HEADLINES

From Punks to Pros of Overseas Love Crisis

September 25, 2019
A band that hit the ground running, there was no questioning which direction OLC was heading. From the moment they stepped into the same room in November of 2015, it was obvious that the chemistry the four of them shared would lead to great things. OLC quickly made a name for themselves in the local music scene of Fort Wayne, IN, playing all of the staple venues such as O’Sullivan’s and Skeletunes (now called The Ruin), with crowd sizes and fans growing larger each time. Concert-goers would come to expect the high-energy performances that OLC delivered on a consistent basis, and they were never disappointed.

As the musical entity that is OLC grew in maturity, so too did their sound grow in diversity. What started off as a simple pop-punk band playing covers and originals akin to Green Day and Blink-182, soon turned into a project sporting a plethora of musical styles and genres. It was common to attend an OLC performance and see funk, alternative rock, hip-hop, and ska-punk all mixed in with the classic pop-punk sound that defined the band’s early career. Fans came to love the moment in OLC’s funk-rock instrumental “G-CATS” in which singer Charles Keen would pull out his silver trumpet, blaring melodies that carried through the entire venue. Word spread quickly about the new guys on the scene.

Over time OLC began to grow in popularity, and they started to grab the attention of some bigger names in Fort Wayne. They soon formed a working relationship with promotion company Mid- American Entertainment, which led to many greater opportunities. Through this relationship, OLC was able to perform on the famed Piere’s stage multiple times, opening for national acts such as CKY and The Dead Daisies. They also began to leave the Fort Wayne area, travelling to larger hubs such as Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis.

Eventually, OLC began to gain press recognition in Fort Wayne. They received multiple features on local TV news station WANE-TV, and had an article written in one of the top entertainment magazines Whatzup. OLC’s hard work and dedication to their music culminated in its first large achievement when they were selected to be one of the first artists to be featured on ALT 102.3’s show ALT Homegrown Spotlight, which showcased local Fort Wayne musicians with focused interviews and airing of their music on the radio station. After having multiple features on ALT 102.3’s show, talks with ALT took place on having OLC come back in for a new interview and a new rotation of songs, with late 2019 being a possible air date.

OLC’s debut release Letters Lost is a 6-track EP, pumped full of the chugging guitar chords and catchy vocal melodies reminiscent of all the pop-punk greats. Off-setting those tracks, the listener will also find the funk and alt-rock sounds the helped OLC define its diversity in its early years. Also featured on the EP is one of the band’s most popular songs “Anything, but  Everything”, which is actually a re-recording of a song written by a close friend of the band. OLC went on to re-track three of the songs from the Letters Lost disc on acoustic instruments, naming this softer collection of songs Peruvian. This CD was recorded as a thank you to all of their fans, friends, and family that had helped them get as far as they had been thus far. Peruvian was released on the anniversary of OLC’s original demo, which can no longer be found online or on disc and pre-dated Letters Lost, and featured the same three songs that were found on the demo.

Not too long after releasing Peruvian, OLC went on to record their first stand-alone single. A repeated crowd favorite, their funk-punk cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” was a hit with whoever heard it. The music video that released with the single was equally popular, and provided OLC with a great first step into the music video world. Keeping to their approach of an eclectic music taste, they also released a single and music video of their ska-punk original “(My Friends Say I Was) Roofied”, a song based on the true story of the time guitarist Brett Welch was drugged at a Fort Wayne bar.

For the release of their first full-length album, OLC decided to plan a series of concept albums. Each track from the Letters Lost EP was turned into a part of a story, and each album would be based off one of the six songs to tell its part of the story. Thus, OLC’s debut album Wanna Be was born from the first track of the Letters Lost EP. Wanna Be features an impressive array of musicality, with each band member taking a turn on vocals throughout the album. This factor allowed OLC to begin showcasing the rapping talents of drummer Ben Schnitz, something that had been a staple in their live sets but had yet to be recorded. On the penultimate track of Wanna Be, a spoken word track tells the journal entry of the album’s protagonist as he chronicles the story of the first album. Setting the stage for five more albums to tell a story, Wanna Be is both a musical treat and a story-teller’s intrigue. Two music videos were born from the Wanna Be album, featuring the two singles “Still Okay” and “Rescue Me”.

The future of OLC isn’t too difficult to figure out. With five more albums to finish before the Letters Lost story is told in its entirety, they have been busy working on song-writing. At this moment, the next album Sunsets is halfway through being recorded, with the first single picked out and music video preparation in the works. There has also been talk of a comic book release to create a visual chronicle of the Letters Lost story, giving fans another way to enjoy it. This project will draw greatly on bassist Blake Jones’s experience with story-telling and visual art, capitalizing on another strength of the band’s members. Once the Sunsets album is released, OLC plans to take a break from the concept albums to release another EP. This disc will be a leap away from their normal pop-punk riffs to highlight some of their other talents, with yet another genre shift in the works. As their musical journey continues, no doors will be left untouched.

Though the group was featured in recently released Lifoti's September 2019 issue 09, you can check it from below link's for your country:

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