The A-side Sessions presents: Oddity

Just as is our dream here at The A-side Sessions, Maddie Liu, or Oddity joined us on a sunny November morning to offer up a diverse set of soulful genres. Joe Biden had just been announced as President-Elect of The United States of America, which echoed through the neighborhood as Berkeley swelled with celebration: cheering, car honks, an ensemble of election cheer, which coupled Oddity’s performance in a wonderful way.

Oddity is a local Berkeley musician and UC Berkeley alumna. The B-Side  had been highly anticipating her performance for months, so we worked hard to smooth out all of the little kinks in our humble student production.

Just as everything seemed to be going wrong, Oddity showed up and showed us that everything was going just right. The ease of her persona transcended into her music and made for a hypnotizing performance. 

Join us for our third A-side Session with Oddity as she sits down to talk with our Editor-in-Chief, Sunny Sangha to discuss musical roots, creative processes, and the experience of being a transgender woman of color in music, followed by a performance of “Brighter Days” and “In the Shadow of My Mind.”

Sunny Sangha: Hey y’all! Welcome to the A-side Sessions! My name is Sunny Sangha and I’m here with Maddie Liu. Wanna introduce yourself, Maddie?

Maddie Liu: What’s up, I play music.

SS: We’re here for an interview session right now. It’s November 7th. Joe Biden was just elected president, so if you hear honking and screaming around, that’s what it is. We’re out here in Berkeley, California. Lot’s of hype, which is really cool and exciting. We’re gonna dive into our interview really quick. I’m super excited. I’ve been highly anticipating Maddie’s performance and I know other people on The B-side have been looking forward to it. Do you want to say anything before we get started?

ML: Let’s just go straight into it. 

SS: Sick. The first question I wanted to ask is how long have you been playing music?

ML: Oh man, so I’ve been playing my whole life. My dad sort of forced me into the Asian-paino thing and I was like, fine. And I was also in a boys chorus in elementary school. Then I picked up trombone around like fifth grade. But I didn’t get into more of what I’m doing now until about High School, which is where I would say I got into jazz. And then college was when I got into neo soul and hip-hop, and that’s like more of what constitutes what my sound is. 

SS: Were you in a jazz band in high school or anything like that?

ML: So I actually went to an arts high school for classical trombone, and I just happened to be really lucky because there was one spot missing in the jazz band and so they were like, alright you suck, but we’re gonna snatch you. So that was how I got introduced to jazz. 

SS:  How did you get your neo-soul roots in college? What would you say introduced you to that aspect of who Maddie is now?

ML: I can’t even actually remember, honestly. But my three roommates definitely had a big impact on what I was listening to. They were mostly listening to like hip-hop, but I think one was rally into old school, and one was more into stuff going on right now. So just a bunch of different stills that inundated me. I’m really glad I had that experience because otherwise I wouldn’t be as into hiphop as I am. 

SS: Right? I feel like your style is very diverse and just super dope. I was going to ask, not what got you into music because you were doing piano when you were younger and all that, but what do you think really got you into creating a music career and pursuing your artistry?

ML: Well, I think music has always been there for me when I had nothing else and it alway meant so uch to me, and I would always look at my idols and be like, man it would be so cool to be like them. And I guess I was writing songs towards the end of high school into college, just for fun pretty much because at the time, I was like, alright I guess I have to study for a job-job. 

SS: So did you end up being a computer science (or C.S.) major at the end of your time in college?

ML: Haha, so pretty much my parents, were like we’re gonna pay for your education, but you have to study C.S. So I came to UC Berkeley studying C.S. and music, then at the last second I was like, boom, fuck you. I think it hadn’t really evolved until like, I don’t know, I think any artist has a desire to have their sound being heard, but I never felt as strongly about it until I had come out as transgender and everything that comes with that. I was looking around and not seeing any representation, not growing up to see any representation in music, especially the type of music that I enjoy doing because most of the trans artists these days are like pop and electronic rap. And so, I just developed this really strong desire to really become that person that I was never able to see growing up, but not only as a trans person, but also as an Asian American. 

SS: Can I ask, when did you come out as trans?

ML: Maybe a little over like two years ago. Back in 2108. 

SS: Nice, so who are your musical inspirations, like mainstream, indie, other trans, people of color? Who sort of uplifted you?

ML: Oh man, I feel like I have so many different sources of inspiration, but I would say the main three come from old school jazz, like Herbie Hancock, Billy Strayhorn. I could go on and on in that area. And then sort of neo soul. I would say specifically D’Angelo had a huge impact on me, and like Moonchild. The thing about neo soul is that it’s like super sugary shit, but the thing I love is that fat beat, like a sort of slightly drunk feel. That sort of leads into hip-hop. And when it comes to hip-hop, oh man, I pay a lot to like old school, Tupac and all that. Today, I feel like I have a lot more influence from rappers like Noname and that area. And then like of course, Kendrick, like everybody. 

SS: Definitely. Your music does give me Noname vibes now that you point that out. We’re about to start the show soon, but I want to ask you a couple more questions. I want to ask about your creative process. When you get a song, you want to get into the beat, how do you do that?

ML: So, I’ve realized that when I try to force myself to to create, like maybe I can write an interesting progression or like a melody or a hook that I kind of like, but I never finish the song. And when I’ve come to realize, for me at least, and honestly I think for most people, is that creativity is sort of like a function of the subconscious mind and for moe, what that means is, I see it as like you’re cooking a stew or something, you have all the ingredients that you throw into there, like what you’re listening to, what you’re talking about to people. It’s sort of ideas like, man, how can I have a neo coil song, but with more depressing chords or something. Just asking yourself questions and you throw all of that into the pot. And then it’s just like stewing, it’s fermenting; it’s just bubbling. And then, when you’re not even thinking about it, it just throws to you this idea. And then I just hear it and at that moment, it’s just like I have to get it down or else you’re going to lose it. And one experience I had that actually really clued me in to what works for me was one time when I was towards the end of an acid trip and I took melatonin to try to put myself to sleep. So then the melatonin was dragging me to sleep, but the acid was keeping me awake, and I reached this point between the conscious and the subconscious. What happened was that every thought i had was accompanied by this insane rhythm, but it was also perfectly underscored with this insane visual. I just heard this music in the back that perfectly accompanied the visual. It was more complex and saying that anything I can come up with anything consciously. Even my mentor at the time told me that he hears music constantly, and I was like, man that’s crazy, how can he do that. Pretty much for me, or for a lot of artistic or musical people, if you quiet your mind enough, there’s always music playing in the background. Sometimes I listen in and I’m like, holy shit, I’ve been playing the same progression in my head for like thirty minutes, and I’m like I need to fucking change this. But then sometimes, like if I’m in the shower or something peaceful, I tune in and I’m like holy shit, what is that? Let’s get that out onto something. It might just be a melody, it might be a short progression, or it might be a bass line, but when it comes from that place, I find that I almost always finish the song, even if I don’t finish it in once flow. So, that’s my creative process. 

SS: Last question, what has been your favorite show so far to play?

ML: Oh man, it’s been a while. I would say like, we did a gig for the queer arts fashion show a couple of years ago. It was like in the beginning, but they hype there, like the crowd, was going crazy. I don’t know, I haven’t played any like super big venues, but I really appreciate the more intimate venues where the people are just really into the music. I would prefer that to a larger crowd. 

SS: Well I hope that this performance could be one of your favorites with our little intimate venue. I’m gonna step out of your way and get you to your music. I cannot wait to hear you play. Thank you so much, Maddie. 

Article by Natalie Gott

Photos by Lyle Kahney and Kai Jacinto