In The Winners Circle: An Interview with ‘What Are The Odds?’
(Photo credit Karl McWherter)
Wilmington-based rock band What Are The Odds had a busy year develing into the cut-throat world of music competitions. They took home first place in the Karnival Of The Arts Battle Of The Bands and the Summer Band Jam Music Competition, and advanced to the final round in the Kennett Flash’s yearly music competition, New Summer Sound Series. They’ve been collecting fans around the region at an extreme pace that they affectionately nicknamed “Odd Ones”. Before they hunker down for a well deserved break, we chatted with them about their origins, their competitions, and what eager new fans can look forward to.
How did the band form? Can you tell us about your origin story?
Brothers Andrew Gretz (guitarist) and Nonny Gretz (drummer) started this monstrosity of a band when they accidentally split every chemical in their house in one single bucket that subsequently splashed all over their respective instruments. They then found Logan Gonzalez (bassist) crying in a woven basket in front of a fire station. They adopted him and he became their bassist after they offered him zyns and a Monster. Jimmie Brannon (guitarist) materialized from the heavens above like a nordic angel riding his guitar like a broomstick. They then dropped a himalayan salt block and Psalt aka Psalm Harvey (vocalist) popped out screaming from the top of her lungs. Thus WATO was born.
Where did your band name come from?
Jimmie’s lovely girlfriend Maya graciously assisted in spamming millions of names per second until one finally hit like a truck. What are the odds?
(Photo credit Jordan Herring from Metal Mermaid Raw)
Who are your biggest musical influences as a band?
We all have varying influences as individuals and you can see them poke throughout our songs at different times and in different ways. Jimmie, our resident Metal head, pulls his biggest influences from artists like Gojira (because he likes whales), Jinjer, Rush, Knocked Loose, and Metallica. Psalt pulls inspiration from a very wide variety of sources. For example, she is inspired by works from Gorillaz, Primus, Jack Stauber, Jinjer (Jimmie introduced her) as well as other more obscure artists. Some of Andrew’s biggest inspirations include bands like Polyphia, Chon, Foxing, Tiny Moving Parts, Invent Animate, and Deftones. Logan pulls from artists like Jaco Pastorius, Paul Denman of Sade, Flea, Jamiroquai, and more recently Chon. Some of Nonny’s inspiration comes from musicians like Luke Holland, Slipknot, Beartooth, Erra, and Nonny and Andrew both take musical inspiration from Dance Gavin Dance.
What has competing in all these music competitions been like? How do you hope it helps you grow?
Honestly, it has been amazing in a lot of ways. It has been so surreal to come into these competitions not knowing what to expect. Early on, we were unsure of how we would be received by different groups. We struggled to identify with a specific genre. This year has been very affirming in the fact that all the competitions we have participated in catered towards completely different genres. For example, in one of the rounds of the Summer Band Jam, we were competing with metal bands. But then on the final day, there was a wide variety of artist types like punk and bluegrass. Karnival of The Arts was the biggest stretch for us, as they cater more towards jam bands. We were very surprised by how well we were received both during the competition and at the festival. It was inspiring to see actual bonafide hippies throwing it down in the mosh pit to our set. It felt very human and pure and everyone was so kind. We also were able to meet and build beautiful connections with fellow artists in the scene.
We have made connections we will for sure be cherishing moving forward. One thing to note here, however, is the fact that competitions can get you into more of a cutthroat headspace. While we always drive to be kind and uplifting to others, we did come to win and it was getting a little taxing at the end. We are so thankful for all of the opportunities from the bottom of our hearts, but we are so happy to be able to stick to collaborative shows for a while moving forward. We hope to use all of the prizes and recognition we are getting from these wins to propel our career. Like any other band, we are pushing to make it, and to make it big. We would love to be a band that grows and brings as many other artists with us as possible.
(Photo credit Jordan Herring from Metal Mermaid Raw)
What do you want listeners and audiences to take away from your music?
The biggest take away we want listeners to get from our music is human connection. We want to make people feel every emotion possible and to remind them that being a human is a beautiful and collaborative thing. If we make you feel something, we did our job. While we have hunches as to what our music might make you feel, that is up to you to decide and experience. On top of this, we would love to inspire others to take up music if possible. I think that is almost every musician's dream. To inspire others. In a more silly and lighthearted sense, it also feels very good to get people to MOVE to our music. Whether it's dancing or flinging your body across a pit. We love to see it.
What can readers look forward to from What Are The Odds? (any new music, big festivals or shows, music videos)
In terms of music, we have a second single called “Body Borrowed” that we are working hard to release as soon as possible. On top of that, because Karnival of The Arts provided us with an hour-long set time, we came up with a ton of new material. As soon as we return from our mini hiatus, recording for our album will take top priority. We hope to explore some potential opportunities abroad as well as create some super interesting content for everyone, we hope y’all stay tuned for the ride.
