo version of the song.
-The song didn’t make it to the final cut but I got very good response on both the song and the performance. That’s when I decided that I wanted to make a solo album says Erik.
Since then Erik has been nominated several times for Best Adult Contemporary Song at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards with music that is featured on his debut album Searching For Lost Boys Island.
– Over the years I have been working with both music and completely different things but when someone asks me what I do, I instinctively feel I have to answer, “I play music. I sing. I write. I’m a musician”. But the older you get more and more people ask you “…and what do you do besides music?” As if devoting your life to music isn’t a “real” thing. As if you’re someone who refuses to grow up and stop dreaming. As if you are some kind of wanna-be-Peter Pan. I always find this so strange. I’m quite good at a lot of things. I have been quite successful at a lot of things too, but nothing is as serious to me as music. To me music is life, music is death, music is magic. The one thing in life that is most real. I may not be Peter Pan but I sure as hell am searching for Lost Boys Island says Erik.
Searching For Lost Boys Island is Erik’s debut album as a solo artist and at first glance it covers a modern pop- and rock sound but it also harbors a touch of melancholy typically found in the singer-songwriter genre.
– I love to get lost in the process of writing music. As a songwriter for other artists I have had the privilege to write music in different genres with completely different sounds but friends of mine still say that they always recognize my tunes anyway. I guess it’s all in the melodies and harmonies, says Erik.
Searching For Lost Boys Island is an album about life, love, death and the importance of pursuing dreams.
– As I sing in the title track Searching For Lost Boys Island “We’re all born with hearts of passion, When did play go out of fashion?, All great things in the beginning are dreams from deep within” I truly believe that the world strongly needs people who hold on to their dreams. You may not reach them, hell, you may not even achieve half of it but the only thing that’s for sure is that if you don’t even try you definitely won’t achieve anything. Mankind has made greater progress than any other species and I say it’s because of our ability to long for- and develop what we dream of. The day we stop striving, that’s the day when it’s all over. If I wasn’t allowed to dream and in some way pursue my dreams I would live in a kind of emotional exile. And it must be devastating for anybody to live in an emotional exile, says Erik.
Since the release, and success, of Searching For Lost Boys Island Erik has been working on an upcoming album with the working title Human.
– When I was in LA in 2016 to receive the award for Best Adult Contemporary/AAA song at The Hollywood Music in Media Awards I also started working on my next album. I’ve been in LA a lot during the years and I have a lot of friends and music colleagues living there but this time it felt a bit different staying in LA as I arrived just a few days after the presidential election. Some of the material I wrote for my upcoming album, in LA, is inspired by reflections regarding what’s happening in both the US and Europe politically. It’s not a coincidence that my first singel from the new album is called Love Riot and was released exactly one year after the American election, says Erik.