Am 20. Februar 2026 veröffentlichen The Overjoyed ihr neues Album – ein so persönliches und kompromissloses Statement wie nie zuvor. Im Gespräch erzählt Frontmann Leo von einem neuen, kollaborativen Songwriting-Prozess, DIY-Produktion mitten in Athen und den dunklen Momenten hinter dem Opener „Can’t Write Music“. Gleichzeitig geht es um Resilienz, Punk-Ethos und den Spagat zwischen klassischen Einflüssen und einem Sound, der fest im Hier und Jetzt steht.
Frontstage Magazine: Your new album drops on February 20th, 2026. When you look at it now, what makes this record feel different from your previous releases, both musically and on a personal level?
The Overjoyed: Every song we write depicts where we are, what we feel and what we like to listen to at the time it was written, our previous EP was somehow the bridge that kinda led us to change our sound a bit into a more mid-tempo but dirtier and more oldschool sound. The only reason this happened is that our tastes shift over the years so our songwriting does as well. We are so excited to share it with the world cause we are very proud of this one! On a personal level I love this record cause it’s the first time that I feel that all the songs represent all the members of the band equally and that means a lot to me!
Frontstage Magazine: Leo, you mentioned that this was the first time the band collaborated 100% on the songwriting. How did that change the way you worked together, and did it ever lead to conflicts or unexpected breakthroughs?
The Overjoyed: Yes it did, but at the same time the result was more special. Usually I was the one who brought basic song ideas and then we did changes over those basic ideas. This time most of the songs were written collaboratively and even those that weren’t were changed a lot with ideas from all the members. I still write most of the lyrics though. What I loved most about it is that some songs or parts were completely written live while jamming in the studio and I know this is not the way people write these days.
Frontstage Magazine: You’ve once again chosen to produce the album yourselves. What does DIY mean to The Overjoyed in 2026 — is it about control, necessity, or simply staying true to who you are?
The Overjoyed: We had huge help from our friend and great sound engineer Marios Adamopoulos who – apart from recording, and mixing – co-produced this album with us.
But overall there simply isn’t anybody who we trust more than ourselves in Greece about producing our music. We also recorded everything in our studio in the center of Athens. We are not negative about it, if we have the chance to work with a producer that we trust in our next record, we’ll take it.
Frontstage Magazine: The opening track “Can’t Write Music” is brutally honest and deals with addiction, identity and mental health. Was it difficult to revisit that dark period while writing the song, or did turning it into music help you make sense of it?
The Overjoyed: Usually these are the topics I write in my lyrics. ‘’Can’t Write Music’’ is a song that was written during that period so I wasn’t revisiting anything. I just couldn’t write music for a time. I was picking up the guitar only to throw it back at the couch cause my mind was a mess. ‘’Can’t Write Music’’ is important to me because I ready to give up when I said fuck it, I’ll write a song about not being able to write one. That’s why the lyrics are simple and straight forward, that’s why it’s the opening track of the album. After that something clicked again and with the help of my band mates we made a whole album!
Frontstage Magazine: Even with all the heavy themes on the record, songs like “Spark” carry that defiant, almost uplifting Overjoyed energy. Where does that resilience come from after years of touring and doing everything the hard way?
The Overjoyed: As the years pass I realize it more everyday. It’s like a video game that we play in Hard or even Brutal mode. But what we do is not a choice. It’s who we are! We are knowledgeable musicians, we could definitely pick another genre to play, we could make music that is much more hot and trending right now than Punk Rock. But won’t, because that’s what we like to do.This is the music, the community and the ideas behind it that I like more than anything else in the world since I first had the chance to listen to it and later be a part of it.
Growing up and living in Athens, Greece made things even more difficult, we had to try and sacrifice a lot for people to start taking us seriously.
Frontstage Magazine: “Party Eyes” is one of the oldest songs you’ve ever written and finally made it onto a record. Why did it feel like the right time to give this song a proper place now?
The Overjoyed: Yeah Party Eyes is probably the older idea. Well all these years I had the main melody and feeling in my head for a long time, but wasn’t able to put it to words for some reason. It’s about a sensitive feeling and topic you get on some late lonely nights after a wild bender. Then a couple of years later Thanos wrote the opening riff and we immediately attached it to the song cause it fit perfectly but something was still feeling off. It wasn’t until Vangelis our drummer and Stef listened to it and was like ‘’Come on let’s put it on the records’’. So we did.
Frontstage Magazine: You’ve been compared to classic punk bands like Buzzcocks, but the album never feels stuck in the past. How do you balance honoring your influences while still sounding like a band that belongs to the present?
The Overjoyed: Well when listening/writting to music I always feel somewhere in between honoring the legends, The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Clash and the later ones like Green Day, Bad Religion etc but at the same time we’re like. Who cares, it’s our time now we can do stuff differently. But if differently means make music like we work at a factory then we prefer the old ‘’analog’’ ways. We hope that the result is the best of both worlds.
Foto: The Overjoyed
