Get a load of "Last Resort," the final song on BLK ODYSSY's new album, 1-800 FANTASY, and one where he goes for broke. Therein, frontman Juwan Elcock toggles between a mind-bending array of genres — it's like moody alt-rock meets rubbery R&B meets vistas of negative space.

As it gains steam, he stutters, pants and screams. He meant the thudding kick drum to evoke a heartbeat; its guitar part, racing thoughts. "It's a climax to the album, and to the storyline," Elcock explains to GRAMMY.com. "This album was almost about method acting, really, because all of our records have a particular storyline and theme.

"I had to embody that character early in the recording process in order to really nail the tracks and make it feel believable," he continues. "Also, so that I believed it."

In his command of numberless genres, including hip-hop, jazz, and rock 'n' soul, as well as his tendency to go there emotionally, Elcock renders himself a human instrument. His namesake band fleshes out and breathes life into the arrangements — but as that "method actor," he's the locus.

1-800 FANTASY drops July 19; below, read on for a full interview with Elcock about how he crafted it, and much more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

I was watching your Tiny Desk concert and loving it. What can you tell me about this band?

Oh, thank you, man. Those dudes are people that I've been working with for a long time. Alejandro [Rios] on guitar has been kind of with BLK ODYSSY since the conception of the project. I brought some ideas to him and he played live guitar over it, and from there he became the guitar player in BLK ODYSSY.

The rest of the crew just consisted of people that I always collaborate with on records. So you had Art [Hays] on saxophone, who played flute and sax on [2023's] Diamonds & Freaks — and also this new one that we're dropping, 1-800 FANTASY. We've kind of just collaborated for years.

The flute player on the Tiny Desk I had just met a couple of days before we had shot that and he hopped right in. The drummer was a part of a band called Medicine Man Revival that was based in Fort Worth, Texas, that I saw when I first moved to Austin in 2017. He was part of the initial inspiration I had to really start a group.

So, years later, he ended up being in BLK ODYSSY's live lineup. So it is cool to have Marcus. And Jimmy [Blazer], the bass player, I've also been working with for many years. These are the people I just have brought together over the years, living in Texas.

Background vocalist Maya Sampleton — who's also another local collaborator — is a lot more on this record than she was on the previous. Andre Taylor, who was on [2021's] BLK VINTAGE and Diamonds & Freaks a ton. Incredible vocalist, obviously as you saw on Tiny Desk.

And then my sister LARA, who is one of my artists that we just signed to Empire Records — she also is a very heavy collaborator on all the BLK stuff since we started. So yeah, that was kind of like our world for Tiny Desk.

Is there a big overlap with the band on 1-800 FANTASY?

Well, the way that we created this upcoming record was a bit different, but there still definitely is a lot of the same collaborators and writers, especially on the writing side.

Instrumentation-wise, we really did dive into a completely new world kind of exploring the alt-rock and the alt-pop kind of stuff, and even what I would consider post-punk at some points. I think where that will really shine is when we go on tour in September and show the live rendition of how all of this comes together.

Where do the alt-rock and alt-pop influences stem from? I'm sure you have a command of the canon; you can mix and match styles at will.

At the end of the day, I listen to a lot of stuff. When I was in high school I primarily only listened to hip-hop and R&B, which is what was around me.

When I moved to Austin I found myself just listening to the local radio stations a lot more. And there was a particular station, KUTX, that I always tuned into, which was my first introduction to stuff outside of my world. And that's where I discovered bands like Cage the Elephant, Mumford and Sons, the Lumineers, and a bunch of other stuff.

I had just met Alejandro at the time who kind of started introducing me to stuff like Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin, and a bunch of other things that were kind of a musical awakening for me.

So, as a producer, and as a writer, as a composer, once those sorts of sounds got into my brainwaves, I learned that I liked it just as much as the other stuff that I grew up on. And at a very early stage in BLK ODYSSY, I started finding a way to meld those two worlds and bring them together.

Give me a tune that really reflects that for you.

"XXX," which is the single we just released with Wiz Khalifa. That one has a foot in this post-punkish vibe, but touches on this alt-rock sound as well.

The way that I flow is still very true to the BLK ODYSSY sound, but the instrumentation is completely different. So it's almost like if blink-182 and Outkast had a baby, or if Hayley Williams and I don't know, Pharrell got together. So, it's a mesh of two worlds.

Is there any methodology you apply to find the common DNA between those styles? Or is it a completely organic, non-intellectual process?

I think the rhythm is the main thing. The way that I do vocals and write over rhythm is pretty consistent, doesn't matter the genre.

So, you have examples: Shaboozey was doing this whole country thing, but [his work] still has this element of hip-hop to it, and the instrumentation just makes for a very unique sound. So we're sort of doing the same thing. We happen to be on the same label, so I am excited. 

When it comes to the beats, I find a way to just do my own thing over it and then build the instrumentation around it so it's not forced.

It's just like if you heard one of your favorite rappers over a remix of one of your favorite punk songs, if the world's meshed together the right way, it is going to feel good. And that was our main thing in the studio. We wanted to just make sure it felt good.

We knew that it was going to be sort of a culture shock within our fan base, and we would face some sort of backlash internally because of it. But even in that, I feel like most of our fans have really gotten on board with this — and the name is ODYSSY for a reason. We never wanted to be pigeonholed into one genre.

So, this is just an aggressive left turn for us, and to kind of let our fans know that we're not necessarily going to be in this world even. We're going to do something completely different on the next record.

Tell me more about that sense of culture shock. That's interesting.

I just think that we have a very interesting culture within our fan base. And on one hand I appreciate it, but on the other hand,it's not really a sustainable thing if we want to grow at the level that we aspire to grow at.

BLK ODYSSY, when we came out, was such a potent and specific, niche sound; the melding of jazz and hip hop and cinematic was interesting for our fans to hear.

But I feel like it was one of those scenarios where our fan would be at a bar and they would be like, do you know BLK ODYSSY? And if the person didn't know them, they would be like, oh yeah, you probably wouldn't listen to that kind of stuff. And then if you did know BLK ODYSSY, they would be like, oh, I automatically know that I could relate to you as a person and that we're on the same wavelength.

On one hand that's great because we created this community of people that really mesh with each other and really appreciate each other's brains. But at the same time, it also created this almost music-snobbish thing that I noticed.

We wanted to find a sound that was more "digestible;" something that just had a wider range. I didn't feel like we had to do away with any of our tendencies in the studio or compromise anything.

I was excited to work on this record because…I don't want to be the old musician that's like, oh, I only do jazz. I only do neo soul, and I don't want to conform to whatever is popular.

But I found it liberating to make this record because I felt that this was something new for me as a vocalist, a storyteller, definitely as a producer, and as a collaborator as well. And I was able to grow on that level because of this record.