BRANT HAJEK: “Recording this EP almost ruined my life”
WITH a sprinkling of The Beatles, Velvet Underground, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, Portland’s fabled lo-fi garage shoegazers WOODEN OVERCOAT present debut EP ‘Hello Sunbeam’ featuring focus track ‘Heaven Right Now.’
The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Brant Hajek, today’s EP was recorded in a rented basement.
“Recording this EP almost ruined my life, and I hope it sounds like it,” he said. “Each song is its own little world, in which I lost myself. With childlike wonder, exploring concepts and sounds, I was inspired to make something new each time just to keep the wheel turning. I loved the feeling of momentum, knowing I was creating something out of thin air and maybe grabbing a hold of something slippery and evasive. There’s a feeling of satisfaction I can’t compare to anything else that I get when listening back to something fresh.
“It was written at a dark time in my life. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, the world was flipped on its head and never really recovered, political turmoil and conflicts overseas dominated the collective conscious, and it profoundly affected me. My relationship was suffering from cumulative stress, and I can now see how it came through in what I created. Themes of beauty that doesn’t last, self-sabotage, dissociation, cynicism, and desire for connection but feeling removed from it.”
“To me this album is about romanticism versus reality. ‘Hello Sunbeam’ is something I might say to myself when I’m having a bad day, joking about how grumpy I’m being. But it’s also something I might say when I look outside to see the clouds are parting for a bit and maybe things don’t have to be so dreary.”
Hajek plays every instrument on the EP but has recruited a band for future live performances – bassist Dillon Glusker, guitarist Mac, and drummer Brian Levin.
Connect with Wooden Overcoat HERE
(Band photo (c) Jackson Hagin)
