Dive into the disturbingly odd, beautifully queer world of Ezra Miller and Lilah Larson.
The longtime friends have a band, formerly known as Sons of an Illustrious Father, but have since killed that name. And out of those ashes comes a fresh-faced era of tunes.
Their new name, ODDKIN, comes from "the term by Donna Haraway for relationships other than biogenetic/anthropocentric/patriarchal, which definitely describes the duo's two-decades-long friendship."
Out chats with the genre-queer duo to discuss their new music, the band name's inception, and, naturally, nipples.
Out: What inspired the name change for the band?
Lilah Larson: More than anything, the massive world change. The rupture of the past two years. We've been through many things and many formations as a band, but this time it felt like time to mark the depth of the transformation.
Ezra Miller: It seemed like somewhat of a glaring necessity. Sons of an Illustrious Father can keep the blood we gave them. This is a very different incarnation of our collective Pokemon.
What story do you both aim to tell with the new EP?
LL: Most of the songs on this EP are pretty personal. Reckonings with our own relationships. But in terms of a larger story, I do think the attitude of each is declamatory self-affirmation. Finding and holding oneself through absolute loss of self in another.
EM: Loss and damnation and resilience and redemption and the shore we can walk on to if suffering is the sea.
The music video for "Yada Yada" is very queer, as is the upcoming EP. Why is it important to showcase your identity and queerness in your music?
LL: I feel like, while we are vehement supporters of the gay agenda, co-signatories if you will, it's not that intentional. We just can't help but show our extreme queerness. It slips out. Like a nipple.
EM: Yea nipples are very gay. You see that's it, it's important for people to remember that nipples, much like all the people who carry them, are all visibly queer if you look at them long and hard enough.
What's your favorite memory from this EP's inception?
LL: Honestly, for me, just listening to Chris Coady's vast wealth of knowledge about stuff like LA history and film lore and the conception of the internet. I'll tell you my least favorite: those breakups that we had to go through to get here.
EM: I have really fond memories of our process of writing these songs together. When we wrote "Nothing," we did it by trying to draw a map of total reality and the words of the song are simply the beginning of that map's legend. And when Lilah and I sat at a piano to write the melody we found out we already knew how the song went. This to me is what proliferating ODDKIN is all about. Getting our tiny selves out of music's merry way, being the best empty-headed/open-minded sluts for G0D that we can possibly be.
Can we expect any more music videos?
LL: Oh yes.
EM: Yes, expect us. Expect our patroness.
ODDKIN's self-titled EP is available on Spotify.
