In the heart of Nashville, an abundance of rising bands await their big break. But for Overlook, this moment may be coming sooner than they think.
This unique quartet consists of guitarist & lead vocalist Carson Bull, bassist Sam Bellavance, guitarist & vocalist Jim Haines, and drummer Colin Christenson. While originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, the group has an interesting history and dynamic that draws in an audience. As we’ve heard from many other bands, the ability to perform live makes or breaks a group’s success, which definitely isn’t a concern for Overlook.
Check out their interview with Patti, where we talk music community, selling personality, the start of Overlook, and so much more; Give Overlook’s EP, Shake It, a listen now!
Patti: “Okay, so I was doing some research on you guys, and I noticed you’ve known each other for like a long time, but how did you originally meet? And did you guys like each other at first or how did you guys actually become friends?”
Carson: “We all kind of met when we were students and taking music lessons at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne [Indiana]… Sam and Colin were already in a band together. Around the time that band was ending, I was reaching out to Colin… about, like, hopping in his band that I didn’t know had broken up. And then Jim, I had met Jim, and thought he was really funny. And I liked hanging out. So they to conspire together… Jim told Colin that he was gonna reach out to me and then I met Sam like the first time we rehearsed.”
Colin: “Yeah. It was like, ‘rock camp,’ was the name of the thing that we were doing. It was a little fun summer thing we were doing at the time… then through that we all started playing music together.”
Sam: “Yeah. Jim came up to me in Spanish class, and I still remember this. We were at the whiteboards doing exercises, and he said, like ‘Hey, Sam, I heard you play bass. We’re forming this band. Do you want to join?’ We were 15… and when I tell you, we were like freshly 15. We started doing [Rock Camp] when we were like 12, 13 years old,”
Colin: “Yeah and we aged out of it so we were like, ‘dammit, we have to start band.’ But making the band is important. People are too afraid to just sit down and play with people… if they don’t, a band’s never gonna happen.”
Carson: “Oh, I never felt afriad. I was excited. Because I was like, up to that point, I was only playing acoustic shows by myself… So the concept being in a band was new to me. It was like really exciting to like, not have to play music by myself,”
Patti: “Yeah, it seems very collaborative. But I can also understand how it’d be scary.”
A random burst of activity came about as Overlook’s houseguests came over to give warm goodbyes. They explained,
Sam: “We had another band staying at our house for like a couple of nights.
Carson: “It’s like a it’s like a little indie band Bed and Breakfast.”
After a burst of chatter and laughter, Colin said,
“We all live [in this house]. So there’s room for anything that four musicians may need.”
Carson: “I peer pressured them into moving down here full time. And it’s been great.”
Patti: “Love it… also, this is kind of just interesting to me in general, but how did you guys go about trying to establish yourself in Nashville in its saturated music scene? I mean, obviously, I’ve heard that [Nashville] is a lot more communal than other places as well. But how do you guys go about making those connections and reaching the area?”
Carson: “I think it’s a lot of it is listening and learning from people that have lived here longer than you. The big thing that we did is establish a way to just continuously play live.
“The best way to just keep marking yourself is by playing live, whether that’s a room of 10 people, or 200 people, you cherish every single person there. You build a community… especially in our market too. It’s when you’re in these kinds of rock, indie rock, alt-rock bands, a lot of the fans that you develop… I hate using our fans… but, people that come to your shows, they want to be involved and they want to be in the know, they want to feel like they’ve been there since the beginning.
“So really cherishing people that, even though you’re playing [a venue] for the first time and there’s only 10 people there, you’ve got to cherish all 10 people there. Maybe they’ll stick around, then all of them bring a friend the next show you play, and then 10 people turns into 20 people. So a lot of it is not so much trying to stand out, but just trying to be consistent, genuine…
“I think you have to adapt and listen, and pay attention to what’s around you… We’re blessed to have all four of us bouncing [ideas off] each other on how to be creative and, like, utilize that kind of market.”
