Storrs-based indie punk band Overlöded released their third studio album “Miss President” on Jan. 3, marking the culmination of a nearly two-year long process. The 10-song record is the group’s most expansive work to date: featuring dynamic walls of guitar textures, a rock-solid rhythm section and introspective lyrics.
Aiden Bonilla, Overlöded’s frontman and leader, began writing the songs that would make up “Miss President” soon after the release of the band’s second album “Love & Youth,” which came out in October 2022. The first song he worked on was “Delusion, Distraction,” the song that became the record’s opening track. But his creative engine got put into high gear when he wrote the song “National Championship” in spring 2023, which kicked off a fruitful period for his songwriting.
Bonilla took a lyrics-first approach when writing the album. He explained that this was the approach that he used when writing “Cranium Shaker,” the first Overlöded album, but pivoted to a music-first approach when making “Love & Youth.”
The album explores a couple of main lyrical themes, largely drawn from Bonilla’s experiences during his freshman year at the University of Connecticut and his personal life at the time. He was also inspired to write more politically-and-socially conscious lyrics as evidenced on songs like “National Championship” and “Kick Rocks!!!!”
“I was getting a lot more political[ly] conscious at the time,” he said. “In high school, that’s not something I really thought about because that wasn’t on full display to me at the time. But getting to college and seeing a lot of things up close, especially economic issues, I realized ‘hey, this is unfair to a lot of people,’ and I started writing about that.”
With a fresh batch of songs ready to go, it was time to bring the songs to life. The project greatly differed from the first two Overlöded releases as “Miss President” features a full band for the first time. “Cranium Shaker” featured only Bonilla, while “Love & Youth” featured Bonilla and drummer Drew MacNeil. This time around, Bonilla and MacNeil were joined by lead guitarists Arlo Matthews and Nathan McKenna, as well as bassist Noah Bielecki.
Bonilla explained that recording with a full band for the first time “really expanded everything” and opened up new possibilities for the songs by bringing in perspectives other than his own.
“I could think of a song one way, but Arlo, Noah or Nathan would come in and look at it in a completely different way,” he said. “And they would have all these other ideas I never would have thought of.”
Having two talented lead guitarists made a huge difference, as guitar solos play a larger role on “Miss President” than the first two albums. Bonilla said that having the combination of McKenna, a punk-inspired guitarist who played many of the albums fast, aggressive solos and Matthews, a folk rock guitarist who performed the album’s more melodic leads, gave the songs more life and energy. The combination of the two’s different styles is on full display on the album’s closing track “Your Old Life Is Over,” where Matthews and McKenna take back-to-back solos showcasing their styles.
At the centerpiece of the album is the song “Let’s Commit Insurance Fraud Together.” Clocking in at nearly six and a half minutes, it’s the longest Overlöded track to date, thanks to the song’s extended and airy bridge. Bonilla said that making the song was one of the most collaborative pieces on the album thanks to Matthews’ idea to expand the middle section and add glockenspiel and piano parts to it, with the piano coming from Japanese musician Sentimental Okada.
“In my head it was a lot more simplistic: it was just going to be punky in the chorus and then a quiet bridge that would build back up,” he said. “But then Arlo said, ‘we can make the bridge really spacey and add all these parts to it,’ and I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
Recording started in summer 2024 with MacNeil recording all his drum tracks first. Bonilla noted that “the songs morphed a bit and into their final forms when Drew took them in,” with his drum parts giving the songs more life than the placeholder tracks Bonilla added to the demos. When the fall 2024 semester started, Bonilla recorded his rhythm guitar tracks before sending the works-in-progress to the rest of the band to develop and record their parts while Bonilla worked on the vocals. While there were few instances of the members recording together, this made the process go faster than previous Overlöded releases.
“There were a couple times when we got together and recorded in the same room, but for the most part it was all of us recording on our own, using our time to get it done as efficiently as possible,” he said.
The band worked through December 2024 to record the album, making last-minute additions in the final days before the deadline to send it to streaming services, including the previously-mentioned touches to “Let’s Commit Insurance Fraud Together.” The recording process took six months in total, resulting in the 41-minute album that Bonilla considers his proudest musical achievement.
“This is the most satisfied I’ve been with a project that I’ve made,” he said. “With the other albums, there’s songs that I wish I did better or ones that I’m not fond of. But with ‘Miss President,’ I can’t think of any songs on the album that are like that for me. Each one serves a purpose and is there for a reason.”
And while Bonilla admitted that he’s not sure what’s next for the band, he would be going out on a high note with “Miss President.”
“I don’t really know what’s next, the future is pretty uncertain,” he said. “But if this is the last thing I do, I’m pretty stoked with that.”