2006 Catfights Fan Choice Band of The Year

Ohio Based Punk Rock Band OVERATED checks in:

TCZ: Describe your impression of how Overated came into existence, and how you came to join the band.

Jeff: Me and Ryan have been best friends since third grade, so naturally we wanted to play in a band together. We both got our instruments around the same time, so we would sit in his basement and make terrible noises together. We had some vain attempts at making bands, but we were terrible. But with time, our skills and interests progressed. I started getting heavily involved in political punk rock such as NOFX, Bad Religion, Propagandhi, and Anti-Flag, and Ryan was really getting into the melodic punk bands such as Lagwagon. When we met Steph at a local punk show, we were just genuinely pumped to meet another person with the same musical influences as us. That first practice we had, where we both heard her sing and play bass, we were blown away. We knew right then that this was going to be the band. Ever since then we've been like brothers and sisters, with no intention of stopping.

Steph and Ryan: That pretty much sums it up, yea.

TCZ: When did you start playing your instruments? What was your first equipment and how did you acquire it?

Steph: I was twelve or thirteen. I found my Dad's old bass and started teaching myself to play. My Dad saw how serious I was about learning to play and he started teaching me songs. My first bass is the one I still play, my Yamaha bass. It's not the most impressive instrument, but I just love that thing too much to replace it with anything better.

Jeff: I got my first guitar for christmas When i was like 14 or 15. I was terrible. I still won't say I'm any good, because I can't consider myself a guitarist. I'm not interested in sweeping arrpegios and face melting solos...I just want to let loose some agression... and the guitar allows me to do that.

Ryan: I was very young, we're talking two years old when I started drumming. My grandma Francis bought me a vinyl record with The Champs on it, playing "Tequila". It featured tons of drum solos...I played it on an old jukebox my family had, and neon lights lit up to the beat of the drums. She also purchased me a little practice drum pad with two 5A sticks I still have.

TCZ: Have you had any professional training?

Steph: Actually, Jeff and I had the same guitar teacher. I took lessons for about a year, but got bored with theory/couldn't afford it anymore when I was learing fine by myself. The stuff I learned definetly helped me develop my my ability, though.

Jeff: I had a teacher for a while who tried hard to get me to learn musical theory, but I just wasn't very interested. He did pass on the valuable skill of learning how to teach yourself.

Ryan: None. I was in middle school band for a couple years playing quarter note beats to "Jingle Bells" for Christmas concerts and such. I just watch a lot of live music and watch the drummers.

TCZ: Tell us about your band mates and what each member brings to the band.

Jeff: Steph is really the shining star of the band. Not only is she amazing on the bass guitar, her voice really portrays the emotion of our lyrics. Steph always latches onto the political message, and when i write a song she is always the first to get it and feel it. Ryan is really the backbone of the band. Not only does his drumming really bring the intensity of our music up a notch, but he really does almost all of the behind the scenes stuff that you don't see on stage. He motivates me and steph to do the things that really needs to be done. Touring, booking, finances, promotion...Ryan is really the major player in these departments.

Steph: Thanks Jeff. Ha, I think we all bring our own dynamic. I've played in other bands and struggled to connect with other musicians, but I feel like Ryan, Jeff and I just mesh really well together. Jeff and I write very political songs and I feel that the anger we feel towards different issues makes our passion behind the music all the more genuine. Ryan has a great way of briniging all the songs together with his own spirit and humor.

Ryan: Steph is our frontwoman. She is the face of this band. Her rage, anger, hatred towards certain issues really makes us who we are. Her frustrations with society are apparent, and thats necessary to play the music we play and to speak the message we speak. Jeff is our frontman. He shares those same angers. He incorporates a lot of political issues into the songs we play. The thing about Jeff and Steph is they are both ON FIRE for what they write music about. They don't speak it unless they truely believe it. I love that about them. Their rage is not a "show", it's the truth. Let's be honest, they are two truely pissed off people, and that's what makes both of them so great.

TCZ: Using one word, describe Overated.

Steph: Rage.

Jeff: Anger

Ryan: Moshable (is that a word?)

TCZ: Do you remember your first gig together as a band, and if so, can you explain what it means to you today?

