OVERTON
1. Welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band, and provide some background information/context on Overton such as where you’re from and when and how you formed?
Shayne: Hi, I’m Shayne – guitar and vocals. Overton is from Durham, NC. Nathan (drums) and I have been friends for 15+ years. We bonded early over a shared love of 80s/90s punk and a massive admiration for each other’s musical projects. Life stopped us from putting our own band together until fairly recently, but once we worked up a few songs and added Dante on bass, we were off to the races.
Dante: I’m Dante Bruno, bass. I joined Overton after Shayne and Nathan had been playing for a bit. I have known both Shayne and Nathan for quite a while socially and have been a fan of their previous music projects.
2. How would you describe the band’s sound to someone who hasn’t heard you yet?
Dante: Existential dread in the raw realization of mortality and bodily deterioration merging with the epiphanous observation that our society is experiencing that in real-time put to fuzzed out distorted strings, abominable beats, and breakneck tempos.
Shayne: Wow, I’m not going to be able to say it better than that. We call it “dark punk.” We’re trying to take the fast, melodic punk we grew up on and fuse it with the doomy stoner rock that we’ve been listening to more recently. The themes are dark but the songs are catchy.
3. What are some of the major influences on the group and on you personally?
Dante: We are definitely informed by the punk and hardcore of our youth and the tremulous anxiety of our current news cycles. I personally have a litany of influences both related and not related what we play. Just randomly: Fugazi, Fu Manchu, Propagandhi, Kyuss, Jawbreaker, High on Fire, Quicksand, Orange 9mm, Nation Of Ulysses, Jawbox, Seam, Mission of Burma, Acid Bath, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Beatles, etc.
Shayne: Man, I love everything - from Patsy Cline to Magnetic Fields to Blackalicious to Baroness - but I tend to gravitate towards meaningful lyrics and manic energy. I grew up on bands like Bad Religion, Jawbreaker, and Propagandhi. For this project I am trying to pull in some of my darker/moodier influences like Black Sabbath, Red Fang, Motorhead, Murder City Devils, and Queens of the Stone Age.
4. What is the significance of the band’s name and how is this reflected in the thematic content of the music?
Shayne: The Overton Window is a social/political theory that describes the bounds of what society finds acceptable at any given time. Things inside the window are acceptable, things outside are not. The interesting thing about the Overton Window is that it moves over time. Gay marriage was unthinkable in the 1950s and is enshrined in law today (note: we believe this is an excellent change). Recently it feels like the window is moving faster than ever because of the speed with which technology is changing and because of overt manipulation.
Dante: Yeah, there’s a way that the Overton Window gets weaponized when someone tries to push a controversial policy by espousing an extreme idea and then pulling back deceptively making that original policy seem moderate or reasonable. If you look closely this is happening all the time.
5. Your self-titled EP was released on July 10th. What other thematic context informs it?
Dante: The songs are a reflection of the odyssey that Shayne has traversed as well as a reflection of current affairs and is often the resonance of both.
Shayne: Exactly. About two decades ago, I had a major battle with cancer and came really, really close to dying. At the same time, there is a memetic cancer plaguing our society – Nazis in the street, climate change out of control, a country where over-consumption and starvation are two sides of the same coin. Our songs deal with my reflections on mortality, bodily decay, and societal collapse. Calling back to your previous question, the Overton Window is like a lens through which we can view these ideas, both when they are rubbing up against the edge and when they are too comfortably nested in the middle and need to be evicted.
6. What have been some of the highlights of the band’s existence so far?
Dante: Playing a recent show with Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music and Brian McGee of Plow United has been a career highlight for me.
Shayne: For me, recording is the ultimate high. Getting these songs nailed down in their ideal form and being able to share that with my friends is what it’s all about. I can’t wait to get back in the studio for the next batch of songs we’ve got queued up.
7. Are there any upcoming shows or other things the band has coming up you’d like to promote?
Dante: We have a number of gigs coming up but I am most excited by our still-in-the-works mini-tour with Wolves & Wolves & Wolves & Wolves. They are a great band with an incredible sound and talent and integrity. We love those guys.
8. Who are some of the bands in your local scene or beyond you think are doing great work and you’d like to shout out?
Dante: Of course, Wolvesx4. Also, in no particular order: Bangzz, Doomsday Profit, Wailin Storms, Oort Patrol, Worthington’s Law, Maple Stave, Treasure Pains, Blab School, Zodiac Panthers, Drat the Luck, Dit. Also shoutout to our other projects: The Future Kings of Nowhere, From Below, Gainsay, and Meat & Three.
Shayne: Great list. I’ll throw in some others: Nathan Arizona and the New Mexicans, Emergency Nothing, Book of Wyrms, Pedals on Our Pirate Ships, The Wigg Report, Dead Rat Disco, and Busted Radio.
9. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Any last words for the readers?
Dante: So excited to get these songs out in the world. We are working on more and hope to release those soon. These are difficult times. I hope these songs offer some kind of catharsis. Keep looking out for each other.
Shayne: Don’t let the fuckers drag you down.
