Dear readers, we have the opportunity to interview a Finnish band, their debut album “Telepathic Minds” to be released on February 10, 2023. We welcome Overhead.
The album is available for pre-order on Overhead‘s Bandcamp site:
https://overheadband.bandcamp.com
The answers are by Overhead singer Alex Keskitalo and bass player Janne Katalkin.
Hi, how are you?
I’m great thanks for asking, waiting anxiously for our record to come out.
You offer Progressive Rock sounds, where does your passion for this music come from?
Well in our case I think it derives from childhood and the first experiences that we had with listening albums from the likes of Queen, Deep Purple, Genesis, Marillion and Pink Floyd to name a few. And the idea that sprung from these albums that you can break the boundaries of a traditional listening experience and create longer compositions that defy the “radio format” and the 3-minute pop song length. And also have fun in
doing it and playing through a 20-minute song!
Your sound brings the Prog atmospheres of the past into a modern and personal context, what are your main sources of inspiration?
Our affinity to the aforementioned older material from the golden era of prog, the 70’s, that we grew up on listening and our sonically formative years focusing in the nineties, when the last big bang of rock music happened and when we learned to play, creates a unique mix to draw on. And all of this is siphoned through the lens of our singer Alex, who ponders emotions and spirituality and existential questions, adding some
technical English in the mix, so there’s a pretty unique concoction.
What kind of sounds can we find in this new album?
We have always loved cinematic soundscapes and film soundtracks and we grew up on watching movies from the golden era of Hollywood, the 1980s, and us being these old school band players who bang on instruments, so we are trying to fuse the 2 worlds together, Blade Runner meets Deep Purple. Or so we hope haha.
The album is characterised by very sophisticated lyrics, what are the themes?
Themes? Oh, it’s all about the current crisis mode humanity is in, you may have noticed 😉 While writing the album war had not broken out yet, but at least a few songs are about the impending war, the pandemic had barely begun but one song is about how everyone wants to over-react and form camps for/against whatever it is… Frustrating that, how can you make prophetic lyrics when the things you foresee end up happening before the freaking album is even out… At least the great monetary reset, the big climate push, the explosive AI event, etc. are still future events, at least at the time of writing!
Elaborate tracks with a prog matrix, how has your sound evolved over the years?
Well at first it started more of a homage and a nod to our prog heroes that we listened when we were young and on our first albums you can hear more of the 70’s prog soundscape and there is more of a sort of playfulness on the albums. But the more that we have strayed away from our influences and the more we get time and distance between our first prog experiences, you can hear it in the songs as well, that maybe
we reference our own past work nowadays more in our songs than our first prog influences.
Elaborate tracks full of tempo changes, how does the creative process of your music take place?
Usually our guitarist Jaakko creates the basic structure of a song and he records it in our studio, to which everybody comes in separately and and plays or sings their own ideas to the song and this is repeated ad infinitum and the song is slowly forming through different iterations and discussions and starts to take shape. Our way of creating a song is more akin to pottery in which the wheel keeps on turning and everybody gets their hand muddy and on every recording of a line of an instrument on top of the other previous takes, you mold it and it start to take shape and solidify and in the end you can marvel the big lump haha.
Many Prog fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
We have a couple of gigs planned for next year in Poland and at Artrock Festival in Reichenbach, Germany, and others are being discussed on.
Music is constantly evolving, how do you see the future of Prog in particular?
The future of Prog is the same as it’s past, it’ll turn in on itself until it is inside out, form becomes function and function becomes form, why becomes what, what becomes why. When all that is done, the cycle will just start anew, Progression is at least 10% regression after all.
What advice would you give to young artists approaching this musical genre?
I Think Zappa said it best: “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”
Be progressive, not regressive.
The last question as usual I leave you free to address any topic not mentioned in the
previous questions.
Plant trees, hold bitcoin, make babies, do Zinc, N-Acetyl Cysteine, Reishi, Intermittent Fasting, khavinson peptides, and sleep as much as you can!
We thank Overhead for the pleasant interview, wishing them all the best for the continuation of their career.
Thank you!
Lineup:
Alex Keskitalo / Vocals, Flute
Jaakko Kettunen / Guitars
Ville Sjöblom / Drums
Janne Katalkin / Bass
Jere Saarainen / Keyboards