Colin: “I think you’re right when you said communal. It’s like you meet everybody, you treat them well and genuinely. But also, if they’re in Nashville, the chances are that they’re in a band, or their roommate is in a band, and that connection’s there, and now you’re plugged in. It’s just, you know, if you’re going out meeting people in Nashville, it’s like going out meeting bands. You don’t have to be specific. We’re always meeting bands which cool.
Carson: “Yeah, you can’t really be reclusive. I mean, you gotta go out, you gotta go see other people’s shows whether or not you’re playing. When you play a show, you want to become friends with the bands you’re playing shows with. Not just because you’re like, ‘oh, I want to hop on a bill next time.’ It’s just good to know since they give you advice, they’ll let you know where to play, where not to play…
“The great thing about Nashville is… When you find the right people, there’s a great sense of community like Collin said, and people want to help each other. Because you want your friends to succeed, and [it] also helps you succeed too. It’s just like a really nice sense of community.”
Sam: “The only other thing I’d say is we just handle ourselves well. That’s something we’ve always tried to do. Be on time, be professional, be kind to everybody and respect them. You know,”
Colin: “Be nice to your sound people.”
Sam: “Yeah, be nice to your sound guy, be nice to the door guy,”
Carson: “Be nice to the venue manager, bartenders.”
Sam: “Yeah, basic things like that.”
Carson: “Yeah, and you want to develop a reputation of being like nice people… It’s one thing for people to be like, ‘Oh, that band, that band was really good,’ but you want the people that work at the venues and people that tell their friends, like, ‘yeah, I hung out with them afterwards, they’re really nice.’
“It’s very underrated, but I think it’s very important to just be genuine and kind to people when you’re like doing shows and in these environments, for sure. Because that’s the best thing that could be said about you.”
Sam: “Yeah, we threw a house party a few months ago for our first release of 2023, ‘Back to Life.’ We invited all of our friends, we had a couple other bands come over, and then we were like, ‘we should invite the neighbors,’ because we don’t want to make them mad or anything… Like, we didn’t know how this is gonna go down. But our neighbors were so into it.”
Carson: “It was insane. We were so nervous that they were going to call the cops and be pissed off, complain about the noise, but 60-70 percent of the people packed in that backyard were our neighbors, which was great. So like, again, it’s like building a sense of community. And the people in Nashville love music. There’s a reason they live here, they love music.”
Patti: “So true. So let’s also talk about your guys’s new music. What’s some of that inspiration behind your new projects? And what kind of got the ball rolling for these recent releases?”
Carson: “So we had a single come out last October called ‘She’s Got It.’ The song was kind of inspired by a need to find a direct lane.”
“I remember when we were first starting to, kind of, get back into writing songs together when everyone moved down here. We were kind of having a really real conversation about how our music, up to that point, had been kind of all over the place. We really need to pick a lane. And that song was kind of written and presented to the group in the sense of ‘this is the closest we are to that sound.'”
“I would say we’re heavily inspired by like 60s and 70s classic rock, maybe more heavily on like the 60s stuff I’d say. All of us probably would say the Beatles are close to being our favorite band of all time. So leaning into stuff like the Beatles, The Kinls, The Stones, like that kind of fun, 60s high energy, Brit rock, but kind of a more…””I would say we’re heavily inspired by like 60s and 70s classic rock, maybe more heavily on like the 60s stuff I’d say. All of us probably would say the Beatles are close to being our favorite band of all time. So leaning into stuff like the Beatles, The Kinks, The Stones, like that kind of fun, 60s high energy, Brit rock, but kind of a more…”
Patti: “It’s a little niche, a little fun sound.”
Carson: “Yeah, it’s like tongue and cheek. We want people to have fun and like we want it to make sense now. Because we also love bands like The Strokes, we love that first Harry Styles project where that kind of fresh sound was in there. It kind of mixes that 2000s garage rock sound, indie rock, mixed with like all those 60s pop rock songs that we love, and make something that still felt new. We wanted to pay respect to that, and just make people feel good. So it’s fun. And it was really fun to write and record that song.”
