Odd Man Out is a long-running Seattle straight edge hardcore band who has recently secured a partnership with Indecision Records. The legendary Southern California record label is poised to put out the group’s next release.
As they gear up for that release, Odd Man Out singer and songwriter Jeff Caffey —also of GAG, Angel Du$t, Sixes— took the time to answer some questions about the band’s mysterious origins in the PNW for the band’s first-ever interview with No Echo.
You’ve been a band for a long time, longer than most people realize. Have you constantly been active since 2008, or have there been periods of inactivity now and again?
The band started as a concept project in 2008 and that’s where the original demo was recorded between myself and Bob Reed (Serpent Speak, Supercrush, Devotion) in his basement. We both played together in a band called Sixes the following year and had played together in Trainyard and various other projects from 2006 on.
I think there were 10 cassettes made and they were given away for free at Phantom City Records, the local record shop. No credits on the cassette aside from “Odd Man Out is the Straight Edge."
In 2012, we played a show with a full lineup. That’s the first thing we ever did in terms of performance. It was a show I booked for Violent Reaction and the Flex. I wanted to put exciting locals on so we debuted and I also rocked skins to motivate Vacant State (the best band to ever come out of Vancouver, BC) to do their first stateside gig in many years. We had a cassette at our first show which was half the demo and three new songs.
The first lineup that ever played a show had both Griffin Kelly (Change, Power) and Mirce Popvic (Stand Up, Restless) on guitar in 2012 at Old School Pizzeria in Olympia, Washington.
In 2015, we released the demo on vinyl with Warthog Speak Records and did our first tour. This was our first official release that we didn’t manufacture ourselves. Before the tour we just recorded and played a few local shows to support touring acts coming through. We all had other bands that were touring between 2008-2015 it wasn’t a touring band during those years.
2015 marked the start of quite a bit of touring for us, but I’d say we started taking the band seriously around 2017. All the gigging we had done between 2012-2015 was mostly for fests we were asked to play and the lineups were always scabbed. 2017 was when we finally had a solid drummer leading up to the release of our first LP. I think that was also the beginning of all of us getting more experienced with managing multiple touring projects.
How did the shift from being an Olympia band to a Seattle band take place?
I moved to Seattle at the end of 2013. I was playing in more projects up there at the time and only a few in Olympia. The only project that was touring often from Oly I was in was GAG. I was touring a lot with Bricklayer and playing music with people from Seattle more frequently.
I was getting tired of driving to Seattle for practice and to see all my friends. Griffin already lived up there and I met Casey Shaw (Apex Predator, Moving On) and Allen Trainor (Big Bite, Supercrush), who became our bassist and drummer. Odd Man Out will always have Olympia Straight Edge roots. That scene was extremely vibrant from 2003 to probably 2010 or so.
How did Odd Man Out's current lineup take shape?
Just friendship. Griffin and I have been friends since we were kids and we both love real hardcore and Straight Edge. Griffin is the solid rock–the backbone of Odd Man Out. It isn’t an Odd Man Out experience without Griffin. Mirce and I have been friends since he moved to Olympia in 2010 (or whenever it was) and have started a thousand bands together over the years including long distance bands, regional only bands, recorded only bands and touring bands.
He’s a great and very creative mind to have on the team. He also helps us reel it in and keep it old school when we get too crazy. Mirce left the band to pursue his rock band for a short period from 2017-2021. Casey and I met in 2013 when I moved to Seattle and started hanging out every day and being nerds. He was instantly incorporated in the Odd Man Out touring and recording lineup as he fit in perfectly with the group.
He debuted on record with our friend Waylon Trim (Militarie Gun, Lower Species) on New Voice. Waylon was also an integral part of the band’s development from 2017-2021. Really, just friendship and bonding over a specific genre of hardcore. We’re currently on the search for a full-time drummer to get out of tour scab purgatory. We’ll know them when we meet them for sure.
