Music
Overpass: “Writing songs is 100 times easier than it was two years ago”
The buzzy Birmingham indie-rock group unpick their debut album and how the common vehicle of this band helps them navigate the confusion of their twenties
“I never thought I’d actually get to this point,” responds Jake Bishop, as we ask the drummer how the reality of overpass’ debut album, Elsewhere, Always, sizes up to his personal childhood dreams. Backed by a poster of Muse’s Black Holes And Revelations, he’s joined by guitarist Elliot Rawlings. Today’s scorching summer weather feels serendipitous with the Birmingham quartet’s anthemic, festival-ready rock opus. Released 5 June, Elsewhere, Always sits in pole position to become the British indie soundtrack to the summer.
Since forming on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, overpass have entrenched themselves within the fabric of UK guitar music, taking their city’s baton from Swim Deep and Editors before them. It’s been unsurprising to see The Amazons and Inhaler inviting them on tour; their life-affirming chorus hooks coexist with tenacious rock ‘n’ roll venom and tender moments in a similar vein. Completing the clan are bassist India Armstrong and frontman Max Newbold, the founding duo who first met at the age of 15.
Breakout tracks ‘Right Time’ and ‘Stay Up’ laid down their sonic identity, a product of the sweaty dive bars where overpass started. Two EPs and headline tours across the springtime in 2024 and 2025 saw their venue sizes continually rise. Their October headline shows will peak when they play to 3,000 people in their hometown, amidst an extensive run of UK dates that follow enormous summer slots at Latitude, Reading & Leeds and TRNSMT.
Bishop and Rawlings discussed the themes behind Elsewhere, Always, feeling at home on the road and the key to the band’s harmonious dynamic.
How do you look back on the road to the debut album?
Elliot: It was a good steady pace. It’s always been growing and going at the right pace for us, having enough time to write the album and go through these different musical phases and come to our medium of sound.
Did you feel any pressure, internally, for things to keep growing, or was it more about removing yourself from the growth that was organically happening?
Jake: Taking it in our stride is probably what we all do. It’s obviously been amazing to see it grow, but it’s always been in the back of my mind. We’re all in it for the long run, and we want it to get bigger.
You’ve been sitting on this album for a year. What floods through your mind when you think about the writing and recording process?
Jake: The main part was we all moved in together and went up to Liverpool, and living with each other even sparked up a few things that we did in the actual studio. [Initially], ‘Spinning’ was the bare bones of a song, and we wrote it in there. It’s quite good being all together and immersive in that album phase. Being in each other’s pockets and minds, you gain an understanding and connection that you wouldn’t have if we were elsewhere.
What does the title Elsewhere, Always mean to you both?
Elliot: It really sums up the age that we’re all at… being in your early twenties and feeling like you can do anything, and also the challenges, being a bit confused [about] what you want to do. That’s quite relatable for all of us.
Jake: It’s definitely about this weird age group that we’re in, sometimes not knowing if you are doing the right thing and constantly thinking, ‘Should I be somewhere else?’ But at the same time, it’s quite unified, and that’s what I get from it.
The lyrics of ‘I Will’ definitely speak of that feeling of being able to do anything.
Elliot: The verses are very much about feeling down, not going out much and having your bad days, and the chorus, it’s an uplift: ‘I can get over this and have a good time.’ Especially when I was at uni, you have a lot of free time in the week, you stay in your room, and at the weekend, you go out and have a good time. That song sums up the two opposites of life in your twenties. You have so many highs, so many lows.
Plenty of your choruses have that uplifting edge. Was it important to place ‘I Will’ near the end of the album, after singing about feeling lost in opener ‘Union Station’ with lyrics like: “New age, 21 years / Of only mistakes and not many answers”?
Elliot: The main intention with that is we don’t want to always write songs that are really depressing and sad. There’s always got to be a light on the other side.
Jake: ‘Union Station’, with the lyrics, I think everyone’s gone through that feeling and emotion. That song connects everybody, because everyone probably doesn’t speak about it, but everyone feels it, I guess. The feeling and the chorus, instrumentally, replicates the lyrics, I think.
Is the music the place for you to speak about these things, or do you hope it sparks further conversations about these emotions between yourselves?
Elliot: We’re so close now. You can sense when someone’s not quite feeling right, and you just know the right thing to say and how to respond. We’re all quite open. We’ll talk about it, but I think the music, as you said, is definitely a release. The amount of times we’re having a pretty bad day, you play the gig and you come off absolutely buzzing. Definitely, there’s a release in that.
Jake: I think we only feel right when we’re all back together again. Going home is probably the worst part. I always say, whenever we’re back in the van again, you’re like, ‘Okay, this is home. Back to it.’
These themes can definitely speak to any individual in their twenties, irrespective of their job, life or situation. But does having that commonality in the band give you comfort in the confusion?
Elliot: The job we have is extremely lucky and rare, so it’s difficult to relate to sometimes. Having the four of us is probably why we are quite close, because we all have a lot of similar issues, highs and lows. Sharing that common life together definitely brings us together.
Was it challenging to cover the full spectrum of these highs and lows, and draw a line under what you wanted to convey in one album?
Elliot: It was so off-the-tongue and instinctive, so it wasn’t something we really had to think about. We didn’t come with a concept, we were generally just writing about our lives. It’s capturing that emotion when Max comes in, picks up a guitar and plays a song. We’re not really thinking too deep, and I think that’s what makes it so real and honest. It’s hard to write songs, of course, but trying to capture a feeling or emotion wasn’t something that we found difficult.
Has the ability to do that come with time? Did you overthink things in the past?
Elliot: Songwriting is so up and down. We’re lucky that we have the time nowadays, because back then, it was a lot more rushed.
Jake: It’s definitely been a work in progress. We’re improving at all times, because we’re still quite young… learning to play with each other, what fits best for each other, it’s been a learning process. It’s definitely helped in writing stuff post-album – it’s a lot easier.
Elliot: This album, we had six weeks to do it. Previously, on the EPs, we had five days to do five songs. We learned a lot of techniques and ideas, how to really serve the song and cut the fat off parts. Because you spend so long doing that, you learn a lot of your craft of how to sit within the songs Max writes, the bass lines India does and the drums that Jake does. It feels now that writing songs is 100 times easier than it was two years ago.
You decamped to Liverpool to record the album. Given how much emphasis you place on space and time, would the idea of a writing retreat appeal to you?
Jake: For this album, we didn’t really go away, but I think that’s great because it’s all about personal experiences, so to be in our own environments was probably quite key. But I’d never turn down a writing trip. If that’s on the horizon, we’d be well up for that, and I’m sure it would bring out a different creative view.
Does the familiarity of your own environment, and Birmingham, resonate with the band differently now, given how much touring you’re continuing to do?
Jake: For all of us, home is probably on the road. I think the ultimate dream would be that we’re away most of the year doing band stuff, to not really even think about where your actual home is. We’re all very proud of being from Birmingham, we all love it, but we’re even looking at moving to London to immerse ourselves in the industry a bit more. The end goal is obviously to be successful in the industry, so anything on the road or in London is probably the way forward.
Overpass will tour the UK from 21 June to 11 November. Find tickets here
