Although still very much in their infancy, Oversize, who formed in the South West of England, have already developed a fully-formed, personal sound. Elements of post-hardcore, alternative metal, shoegaze and emo combine to deliriously heady effect. While the band don’t shy away from their love of alternative 90’s music, and a love of Hum, Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, and Pixies, Oversize have very little interest in being sonically tied to the past. The bandmembers’ shared experience of writing, and playing live together has found them carving out their own space within the alternative scene, in just a handful of years. Exploring the vast range of dynamics within their music, songs on their upcoming debut record, Vital Signs, drift between atmospheric textures to loud fuzzy riffs, magnifying and complimenting the personal and often venerable vocals.
To commemorate the announcement of their very first record, the group have today unveiled the Zak Pinchin-directed video for the record’s title track, “Vital Signs”. Of the single, the band comments, “While ‘Vital Signs’ is technically the title track of the album, it was originally written as an album closer and from start to finish was written comfortably in under an hour. I think the simplicity of the song and the free-flowing structure combined with extra production elements – drum loops and super saturated and effect heavy guitars – give this song a unique feel within our catalogue of songs. Lyrically much like the rest of the album, the song revolves around a journey of grief and the acceptance of loss. We felt the lyric ‘Vital Signs’ was the perfect summary for the album as a whole.”
On the record, the band continues, “It feels very surreal to finally be releasing our debut full-length. Pretty much since the start of the band we knew we wanted to be an ‘album band’. Even through we had released two EPs previously we’ve always had enough material written to make a full length, so we knew after the second EP it was time to make the jump. Recorded in under two weeks at The Ranch Production House, we closely collaborated with producer Lewis Johns to create something we’re really proud of. It was always our aim to write an album where each song has its own identity yet still works holistically as an album, we were really conscious of the album not sounding to ‘samey’ yet the same time not feeling like a playlist of random songs. We’re still so honoured that SharpTone shares our passion and vision for the record and can’t wait for people to finally hear it.”
Vital Signs will be released on February 28th via SharpTone. Pre-orders are now available here.
