Portland’s psych-dream pop underground continues to produce fascinating hybrids, and Wooden Overcoat arrives with one of the more emotionally immersive debuts of the year. The project’s first EP, Hello Sunbeam, is a hazy, deeply textured collection that sits comfortably between shoegaze melancholy and garage-psych warmth, while still managing to sound surprisingly intimate. Across four tracks, multi-instrumentalist Brant Hajek crafts music that feels suspended between memory and emotional collapse — beautiful, damaged, and strangely hopeful all at once.
For listeners who gravitate toward the blurred atmospherics of DIIV, the hypnotic pulse of Holy Wave, or the melodic psych shimmer of Temples, Hello Sunbeam offers an immediately recognizable sonic palette. Yet Wooden Overcoat avoids becoming derivative because Hajek injects warmth into the genre’s traditionally detached aesthetic. The EP glows with human fragility.
The strongest moments come when the production’s density collides with emotional vulnerability. Opening track “Home” wraps jangling guitars and tape echo into something almost narcotic, evoking flashes of Galaxie 500 and Beach Fossils while still feeling rooted in Pacific Northwest introspection. “Finally Arrived” slows the pulse down into a dreamy crawl, with thick guitars and meditative percussion creating a trance-like momentum. Beneath the haze, Hajek explores themes of romantic exhaustion and emotional disposability, lamenting how modern relationships often feel transactional rather than connective.
The emotional centerpiece, however, is “Heaven Right Now,” a reverb-soaked desert psych track that channels quiet desperation into widescreen atmosphere. The song captures the EP’s central tension: the desire for transcendence colliding with emotional burnout. Hajek’s layered harmonies drift through the mix like fading radio transmissions, recalling echoes of Spiritualized, Broadcast, and My Bloody Valentine without losing its own identity.
According to Hajek, the EP emerged during an intensely difficult personal period marked by his mother’s cancer diagnosis, global political instability, and relationship strain. That emotional unrest permeates the record. Themes of dissociation, cynicism, longing, and self-sabotage repeatedly surface beneath the dreamy production. Yet Hello Sunbeamnever feels nihilistic. Even in its darkest moments, there is a persistent search for light.
One of the most impressive aspects of the release is its DIY craftsmanship. Hajek wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, and performed every instrument on the EP while working out of a rented basement in Portland, Oregon. Rather than chasing pristine perfection, he leaned into experimentation with pedals, amps, microphones, and layered guitars to achieve a sound that feels simultaneously vintage and immediate. The result is dense but breathable — lo-fi without sounding careless.
The accompanying visuals also deserve mention. Italian multimedia artist Francesca Bonci directed videos for both “Home” and “Finally Arrived,” extending the project’s dreamlike atmosphere into surreal visual territory. Bonci’s previous collaborations include work with The Dandy Warhols, Rachel Goswell of Slowdive, Pete International Airport, Tombstones In Their Eyes, Federale featuring Collin Hegna, The Quality of Mercury, and Philip Parfitt.
While Hajek recorded the EP alone, Wooden Overcoat has since expanded into a full live band. Joining him are bassist Dillon Glusker, guitarist Mac, and drummer Brian Levin. That transition from solitary studio project to collaborative live act could give these songs an even heavier emotional dimension onstage.
“Hello Sunbeam” feels less like a debut and more like an artist documenting emotional survival in real time. The rawness Hajek references in discussing the recording process becomes the release’s greatest strength. Rather than polishing away the imperfections, Wooden Overcoat embraces instability, allowing the listener to hear the uncertainty, obsession, and emotional weight embedded in every layer of sound.
In a genre crowded with nostalgia and imitation, Hello Sunbeam succeeds because it feels lived-in. It understands shoegaze and psych-rock not merely as aesthetics, but as emotional languages capable of expressing grief, romantic fatigue, alienation, and fleeting hope. Wooden Overcoat may wear the imagery of darkness, but these songs ultimately reach toward light.
Bandcamp https://wooden-overcoat.bandcamp.com/album/hello-sunbeam
On May 29, “Hello Sunbeam” is available from digital platforms everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
CREDITS
Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Brant Hajek
Performed by Brant Hajek
Cover art + photo by Brant Hajek
Band photos by Brett Chauncey
Videos by Francesca Bonci
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
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