Artist Spotlight: Overcoats
When asked:
“Siblings or dating?” Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell, the singer-songwriters who are Overcoats, answer: “yes.”
“What are you guys listening to right now”: “the voices inside our heads.”
“Why did you shave your heads”: “so we could finally get boyfriends.”
Clever, funny, and incredibly talented, the duo met on their first day of college at Wesleyan University and have been making music together ever since. Their work doesn’t fit comfortably in one genre—it’s a combination of electronic pop and folky harmonies that sometimes approach bluegrass. But genre (or lack thereof) isn’t what attracts me to Overcoats—it’s their genuine emotional vulnerability.
Lyrics matter to me. If I don’t feel connected to the words of a song, I rarely keep listening to it. Maybe this doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, since we all relate to different things in music, but I have never pressed skip on an Overcoats song. The duo addresses issues like sexism in the music industry, depression, anxiety, politics, and they consciously include lines that show how often two opposing things can be true at the same time. Their words are simple, honest, and make me feel.
In March 2020, Overcoats released The Fight, an album they describe as “a ten-song battle-cry.” It follows their critically acclaimed debut album, YOUNG, released in 2017, and their vision “is not about picking up arms, but rather about picking oneself up.” With driving rhythms like Fire & Fury and Apathetic Boys next to gentler tracks like Drift and New Shoes, Elion and Mitchell have created a record that I catch myself listening to every way I can—on shuffle, adding individual songs to my favorite playlists, or all the way through in order (as I’m doing right now).
Mitchell and Elian’s videos are just as thoughtful, creative, and (there’s no other word for it) cool as the songs themselves. In one of my favorites, The Fool, Mitchell and Elian shave each other’s heads. They were inspired by women in history who cut off all their hair as a political and social statement (think Sinead O’Connor and Grace Jones), as a way to push back against the way they were being pressured to present.
For the artists, the name Overcoats acts “like a suit of armor. Something…genderless, ambiguous,” and shaving their heads reaffirmed that ethos of rejecting gender norms and defining themselves however they choose. It’s powerful, beautiful, and if my hair weren’t already buzzed it would make me want to pull out the trimmers and unweight my scalp. There’s something about the way that video, in particular, is shot that’s just different—I can’t put into words. Go watch. (and take a peak at Fire & Fury while you’re at it)
If this has made you at all curious about Overcoats, they’ll be playing a livestreamed concert on November 19. Get tickets ($12 plus fees, around $15 total) here. And yes, I did listen to all of both of their albums while writing this post. You should, too.
Thumbnail image via Instagram, inline images all from Instagram
