We are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with Bill Hubauer from a Pennsylvania, USA based band which offers Progressive Rock sounds contaminated by Pop, whose third album “Overlords” was released on February 03, 2023.
Hi, how are you?
“Great, thanks for asking!“
Your genre is Progressive Rock with various contaminations including Pop, where did your passion for these sounds come from?
“Late 70s FM Radio! I feel bad that kids grow up today never knowing the joy of discovery as you tune that analog FM dial up and down looking for something that sounds cool! (Of course this was all done late at night after your mom thought you went to bed) We in the band love great melodies and clever or interesting lyrics. If the music was interesting too, that was a bonus! In high school, I would take records over the Dave
Buzard’s house. One day we were listening to U.K. The next day we’d be listening to Joe Jackson.“
Your third debut album “Overlords” was released on February 03, 2023, how would you describe this work?
“It’s an evolution from what we’ve done in the past, which is what you want, I guess. Our previous album “While You Were Away” was put together with individuals bringing in fairly completed song ideas to be arranged by the band. For Overlords, we did a lot more collaboration and jamming. For example, the “Atomic Blues” section of “She’s the Bomb”, was recorded as a jam and then refined in the studio afterwards. This is something that none of us would have come up with on our own.“
Long tracks and elaborate lyrics, what themes do they deal with?
“There wasn’t a conscious theme during the writing process. After the fact, we could see that many of the songs dealt with the “overlords” of our lives — anything that control us or hold us back. This could be governments, corporations, ourselves, and even AI technologies.“
Your music is full of tempo changes and elaborate textures, how does the composition of the tracks take place?
“For this album, a lot of it comes from extended jam sessions that establish a rhythmic and dynamic template, then we will go back and refine and rewrite the music to fit that template. Generally of course, these jam sessions start with and idea that someone brought in. A guitar riff, or chord progression, or something like that.“
Many of your fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
“Since our inception more than 10 years ago now, we mostly have been a studio only band. However, we are very active in changing that. Currently we are doing some regional shows as a support act to test the waters. I don’t imagine there would be any extended touring, but we will be looking to do special performances like festivals.“
Yours is a very interesting debut album full of ideas, do you already have any future record releases planned?
“Overlords is technically our 3rd full length release following “While You Were Away” released in 2018. Many of our fans don’t realize there was a previous album released in 2014 called “How To Be Human”. There was a different rhythm section with only myself and Dave Buzard involved, so it has a bit of a different sound. We definitely have plans for a 4th album but haven’t discussed scheduling it yet. Right
now we are focused on live performance. Since the 4th album will be the first album released after we started performing live, I would expect that we will introduce new material in the concert context first to help refine it before recording.“
You have released 3 full-lengths and one EP since 2013, how has your sound evolved over the years?
“We are self produced and have mostly done all our own engineering, so I say that the quality of our sounds is improving and we get better at our craft. (Not that it was bad before). On our first album there was a deliberate attempt to make the songs as short as possible while making them interesting. Obviously we have abandoned that ethos on our latest recording, but I think that has more to do with group writing than individual song crafting.“
Do you have any other passions or artistic activities outside of music?
“I’ve a software engineer and have a general interest in automation technology. I know that Dave Buzard likes to write and collect art. Not sure about the other guys.“
The music market has changed a lot in the last few years, how difficult is it to establish yourself with a more sophisticated music genre like yours?
“We have a slight advantage over other emerging Progressive Rock bands due to my association with The Neal Morse Band. This gives us a starting point with an audience who would be interested in giving us a try. On the downside, we are all at the point in our lives where constant touring to promote ourselves wouldn’t not be possible. While not a mainstream genre anymore, I think progressive rock artists do have a slight
advantage over artists in other genres in that the fan base is very passionate about collecting physical media (CD and Vinyl). Prog bands can still sell CDs…. At least for now…“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching the music scene with Progressive sounds?
“My advice is the same regardless of genre. Make the kind of music that gets you the most excited, not what you think people want to hear. If you like it, someone else will too, but it may take some time to find your audience. You don’t have to make a living at it to be considered a success.”
As usual, I’ll leave the last question free, to allow you to talk about any topic of your choice not touched upon in the previous questions.
“I thought you asked a lot of great questions! Not sure what else I would add to it. Thanks so much!“
I thank Bill Hubauer and We Came from Space for the pleasant interview, wishing them the best for
continuation of their artistic careers.