The band has had a very expansive international touring schedule. Where have you gone so far and where are you planning to go in the future?
The goal with the project was to go all the places my other bands didn’t want to go. As with all artistic endeavors, goals and aspirations change with time, but initially Odd Man Out was about promoting hardcore from the Northwest to the rest of the world. None of my friends ever took their bands out of the country.
In 2015, we did our first tour outside of the West Coast, and it was one show in DC, a few shows in Mexico, and a few shows in Texas on the tail end. We ran it up with Protester and had Connor Donnegan (Eternal Champion, Innumerable Forms) on drums and Robin Zeijlon (Glitterer, Pure Disgust) on bass.
From there, the floodgates were open. We did Brazil and Colombia, Mexico again, an extensive mainland Europe and UK, Japan and all over Southeast Asia, Europe again and more touring domestically. Decided to make the band real and did an LP then COVID hit.
With the rollout of the new LP coming, you will see us everywhere again. We just did Europe, Colombia, the West Coast and Texas again. We have plans for Australia, Japan, and Asia late this year and two Euros being planned for early 2026. Plenty to be announced!
To set the record straight for the people of the internet, what is the official discography of Odd Man Out?
For the general public:
- Demo Cassette (Blue) - Self Released - 2008
- Demo 7” - (Black, Swamp Green, Coke Bottle Clear) Warthog Speak - 2015
- Capital City Hardcore 7” (Black, Gold, Blue) - UXO - 2016
- Capital City Hardcore Cassette (White) - Pop Wig - 2016
- New Voice LP (Clear Red, Opaque Red, Coke Bottle Green, Black) - Pop Wig - 2019
For the collectors and archivists:
- Original Demo Cassette - Self Released - 2008 (made in my bedroom)
- Demo 7” (Brotherhood No Tolerance cover) - Warthog Speak - 2015 (for OHC)
- Demo Cassette (Black) - Mosher’s Delight - 2016 (Mexico tour with Protester)
- CCHC Promo Cassette (Red) - Mind Rot - 2016 (east coast tour with POWER and Damaged City fest)
- Final Rainfest Cassette - Sonic Order Records - 2016
- CCHC 7” (Rain Fest cover, limited to 75 copies) - UXO - 2016
- CCHC 7” (Mexico/Brazil/Colombia cover, Red. limited to 40 copies) - UXO - 2016
- Compilation LP (Blue, Black and Clear, with limited tracks) - Refuse Records - 2018
- New Voice LP (Gudetama Record Release cover, limited to 25) - Pop Wig Records - 2019 (for OHC)
For a few years, you organized a fest called OHC (Olympia’s Hardcore). From what I understand, it ran concurrent to Rain Fest, but lasted after and tapered off before JAG? What was the life cycle of that fest?
I’ve always been booking since as long as I’ve been involved in playing shows. I worked on a fest called New Direction Fest in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and out of the ashes of that, OHC formed. After the last year of NDF, I promised some friends from Mexico I’d bring them back. In 2012, I made good on that promise. That was the first year of OHC and the last was 2018.
I did a small event in 2019 with less touring bands to keep the name alive, so technically there were 8 years of the event. I’ve also helped organize in small ways with fests like Damaged City, Not Dead Yet, and Sound and Fury–coordinated touring bands from out of country touring and getting to other events.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for promoters from my era who don’t skim off the top, but do it for their passion for this community. I’ve always tried to stay in the mix as a stepping stone for upcoming and out of country bands to get to where they need to go. It’s always been a labor of love trying to get bands I think are really amazing to get exposure and love worldwide.
To summarize, OHC was a magical event. It was a time extremely dissimilar to modern events now. The landscape of a hardcore fest before 2020 really felt lawless. They were massive gatherings of people putting on for the love of the game. OHC took place across three venues over the course of 3 days. A main venue (the Northern, Capital Backstage, Obsidian), pre show venue (Le Voyeur), and after show venue (Old School Pizzeria).