Sam: “I think ‘She’s Got It’ was the first one we wrote entirely down here too.”
Patti: “Aw, it’s your Nashville song.”
Carson: “That’s the first time I’ve ever been that excited when I wrote a riff. I couldn’t stop playing. And I was like, I need to show them this.”
Colin: “It was the vote of confidence we all needed at the time, because we were all in a new place, new surroundings, like, ‘what’s going on?’ And then Carson wrote a dope song, and we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this is the reason we’re doing it.'”
Sam: “Yeah, the thing we’ve had to work on is that we have to make ourselves presentable to a label. And it’s, like, I know our perspective is like, ‘no man, I want to be myself, and like, I’m gonna do like this,’ but like, we really can’t act like that.”
“So like Carson said, we had to pick our lane and make ourselves presentable. And then then we’ll have the funds to do whatever we want.”
Carson: “We’ve found the compromise in that spectrum of not being too out of pocket where you’re not marketable, and you can’t like, build a brand around yourself, because at the end of the day, whether you like it or not, you have to. So, we’ve found a way to be accustomed to that but also still keep the joy of how effortless it felt when we were writing songs at 15, 16.”
“I wanted to use this song, and all the songs on the EP, Shake It, to kind of capture that energy because we didn’t care whether or not people listened to it back then, we were just writing music for ourselves. And because of that, we were trying to find a balance between making sure it’s listenable, and people can enjoy it, but also, we’re happy listening to it, and it like makes ourselves feel good.”
Patti: “And that is the crazy thing about music, especially when you get older. I mean, anyone who blows up when they’re younger, I mean, it is kind of luck. But once you make music a career, you’re kind of selling your personality, and who you are, too, which is like a very weird thing to come to terms with.”
Colin: “I think about that, like everyday.”
Patti: “But just because I’m nosy… what was maybe like a hardship or an obstacle that you guys had to face as a band? And also something positive, that only came to be because of the band. So a good and a bad, but things that only happened because of the band.”
Jim: “At least if I’m speaking for myself, a hardship would be self improvement because that is a big part of being in a band. Sometimes self improvement is the last thing you want to do. But then you’re like, ‘Oh, if I don’t do this thing I’ll get worse.’ But sometimes learning, as you get older, you get better looking at yourself and assessing yourself. But when you’re in a band, it’s very much like being in a relationship.”
“You have to constantly be aware of ‘how do they feel? How am I feeling?’ We live with each other, too, so we see each other all the time. But like, every once in a while, it’s like, ‘ohhhh, well, maybe I shouldn’t have done this this way.’ But that’s part of getting older.”
Carson: “We’re more siblings than friends at this point. We’ve been in a band for almost eight years now. So it’s just like, and we’ve known each other even longer than that.”
Jim: “And to answer the next part, I think something you could say as positive just come out of the band is that friendship.”
Sam: “Having those tough conversations, you know, and really being honest with each other [is a great thing]. It’s like, these guys are some of the first people I’ve been able to dig deep and just speak my mind to. And they’ll listen and talk back.
“I mean, sometimes the shit we say to each other hurts, but we’re all open and we all know that we’re there for each other. So it’s a really healthy thing to do. It takes a lot of work, and it’s hard.”
Overlook then breaks out into chatter about how they are really in a relationship, and are the best boyfriends to each other, while Carson tries to rein the conversation back into normalcy (unsuccessfully).
When asked for any serious additions to the conversation, Carson said,
“If any fans want exclusive content, we’ve launched a Patreon. So any previously released music that we’ve taken down [is available], the content depending on what tier you do on the Patreon. There’s gonna be so much video, content, demos, and unreleased music that you can get on there. If anyone wants to find Overlook, they can find us on Instagram, Tik Tok, or come to our shows; don’t show be afraid to talk to us. We’re a bunch of normal weird dudes.”
Check out Overlook’s EP, Shake It, and connect with this fun family on their socials!
Written by Patti Doud. If reposting, please credit @piecesbypatti and @almostfamouszine.