Jeff: Haha yeah. Our first gig with this lineup was in the basement of a Lutheran Church in Granville, Ohio. It was pretty terrible. I messed up my little tiny solo, steph forgot most of the words, and ryan was lost the whole time. Plus we didn't have enough songs to fill the whole set time, so we played some over again. I guess you have to start somewhere, right?

Steph: Yeah, we sucked but it was still fun as hell. We were like what, 15 years old?

Ryan: We were 15, yea. I remember playing our opening song, "Mad World" (the Tears for Fears cover) twice. I had cymbols that sounded like tin cans.

TCZ: In 2002 you released a demo followed up by your live cd , "Ties That Bind," in 2004. Can you tell us alittle bit about that?

Jeff: We messed around with self recording before, but our first time in a studio was when we made our little demo. We spent about a day, and made a decent little demo for us at the time. Our live CD came after that, but we weren't very pleased with the quality and really wanted to get some of our newer stuff to the fans. Thats when we recorded Ties That Bind in 2005, and it was definitely our best effort. Though we didn't have a lot of time or money to make the CD perfect, it produced some pretty memorable songs that we're known for and still play today. I'm still very proud of it.

Steph: I'm really proud of "Ties that Bind", but at the same time, I am so ready to get back in the studio and record a new album.

TCZ: What song off "Ties That Bind" do you feel best represents the band and why?

Steph: I'd probably say Fuck the World. It's one of the most feminist songs I've ever written and I love the way the girls in the crowd respond to it. A lot of girls know the line "You wanna see a lady, I'll show you a fucking lady!" When I started writing music I did so wanting to prove to the local music scene that its not a boy's club anymore. Its just great to have girls at shows get that and want to take part in it.

Jeff: I would definitely have to say Progress. It has a fast and intense sound, great bass lines, Dual vocals, and an important political message. Those are the things that our band and sound are all about, which i think is one of the reasons the song is popular among our fans.

Ryan: If one song were to represent us from 'Ties That Bind', it'd have to be Fuck The World. It's a song being sang by a pissed off woman, who's saying "Fuck all of this!". It's intense, and it delivers a very strong message.

TCZ: Give us a birdseye view of the band in the studio while recording. Desrcibe for us a typical day.

Steph: I seem to recall a lot of arguing, laughing, and frustration. Jeff's right, we are far from professional while recording.

Jeff: Oh man. We're so unprofessional. Plenty of food, plenty of screw ups, and plenty of us making fun of each other for screwing up. Thats just how we are. Sometimes we need to screw around for an hour just to have a really meaningful five minutes of music. Thats why I'm excited for this summers recording, much more time and it will be a much better CD.

Ryan: There was food, there was stress. It was my first time in a nice studio, so I messed up a lot. I learned a whole lot about the recording process, hopefully making this June much easier!

TCZ: Who writes the lyrics and can you tell us are there any habits or "rituals" you engage in while composing?

Steph: When I write its usually during some fit of rage. Honestly writing music is like therapy to me. I'd probably have thrown myself off a bridge a long time ago if I didn't have some sort of emotional outlet. Its great to have guys like Jeff and Ryan who can embrace the topics that are dealt with in my music and even write about similar subject matter.

Jeff: Most of the songs are written by me, but Steph has written her fair share and Ryan wrote a crowd favorite called Patriot. Really... If im losing sleep thinking about something thats bugging me or angering me, I'll probably stay up late and put my thoughts into a song. The new material I've been writing while at college is defintley some of my best stuff, and it's really coming along a band practice. When it comes to composing the music together, we're still huge unprofessionals. If a music professor watched us teach each other songs, I think he'd kill himself. Seriously. But, it works for us.

TCZ: Share with us the story behind the fan favorite single, " Progress."

Jeff: I brought the main riff of the song to practice with the chorus "A Change! Right Now", and Steph filled in the rest of the lyrics and music. To me, the song is a rallying cry for change...and having it screamed back in your face at a show is one of the greatest feeling in the world. It's a simple, unifying anthem, and I think it's something most people can relate to in todays world.

TCZ: Recently you participated in The Catfights hosted by The Cover Zone,which you also won. Can you tell us what that experience was like for the band?

