Wooden Overcoat is the sonic creature of multi-instrumentalist Brant Hajek, based in Portland, Oregon. The name itself carries an eerie resonance: “wooden overcoat” is an old American euphemism for a coffin, a detail that quietly foreshadows the thematic weight running through this debut EP. The genre on offer sits at a compelling crossroads between ’90s Shoegaze and lo-fi Garage Psych — a sound that draws from the lineage of Slowdive, Mojave 3, and Spiritualized. “Hello Sunbeam” was released on May 29, 2026, and collects four intense, dreamlike tracks recorded with the kind of deliberate intimacy that keeps the rough edges intact and meaningful. The EP opens with “Home,” an enveloping piece built around the dilated sonorities and echo-drenched textures of lo-fi ’90s Psychedelic Rock. Guitar and vocal interplay lead over a linear rhythmic section, while keyboards accumulate layers of effects in the background, evoking the more accessible, Pop-oriented Psychedelia of the late ’60s. The track moves at a hypnotic pace — viscous guitars and slow, heavy percussion carving out a quietly immersive dreamscape. “Finally Arrived” is the album’s longest and most expansive cut. Sticky guitars and sluggish, weighted drums establish an oneiric atmosphere from the outset, before the track opens into extended instrumental passages where guitar and keyboard lines coil around each other with patient intensity. The band finds its own equilibrium between the classic and the contemporary here, filtering both through a distinctly personal lens — never merely referential, always unmistakably its own thing. The shortest track, “Heaven Right Now,” plunges into reverb-saturated Psych Rock that maps emotional fractures and shared suffering in just over three minutes. It’s rhythmically driven, with vocals woven directly into the fabric of guitars and keys, while the rhythmic section leans into a ’60s-inflected feel. The result is simultaneously lysergic and Pop-accessible — a dissonance that Hajek navigates with instinctive ease. “Hello Sunbeam” closes with “I Knew You Would,” where the sound pivots toward a mix of garage and grunge, anchored by haunted vocal harmonies and lyrics that confront isolation and the emotional weight of depression head-on. The track was also released as a standalone single, accompanied by a striking visual piece — the video directed by Italian artist Francesca Bonci — whose graphic sensibility adds a further layer to the song’s atmospheric gravity. In the second half, distorted guitars break into solo passages caught between Psychedelia and fuzz-saturated Grunge, before the vocals return to intertwine with the guitars and bring the listening experience to a close. “Hello Sunbeam” was born in one of the darkest periods of Hajek‘s life — marked by his mother’s illness, political turbulence, and relational stress. In his own words, making this record became an act of losing himself in each song with a childlike wonder, reaching for something elusive. The central themes are the fragility of human connection and personal grief; and while Hajek played every instrument on the EP, Wooden Overcoat is now a full live band, with Dillon Glusker on bass, Mac on guitar, and Brian Levin on drums. For Italian audiences, the video for “I Knew You Would” — produced by visionary Italian director Francesca Bonci — offers an additional point of entry into the EP’s emotional world. “Hello Sunbeam” is a vibrant, oneiric collection, ideal for anyone seeking music that manages to be immersive, emotionally honest, and sonically layered all at once. An EP that earns its title: not despite the darkness surrounding its creation, but because of it.
Tracklist
01. Home (03:44)
02. Finally Arrived (05:19)
03. Heaven Right Now (03:27)
04. I Knew You Would (03:58)
Credits
Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Brant Hajek
Performed by Brant Hajek
Recorded in a house in Portland, Oregon
Only humans made this art
Cover art + photo by Brant Hajek
Band photos by Brett Chauncey
Videos by Francesca Bonci
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Read our Editorial about Francesca Bonci‘s visual works: Francesca Bonci: The Alchemy of Sound and Vision in Contemporary Visual Art