Overthinker - Sound In The Signals Interview & Song Premiere
Overthinker is set to debut their new song “New Stranger” tomorrow, but we’re excited to premiere it here today at Sound In The Signals. Check it out and read more about the writing and recording process, lyrical inspiration, favorite moments from the song, and more below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thanks for being so supportive! This is Glen and I'm excited to share our thoughts about this song with you!
Can you tell me about the writing and recording process for “New Stranger”?
The writing process for New Stranger was very iterative. There are about 5 or 6 different demo versions of this song that all have major differences. I originally wrote the core idea for the song in 2016 when I worked at a little music store in south FL. I actually had intended the song to be for my old band 'Bad Year' but then we broke up before we could record it. I'm actually glad that happened because the version I wrote back then wasn't anywhere near as good haha.
After Tony and I had re-recorded demos for it several times to see what works, we finally got something that we genuinely believe is a hit song. For our last single 'Late Again', Tony recorded it at home and we sent it out to a mix engineer we like alot. This time Tony insisted he would mix it, since he has leveled up a ton since our last recording, and he now has access to recording at the studio called 'Red Lion Audio'. I'm very proud of how his mix turned out, it's definitely Tony's best work to date.
Did you try anything new or different with your writing process when you were working on this song?
Our older music was very lead-guitar forward, which is cool in its own way; for New Stranger we focused on a balance of a fun rhythm section with tight grooves, and a very catchy hook. We also played around with some more interesting guitar effects, like the fun octave pedal Tony got for his birthday. Typically in our previous recordings we would accent some parts with some sort of simple synth/keyboard part. New Stranger has a lot of synth parts that stand out a lot more, and I personally love that direction. In general lately we've been focusing on making every song FUN.
What is the lyrical inspiration behind it?
While I worked at that music store back home, my boss always told me "As long as there's no customers in the store and everything is stocked, cleaned, and organized, you can play any instrument whenever you want". I'm very grateful for that experience, since it led me to write some of my favorite lyrics while teaching myself piano or strumming on the acoustics.
I'm forgetful and fairly introverted, sometimes it leads to me not knowing what to say, or staring blankly at someone....it gets embarrassing. One day at that store, a customer walked in while I was playing piano. He approached me saying "HEY MAN IT'S BEEN FOREVER", but embarrassingly, I did not recognize him. After talking for a bit it hit me that it was a friend from early high school, his look and demeanor were just entirely different.
After he bought strings and left I immediately grabbed an acoustic and started writing. When I showed the ideas I had for this song to Tony he immediately said that he relates, and helped me fill in the blanks on the lyrics. We both feel that meeting so many people, online or offline can sometimes be a bit overwhelming.
Do you have a favorite lyrical or musical moment from the song? Why?
My personal favorite lyrical moment is also my favorite musical moment. The end of the 2nd verse is fun because the guitar part Tony plays rhythmically mimics my vocal part and it's so satisfying to me. Also the lines I’m singing are an exact conversation I have with myself in my own head constantly haha. "Think I remember you now, oh wait that's somebody else, what were we talking about???"
What’s your favorite thing about being in the studio? What’s the most challenging aspect?
My favorite thing about being at Red Lion Audio is that it's so COMFORTABLE. I never feel creatively uncomfortable, or out of my element. I'm always coming up with ideas when I'm there. The most challenging aspect is staying on task, which sounds like we slack off but really it's that we are always thinking of ADDING things to our songs. Being so comfortable with spitting ideas out, we halt the recording process to be like "wait what if we tried this idea-", and one thing about writing with Overthinker is that EVERY idea is considered. We'll always record extra takes of a small idea someone had just to see if it works. It's pretty validating.
We briefly discussed last time we talked that you might be getting the conversation started about getting some of your music on physical media like cassettes or vinyl. Have you made progress with that so far?
At the moment we don't have immediate plans to bring New Stranger to physical media, but we really want to bundle Late Again with New Stranger and our next few singles into a full release at some point. We've been thinking about the future a lot lately and physical mediums have been a part of that conversation.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you once again! I just want to say that I'm very grateful to everyone who checks out the song. Add it to your daily playlists, show your friends, and play it at the speakers at your jobs! Being a DIY band is hard sometimes and I greatly appreciate everyone who supports us. - Glen, Tony, Jean and Will.
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