Odin’s Jeff Duncan on Returning to the Sunset Strip and Being at Peace With His Past

Odin - the former kings of the Sunset Strip club scene of the late '80s - are returning for a show on August 27th at famed club The Whiskey. The last time the hard rock troop played a show together was at the Rocklahoma festival in 2008. Last week, Noisecreep caught up with Odin guitarist Jeff Duncan [also currently a member of Armored Saint] and asked him about the upcoming performance. "I was actually up at Randy O's [vocalist] house, just hanging out. While I was there, Jake Perry [Hollywood club promoter] called me up and asked if Odin would be interested in playing a show at The Whiskey. I talked about it with the guys and everyone was into the idea. So Jake was definitely the instigator this time out," laughs Duncan.

Combining New Wave of British Heavy Metal styled guitar riffing with hook-laden vocal melodies, Odin still enjoys a small yet worldwide fan base. "There's a definite cult type thing to Odin. I see it online. Like a lot of other musicians, through the years I've complained that we didn't get as much respect as we deserved. But through the years, yes, I've noticed a lot more people discovering the band. We got more popular after we broke up. It's a great feeling, but just because we're playing this show later this month, it doesn't necessarily mean Odin is getting back together," says the veteran guitarist.

Noisecreep asked Duncan if Odin's blend of classic metal and '80s pop-metal ended up killing their chances of a more mainstream audience. "It definitely hurt us. There weren't any record companies that wanted to take a chance on Odin because our music wasn't that easy to label. We had something unique going on in our songwriting. As you just said, Odin was a hybrid of that classic heavy metal stuff like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with the more melodic hard rock that was popular at the time. Not to mention, we had the Sunset Strip type of look, but we were a much heavier band than that. I guess that didn't help either."

Watch '12 O'Clock High' from Odin

The LA-based A&R reps that came out to check out Odin's sell out club dates were myopic in their pursuits. "We got, "You guys look like Poison and Ratt, but you don't sound like them." That's the kind of stuff we would hear from record company people. But what gets me is that we broke up in 1988, yet we still have people writing us and asking for the band to go out and play shows. That tells me that if one of those record labels would have taken a shot with us, it could have worked."

Back in the day, Odin gigs were filled with groupie types trying to get a piece of the band. Noisecreep wondered if Duncan wished if there were more "musical types" at their shows. "I started playing in Odin when I was 16-years-old and we broke up I was 22. At that point I just wanted to play my guitar and be in a band. I don't think I was in touch with my musical integrity at that point. I'm not saying that I didn't have any, but I'm not sure if I was in touch with it. So if you ask me if it bothered me that a lot of girls went to our shows just to be there and didn't really listen to what we were doing, the answer is no. I was just happy that there were a lot of chicks there [laughs]."

Most of hard rock fans first came across Odin through their appearance in the Penelope Speehris documentary 'The Decline of Western Civilization part II: The Metal Years.' The 1988 film captures the legendary hard rock and metal scene of Los Angeles of the late '80s. Besides Odin, bands like Poison, Faster Pussycat and London, are featured. In Odin's now infamous scene, vocalist Randy O and his band mates are interviewed in a hot tub surrounded a few of their female fans. Many people have criticized the scene and Randy's arrogant comments in it. Noisecreep asked Duncan how he feels about Odin's appearance in the documentary all these years later.

"I am fine with it now. By the time the movie came out, I was already a member of Armored Saint. I remember going to the premiere of the movie at Cinerama in Hollywood and we were all looking forward to seeing the Odin segment in the film. When our scene finally came on, I sunk into my seat in embarrassment. It was hard for me to deal with that movie for a long time," remembers Duncan.

Watch Odin's scene in 'The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years'

Duncan finally learned how to embrace Odin's part in the film. "Around six or seven years later I came to peace with it. When we filmed that movie, we were a young band who was popular on the Sunset Strip during its heyday. We were dressing and talking like everyone else was at the time, but we just happened to be filmed. The condition and mentality we were in during that scene in the movie was a product of the lifestyle of that time period. Once the internet came to play, I started getting all of these emails from people telling me that they loved us in the movie. Not that we were clowns, but that they loved us. All in all, Odin being in movie was a great thing for the band. It brought us notoriety outside of the Sunset Strip scene we were part of."

If you're in the Los Angeles area on August 27th, you should check out Odin at one of their rare live appearances. Tickets for their show at The Whiskey are available at this link.