BryanStars

Bryan Odell (born May 22, 1990), better known by his online alias, BryanStars, is an American music interviewer, YouTube personality, musician, and artist manager. He is best known for his BryanStars Interviews series, where he interviews with popular artists in the alternative scene, including Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, and Falling in Reverse.

Odell's YouTube channel holds over 714,000 subscribers and more than 160 million views.

Odell was born on May 22, 1990 in Japan, where he resided until he was eight years old before moving to Dallas, Texas, then as a teen to Nebraska. He attended Lincoln East High School, where he graduated in 2008. In his senior year, his short film Energy Crisis in America, highlighting rising gas prices, won third place in the high school section of the StudentCam competition, hosted by C-SPAN.

He attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for two years and majored in Broadcast Journalism.While in university, he interned at a local television station and interviewed bands for the network.

Odell made the decision to drop out of school to focus on his YouTube channel, "BryanStars" after winning YouTube NextUp in 2011. Through the NextUp contest, YouTube aimed to foster creators on its platform. Odell and 25 other YouTubers received a $35,000 grant for their channel and a multi-day workshop in New York City with professional online bloggers. At the time, he had about 55,000 subscribers.

Odell is best known for his BryanStars Interviews, series on his YouTube channel, BryanStars. He primarily publishes interviews and music videos from bands of the rock and heavy metal scene.

During his career Odell interviewed artists including Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, Pierce the Veil, Black Veil Brides, All Time Low, Sleeping with Sirens, The Ready Set, One Ok Rock, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots, Avenged Sevenfold, Escape the Fate, Suicide Silence, Disturbed, Creed, Hollywood Undead, Korn, Three Days Grace, Bullet For My Valentine, Cannibal Corpse and Slipknot, as well as artists like Rob Zombie, Papa Roach, Cody Simpson, G-Eazy, Mitchel Musso and winners of American Idol. Odell has also interviewed record producer Matt Good and YouTube stars Shane Dawson, Michael Buckley and Dave Days. He has published more than 1000 band interviews and music videos to his YouTube Channel.

In 2013, BryanStars Interviews was voted by music fans as the "Best Music Blog" in the Alternative Press Reader’s Choice Poll 2013. BryanStars Interviews was nominated for a Shorty Award for “Best Web Show” in 2014 along with Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In 2014, retailer Journeys produced "This Is My Journey" segment about Odell that played in stores nationwide.

Never Shout Never incident

On June 3, 2012, Never Shout Never was interviewed by BryanStars, in an interview that was being covered by The New York Times. About halfway through the interview, Christofer Drew Ingle cut Bryan off, calling his show "a joke" and his questions "bullshit". As a result, the band ended the interview, and BryanStars was in tears because of it. Ingle was arrested the same day for possession of marijuana.

An outpour of support for BryanStars happened as a result, and many musicians shared their words of support including Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens, Chris Fronzak of Attila, and Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides. In a Stickam broadcast, Ingle stated that he felt bad that he made BryanStars cry. He later admitted that he had taken acid earlier the day of the interview.

Warped YouTube Program

In 2014, Odell was picked to be one of the “Warped YouTubers” with Damon Fizzy (also calling himself DeeFizzy), Johnnie Guilbert, CYR and Piddleass. The following year, Kevin Lyman (creator of Warped Tour) made Odell the official host of the tour. Odell worked with Warped Tour through 2015 as their official host on all social media, announcing over 100 bands for the tour.

Odell taught a class on the 2015 Vans Warped Tour called "YouTube 101" where he taught aspiring YouTubers how to pursue a career in social media.

My Digital Escape

Odell created "My Digital Escape," a collab YouTube channel which he managed. The channel stopped uploading in May 2016. The channel reached 800,000 subscribers and 100 million views. The channel prominently featured Odell, Johnnie Guilbert, HeyThereImShannon, Jeydon Wale, Kyle David Hall, Alex Dorame and Jordan Sweeto. In 2016, My Digital Escape went on tour across the United States and visited 21 cities.

In 2016, Odell went into the studio with ZK Studios to record his debut EP. On March 21, 2016, BryanStars announced the release of a 5-track EP entitled "Follow Your Dreams". It was released on April 1, 2016 and charted on Billboard at #22 on the Alternative New Artist Album Chart, #59 on the New Artist Album Chart and #128 on the Indie Albums Chart.

BryanStars also collaborated with Social Repose on a cover of Bring Me The Horizon's "Follow You".

In November 2016, Odell announced that he would be releasing a second EP titled the "Picture Perfect EP". It was released on December 4, 2016.

BryanStars Tour

In 2012, Odell started the "BryanStars Tour", which toured throughout the United States. The tour featured bands like Ghost Town, SayWeCanFly, Modern Day Escape, Her Bright Skies, Snow White's Poison Bite, Farewell, My Love, Late Nite Reading, Rocky Loves Emily and YouTubers like CatchingYourClouds, Johnnie Guilbert, Damon Fizzy and CYR. Odell created three BryanStars Tours from 2012 to 2013.

Odell publicly came out as gay on his YouTube channel in 2017.

• 2011: YouTube NextUp
• 2013: Alternative Press Magazine — "Best Music Blog"
• 2014: Shorty Award for “Best Web Show” — Nominated

Extended plays

Singles