Steph: I was totally in shock when I found out we won. At the same time, though, we worked so hard, staying up for 24 hours, sleeping in shifts, asking fans to vote, but it was so much fun at the same time.

Jeff: Oh man, it was nuts. We really go after people with our style of internet promotion. During the preliminaries we just bugged all our friends everyday to vote. When it came to finals time, we stayed up for 24 hours sending all our myspace friends personalized messages asking them to vote. In the end it all worked out, and we're so proud of ourselves. For me, it felt like some of our hard work finally paying off. Our little punk band beating Suzi Quatro and Fabulous Disaster in a fan choice contest? Hell yeah!

TCZ: Currently your working on your new cd due to be released summer 2007, what can you tell us about that?

Steph: I am very excited about releasing our new cd. I still have so many songs to pour out into this, due to a lot of the things I've learned and experienced while living on my own. I'm really excited about the new music Jeff has been writing also, because I feel like a lot of rage has been pouring into his new material more then ever.

Jeff: It's gonna be our best material and recording yet. The songs that have been pouring out of me and steph are some of the most intense, angry, and well written songs that we've put together. We defintley want to keep bringing the mosh on this CD, so there will be no shortage of our signature style. There are going to be a few more lighthearted punk anthems as well, which she translate well live. We're even working on a little Celtic song to appear at the end of the CD. Overated fans will defintley be in for a treat.

TCZ: For Steph, can you tell su what you do to protect your voice while recording? Are there any staples or foods you avoid and what if any vocal exercises do you practice?

Steph: I've actually had a lot of issues with this, being I've lost my voice at shows due to not protecting it well enough. Usually I drink lots of water and tea, absolutely no pop or milk. I usually do shots of honey to coat my throat, and try to breath from my diaphragm.

TCZ: You have, for lack of a better word, an "invisible" member of the band. Can you explain that to us and how important he is to the band and why the band considers him a member?

Jeff: We love Carl. We hate Carl. We can't function without Carl. He is the band Viking, and will always be so.

Steph: Yeah, he's helped us through so much and comes to every show.

Ryan: Carl has been there since the beginning. Without him, we're lost. He helps load and unload equipment, he's always in the middle of the pit, getting people pumped up too. He drives our van and accompanies us on tours. Carl is apart of the band, no questions. He exceeds being a roadie. I mean, common. Every band has a roadie. I GUARENTEE THERE isn't ONE BAND that has a Carl...He's just as much apart of the band as Steph, he just doesn't preform on stage, that's the only difference.

TCZ: Currently you are booking your first tour of the east coast for the summer of 2007. What can you tell us about that and how can fans help bring "Overated" to their town?

Jeff: If you want us there, just let us know! Even if it's not on the east cost, please tell us that your interested. We will all be working full time, but we want to do little weekend mini-tours where we go out in the van friday and don't come back until sunday. This summer we want to play wherever we want to be heard, so drop us a line.

TCZ: In October 2007 you are headlining a growing punk festival in Dayton, Ohio, PUNK-A-PALOOZA. Can you tell us about the festival and what fans can expect?

Overated: Oh man, expect two days a fun. A bunch of drunk punk kids camping out for two days? I couldn't think of a better crowd. For the amount of bands and camping, 25 bucks is pretty cheap and we want all our fans to come out and hang with us. We're excited to have such an opportunity to reach new fans,

TCZ: Any plans for a video or two on the horizon?

Ryan: We're very busy right now. We've got a full show schedule, we're all in school full time and working 40+ hours a week. This summer, we'll be upping our hours at work, recording a new album, and setting up a tour. If someone wrote and directed a video for us, we might have time to do something, but it's the least of our worries at this time. You never know :-)

TCZ: What can we expect from Overated in 2007?

Jeff: A lot more shows and a lot of new songs. Playing live is what we love to do, and we expect to keep the shows coming and coming. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at how far we've come when our new cd comes out, so we're really excited about that. Other than that, just a lot more of what we're already doing.

Steph: We've been juggling such a hectic schedule of shows along with our schooling and jobs. So expect loads of shows and new material.

Ryan: We'll be playing shows in places we've never heard of. On top of work and school, we will try and play every weekend we can!!!

Interview by GWGS © The Cover Zone March 2007