Rising Stars: Meet Aaron Overton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Overton. They and their team shared their story with us below:

If By Whiskey is an indie rock passion project made up of a small-town kid from Niceville, Florida who loves to play and record music with his best friends. There have been many iterations of the band over the years, but If By Whiskey began in earnest when Aaron Overton, lead singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist of If By Whiskey, left Northwest Florida in late 2017, headed to look for work in the music industry in Los Angeles. On the drive over, he made arrangements to secure a place to stay with a friend in a small shared apartment in North Hollywood, a neighborhood separated from Hollywood by a mountain between the two towns.

Aaron worked a series of audio recording and live sound gigs to pay the bills but kept recording his own songs and writing lyrics in whatever moments he could steal. Little by little, the recordings took shape. Since 2018, If By Whiskey has recorded and released one full-length album, titled Higher Planes, which music blog MP3Hugger called a “drifting melancholy with a hopeful gaze.” Online music magazine Alt77 also said of the album: “[from] the carefully crafted lyrics to the arrangement and the vocals, there is something bizarre, yet wholly professional about [the] tailoring. In this day and age, it is the rare, fully satisfying acoustic-confessional number.”

If By Whiskey has continued to crank out tunes where Aaron finds time and inspiration, and he is fortunate to have dedicated friends that have been able to support his songwriting. Kevin Pabst, resident bass and keys player, also contributes to the cover art and lyric videos. William Kortbein provides harmonies and electric guitar. Alessandro Marquez is the band’s unwavering drummer/timekeeper. Andres Osorio is a huge help with the production overall. And John Schell provides blistering lead guitar work. The songs that come from If By Whiskey are labors of love that touch on the real-life experiences, sorrows, and triumphs of the band and its members. The band’s final single for the Higher Planes, “Eliza” releases on July 21 on all streaming platforms. The band’s second LP, currently untitled, is being recorded and is expected to begin its release before the end of 2023.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle that the band has had is maintaining the work from far away and dealing with the challenges of the COVID pandemic. We don’t all live in the same place, and often coordinate our recordings and work together from hundreds of miles away. Those of us who do live in Los Angeles found it difficult to practice together for the entirety of the COVID pandemic, and so we became a studio-focused band for a number of years. I would say that is still the band’s modus operandi, even as the pandemic wanes, but keeping up with the bandmates and coordinating everything logistically over the years has definitely been the biggest challenge for us.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We like to say that If By Whiskey is “Indie / Pop / Folk / Rock with a Beatlesy aftertaste.” Our aim is to write interesting and engaging music with an edge that brings a focus to the melody and personality of our style of pop music. We want people to listen and be moved…and to want to come back for more and more layers each time. Our first album Higher Planes is the work we’re proudest of so far. We think it was a great first step in showing what we aim to do.

I think one thing that sets us apart is the vocal harmonies. We love the old-school Beatlesy harmonies and want to make those cool again!

How do you think about happiness?
This is Aaron speaking, the lead singer/songwriter. For me, what makes me happiest is hearing that someone heard a song, loved the song and that it inspired them to make something or just generally made their day a little bit better. I made most of the demos for these songs 2 feet from my kitchen in a tiny little home studio. So many of the productions took shape in so many little rooms, little pieces at a time, and we’re proud of the work and the memories from the experience. Any listeners who have heard what we do are a win in the first place, but anytime someone tells me that hearing our stuff made their life a little better makes my year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2BN3IyVjJZIgTjYeK2FEu5?fbclid=IwAR3XF_PdXC8mVfaeuxsbZ_RMrf96SgH5364BrC8RcO4Tq7WiI03u_zDcozU
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ifbywhiskey/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ifbywhiskey
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamifbywhiskey
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfByWhiskey
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ifbywhiskey
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/music/player/artists/B08F37LLGT/if-by-whiskey