The first few years Boulevard House hosted secret after shows in the garage that were absolutely insane. We had a stage built in our garage. There’s such an insanely rich musical history in Olympia. Nothing is taken for granted, venues stand the test of time, and diehards keep it all alive. The event hosted bands from all over the US and the world. Iceland, Europe, UK, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Guatemala, and so many more were all places represented.
One year boasted 33 bands, 22 of which were touring bands. The shows were always oversold, there were no rules and it was absolute chaos. 100% of profit went to the bands. If you were lucky enough to be a part of these events, you were present for a truly time and place, enigmatic era. That kind of event really is a once in a lifetime kind of energy that you’ll remember forever.
How did your relationship with Indecision Records become solidified and what can you tell us about the new record?
I met [Dave] Itow and [Dave] Mandel through hardcore of course, but we bonded more strongly through love for Jiu Jitsu. We’d toured together with Change and I’d travel down to Itow’s gym Triunfo as well as Violent Gentlemen open mats in Irvine for training.
The LP came out of a conversation with Itow talking about doing a split release with Brave Out from Japan. I was writing songs and got excited about cooking up another LP and it went from there. The LP should be out by late summer or fall, 10 songs. Split soon to follow with Brave Out.
READ MORE: Timmy Greene (No Justice, Bladecrasher) Looks Back on His Wild Hardcore Years
You just mentioned it, but Mosher (bassist, Chopping Block) had also told me that you’re an avid practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. How did you get into that and why do you think hardcore kids love BJJ so much?
First off, shoutout Mosher. Credit where credit is due, Zech from Maine/DC (Angel Du$t, Asesinato, No Idols) put me on. I was always into a lot of athletic pursuits as a kid–gymnastics, skateboarding, surfing–got into lifting weights when I started playing with Angel Du$t in 2017 and Zech came on a tour with us way back. Whenever he’d talk about Jiu Jitsu, it sounded so awesome.
I was interested in combat sports and enjoyed striking but had no idea what fighting/MMA actually was. I fought a ton as a kid and lifted weights, so I thought I was tough, but I was wrong as fuck. I got tapped six times in a five minute round by a 120 lb blue belt and that was enough for me. I was hooked.
My first experiences with the practice were in 2018 and I quickly realized it’s sink or swim. If you’re not committed to being consistent you really aren’t learning anything. 2018 was when I had decided in my mind, “okay, I’m going to do it and take it seriously”. It’s a serious time commitment.
When I came back to Seattle during COVID, I met a guy who kept his gym open and it’s just all I did every single day. I’m a purple belt and still shopping for a new gym now that I’m down in LA (currently training with friends at a few gyms in the area). Shout out to my friends at Triunfo, Violent Gentlemen, Frogtown Jiu Jitsu, and GB Glendale for always welcoming me.
To answer your question, I think a very specific personality type is attracted to it and I see that personality type a lot in hardcore and creative spaces. Fanatics. You need a voracious appetite for experience and learning new skills, the dedication to pursue those skills despite all odds, and a sense of satisfaction from playing the long game. To compare it to hardcore, it’s both physical and mental, and when you’re in that synergy you’re truly present.
What other bands are you currently active with?
GAG, Change, and Raw Brigade are the only other projects I’m involved with at the moment that actively tour, but there are definitely some new projects in the works. I also am always down to scab.
I just did a tour in February playing drums for Dynamite and am sitting at the airport right now coming off of the end of a run I played drums for Fish Narc. Definitely open to projects outside of the core as well.
What keeps you motivated to continue to do Odd Man Out after all this time?
Friendship is always the answer. Those are some of my best friends in the entire world. I love the music and I can’t think of a more fun group of guys to tour with.
The goal is always to put my team on my back and run it up as hard as I can. Get my gang worldwide and represent to everyone how special and real the Northwest is. When I was a kid some of my friends made a joke of my initials, “J.C.: crucified for the boys."
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