Bryan Odell, 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. He has published more than a 1000 band interviews to his YouTube Channel. In 2018, Odell went on hiatus from YouTube.
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. In 2011, through the YouTube NextUp contest aimed to foster creators on its platform, Odell and 25 other YouTubers received a $35,000 and a multi-day workshop in New York City with professional online bloggers. At the time, he had about 55,000 subscribers and was making $3,000 to $4,000 monthly. 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.
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, Johnnie Guilbert, CYR and Piddleass. The following year, Kevin Lyman 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.
Musical endeavors
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.
