overpass: The sounds that led them to the O2 Institute
The Birmingham indie-rockers chat about their hometown, influences and anthemic debut EP as they gear up for their biggest headline show to date.
Photo: Sam McGill
Despite being one of the hottest bands coming out of the Midlands right now, Birmingham indie-rockers overpass remain humble and thoughtful about their craft, refusing to forget their roots or how far they’ve come. “We do want to shout about the fact that we’re from Birmingham because we want to be championing the city,” vocalist Max Newy says. “We’re proud to be from here, to have grown up with the people around us, in quite a supportive scene. It’d be good for Birmingham to get a shout in you know.”
Now in their early twenties, the quartet – consisting of Max Newy, Elliot Rawlings (guitar), India Armstrong (bass) and Jake Bishop (drums) – have subtly been ascending into the role of anthemic indie architects since their teen years. After meeting through social media when they were all still in school, the tight-knit group bonded over a mutual love of Irish indie darlings Inhaler, having grown up inspired by everything from classic indie to contemporary local rock.
“For a lot of my teenage years it was just spent listening on my own and listening to the classic indie bands,” Max explains. “But when I got to about fifteen I’d say, I went to my first gig to go see The Coral and that was cool. There was another band called The Claws who are from Birmingham — they were great. I did see those guys play and was like ‘I really wanna do that’. I wanna be the guy singing with my mates in a band and all have a good time. Obviously you had the B-Town scene in like 2013 as well, and we kind of missed the glory days of it.”
“I think being from more Coventry way, I didn’t really go out in Birmingham til I was a bit older,” Elliot adds. “But when I first joined the band, obviously you guys were all talking about the Birmingham bands of the time and then we instantly started supporting them and I was like ‘these guys are great’. I wasn’t really aware of the local scene at the time but I think it’s definitely helped us along the way because they’ve been really friendly and helped us get on supports and get gigs.”
Having spent the last year supporting the likes of Two Door Cinema Club, The Royston Club and Vistas, not to mention guitar stars Inhaler, overpass have been constantly on the grind, taking every opportunity available to polish their already slick sound and learn what they can from these indie protagonists.
“I think when you support these bands, like the ones you love as well, it kind of almost makes it more of a reality. It’s a possibility. It’s attainable, with enough work. You get to see how other bands do it. When we got that [Inhaler support], I remember just how buzzing we were to support those guys. I think that was like the most gassed we’ve all been collectively about some kind of news,” Max says.
“Definitely. The bands do inspire you to go on because you watch how great they are and then when you meet them, they are just like normal guys in a band and it just seems more real. Like ‘oh, we can do this now’,” Elliot explains.
For us music fans though, it only takes a run through of their current binge-worthy discography to realise that they likely can do this. From their raw debut single One Night Lover to their now soaring indie anthems blazing with guitar-driven energy, overpass’ sound has grown up and flourished with its members – so much so that I ask if their influences have also evolved over time.
“I think at the start you listen to the classics. We were big on Arctic Monkeys, [The] Wombats, listened to a bit of Oasis — and there’s nothing wrong with that I don’t think. That’s what you start listening to. But then, over time, you do get into new bands, like we all love Wunderhorse. Personally, that’s my favourite around at the minute. It’s quite refreshing to listen to new sounds and new songs, and it’s quite inspiring how he’s doing that kind of songwriting,” Max answers.
“I think when you start playing music as well, you start to get more interested and invested in music and you kind of branch out,” Elliot acknowledges. “And then because of that, it has influences on your songwriting. And I think that’s why you can see a clear development in our sound from our first song to this EP now.”
It shouldn’t really be a surprise then that a band who think so carefully about their sound, and those around them, are on the cusp of releasing what is easily their best work yet: their debut EP From The Night – set for release today (February 16th).
Described as a reflection on being ‘at this weird age in your twenties’ and feeling a bit lost or anxious about the future, the EP covers themes of growing up, finding yourself and coping with the tumult of everyday life, bringing a hefty amount of introspection, maturity and meaning to the EP’s already cohesive collection of songs.
From the energetic titular track to the previously released singles Alright and Stay Up, the Birmingham four-piece make a spirited entrance on the record, putting their soaring choruses and melodic dexterity front and centre amongst a well-developed soundscape that completely suits this young band.
It really seems as though they’ve become more instinctive with their songwriting, letting the music lead the way and determine each track’s path, especially on songs like Wide Eyed where the band embrace heavier guitar sounds and rhythmic variations to concoct a massive indie tune. Yet, it has to be said, final track and previously released single Beautiful still remains the most impressive song on this release. It’s personal. It’s euphoric. And it’s just damn good.
On the EP, Max says: “A few of those songs we’ve had a while and some of them were written really close to the time of recording. I think it was just important for us to have a few songs to choose from. We feel like with an EP you want it to be cohesive. You want the sounds to be quite connected, even though the style of some of the songs are quite different to each other. But, when you break it down, the sounds we were trying to go for are quite similar and that’s what makes the EP.”
“I think the maturity thing was kind of on purpose,” Elliot adds. “I think the music we wanted to do was kind of like Wunderhorse. And although it doesn’t sound like Wunderhorse necessarily, that had an impact on the vibe the EP was to go down – a bit more maturity than the older tracks. I think we wanted to change the sound in that direction.”
“And just also for us, stepping it up and testing ourselves. I’d say we did test ourselves with these songs,” Max continues.
“Especially ‘Beautiful’, there’s a lot more parts than we usually do. We normally keep it quite simple, whereas there’s so many parts in that song.”
“Yeah that took ages, they’re quite hard to play live (laughs). I think when we got back to rehearsals we were like how are we going to play this properly (laughs). But writing those songs, especially like ‘Beautiful’, for me that was the one that feels the most personal. The others because they’ve been around for a while, they didn’t really have that kind of message but I still think that it all sounds in turn with each other and it carries across that anthemic feel that we wanna go for. What would you say, Elliot?”
“Well, I dunno, you wrote the lyrics (laughs). I think we took more time instrumentally I’d say, in trying to get that collective meaning and sound.”
And there’s no doubt they’ve achieved that with their latest project. Asserting themselves as a band who are attentively moving from strength to strength, From the Night sees the now-cemented quartet make a strong declaration of identity with attention-demanding choruses, pummelling guitar riffs and a new sense of sonic maturity. It’s truly a whole seventeen minutes of pop-rock bliss that is sure to be electric live.
“I think these gigs coming up in March and April are gonna be the best we’ve ever been at and that’s quite exciting,” Max says. “We really want to have a good time, create a good night out live with our shows. I think bringing people together and having a load of fun is something we’ve always wanted to do. From the moment we had our first gigs, it was always for our mates to come down and have a good time and it’s nice to see that you can do that on a bigger scale with people who just like your music and want to come together and just sing.”
Now gearing up to play their biggest headline show to date at Birmingham’s O2 Institute, it’s clear overpass’ goals, like the band themselves, are in a constant state of evolution. But Brummies through and through, Birmingham remains at the centre of it all.
“The dream was for us to play the O2 Institute and the fact that it’s happening in like three months is still quite mind-boggling actually,” Max continues. “We would’ve been happy with a few Sunflower Lounge shows, which is like the local dive bar. We were buzzing to do those shows and we never thought we’d really get here, but it’s great and we want to keep it going till whenever…”
From the Night is out today via Right Records.