Brant Hajek Talks Wooden Overcoat’s Debut EP Hello Sunbeam

Transmission 366: Interview with Wooden Overcoat

Wooden Overcoat is the project Brant Hajek started in Portland, Oregon, recording songs he had written as a teenager, working alone in a rented basement with a fixed setup of amps and guitars. The project, named after an old Americana euphemism for a coffin, grew out of that solitary process into a full live band.

Title: Wooden Overcoat
Artist: Wooden Overcoat
Release Date: 2026-05-29
Genres: Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Shoegaze
Label: self-release
Description: Wooden Overcoat's Brant Hajek on recording Hello Sunbeam alone in a Portland basement, grief, Pavement, and the debut EP out May 29, 2026.

The debut EP Hello Sunbeam draws from the COVID years and their aftermath; a deteriorating nine-year relationship, a mother’s cancer diagnosis, and a general erosion of the structures that ordinarily make life feel stable. Hajek cites David Lynch as a visual reference point and Pavement‘s Slanted and Enchanted as the record that first made music feel like something within reach. The band is rounded out by Dillon Glusker on bass, Mac on guitar, and Brian Levin on drums and backing vocals. Hello Sunbeam is out May 29, 2026.

Featured image: © Brett Chauncey

What’s the first record that made you want to make music yourself?

I don’t know, I think maybe back in those days when I was listening to a lot of indie rock. I was really inspired by the band Pavement when I was younger, so maybe Slanted and Enchanted. It was a record that felt accessible and like anybody could do it.

What pulled you back to music after the hiatus, and how did it feel revisiting songs you had written several years ago?

There’s a little bit of confusion about that. I noticed that people are reading some stuff that I had said, answering questions, and it seems that people think that these songs are from those years and they’re not. When I started to record music on my own, I recorded a bunch of music I had written when I was like 18, and that’s not the songs you’re hearing. That’s just the story — I just had a bunch of songs that I should record. It was fun to do. I liked revisiting those songs because they were already done, the song itself was there and then I could figure out how to produce it basically. I kind of just kept going in that same direction and with the same momentum, and then I just started writing new songs. That’s where we’re at now.

What was it like recording everything alone in the basement, and what were the biggest challenges?

Recording alone is weird, because you have to just make it all up and you need to start somewhere. Usually with a band you’ll play it and it’ll feel like, all right, that’s the song, but when you’re alone you kind of have to start with a demo. The biggest challenge is how long it can take. It’s tedious to think about how a song can feel like a fleshed-out song without being able to play through it entirely with other people. What you do is record one thing first — I’ll start with an acoustic guitar with a drum machine, get through what I think will be the form of the song, and then I’ll start layering up other instruments and it’ll feel like a band. From there I might even make adjustments to the form if it doesn’t feel complete or if it feels too long, and then I’ll record it again, or chop it up. Then that’s the demo. For every song I just restarted again, I would do it again and get better tracks — record with different mics or more mics — and try to make sure everything is actually a professional-sounding track rather than a demo. It just takes longer and it feels like you don’t have anybody to reflect your ideas on.

Has the Portland scene shaped or supported the project in any way?

It shaped it because the more I got involved, reacquainted with certain people I used to know, and really just going to a lot of shows and supporting other bands, I started to get a sense of community. If you know you’re a part of a certain community, you get a sense of where others are at mentally and what’s going on in the scene and their taste. I think it subconsciously shapes the way that I feel about what I’m making, knowing that my community around me and the people I’ve been supporting will support me as well.

What’s your relationship to lyrics? Do they come easily or are they the hardest part?

Sometimes they come easily and I try to pursue songs where they do. If I’m writing a song and I’m hitting a wall, I feel like maybe that song just isn’t one that I should try to make. Because I’ve been doing it for so long, even if it was badly, I have a way of thinking about lyrics that I think is interesting. When I strike on those moments where I feel like what I’m doing is interesting or what I’m saying is catching my attention, I’ll pursue that. The way I like to end up with lyrics is when I feel really happy with them — excited about something I said, something about them feels like there’s some depth there. It’s expressing something true, some emotion, and it’s maybe indirect enough to be interpreted in a few ways.

Are there any non-musical, external influences on the genesis of the album? Books, films, philosophy?

I think a lot of stuff that is not music does influence me quite a bit. I’m a huge fan of David Lynch films and I really like to draw on some of his imagery. There’s a lot of serenity and beauty and surrealism in the way that David Lynch would shoot a scene. It’s so simple and I really like the simplicity and the way you can juxtapose that with feelings and sounds that are maybe a little different than what you’re saying. Sometimes I’ll read a book and there’ll be just some random line that strikes me. The name Wooden Overcoat came from a book. I’m trying to think of something that I think is actually a contributing influence to my music.

Is there a particular mood or memory that recurs across the EP without you planning it?

I think the EP has a kind of theme. I wrote it during the COVID times and the fallout of those times. A lot of things in my life were kind of falling apart as well — my relationship of nine years was deteriorating, my mom had cancer, and the world was crazy with everything going on, people dying, the economy, all the things that make us feel secure were starting to erode. I think that’s reflected in the things I was writing about. The sounds all kind of tie it together just because I recorded everything with a certain setup — certain amp, certain guitars — so it all feels like it’s in its own little world.

What do you notice about yourself or the world after years of social media absence?

Getting back on it was weird, and I was very naive about how it would feel. I got back on Instagram thinking I was going to reintroduce myself to all these people I used to know and we’d all just support each other as musicians and artists. The truth is that it was much more cynical. Getting back on was good because I learned about what was going on in the music scene — unfortunately you have to just get on Instagram to see that stuff sometimes. What I learned is that there’s a lot more of it going on than I realized. My world was very small for a little bit, not being on social media, and my understanding of the depth and size of the music scene, even just here in Portland, was very wrong and incorrect. I got to see how much was going on and how many incredible bands were very active and doing really cool things. Then I realized that it’s very dog eat dog — so many bands are competing for essentially an impossible space to take up. A lot of people feel very protective of what they’re doing and they don’t want to let people in if they haven’t proven themselves or contributed. I was feeling a little bit of resistance just getting traction with connecting with people. Now I feel like I’ve finally gotten to a point where I’m realizing what’s going on and I’m on the level.

What’s the story behind the title Hello Sunbeam?

I like the phrase. It’s cool to use something that can be interpreted in a couple of ways, kind of like the way I write my lyrics. “Hello sunbeam” is a British phrase, like saying hey, what’s up, calling somebody a sunbeam. But I also liked the way it sounded to think about looking outside and seeing a nice day, saying hello to the sky, hello to the sun. It was a little bit of an inside joke to myself — being kind of sarcastic, calling somebody a sunbeam when they’re not actually very happy, but also thinking about a nice sunny day.

What’s the strangest source of inspiration behind one of these tracks?

I think all the stuff that influences my songs just feels really normal. I can’t think of a weird thing that influenced any of this. It was just all my life experiences and a lot of musical habits and things that have come around from the past that just feel familiar and almost reflexive. You start with some chords and some words, it feels like it could be a real song, and then you just layer up stuff and try to make it feel like it lives in its own little world. It all just feels really normal to me.

What comes after this release cycle? Are you working on new material or organizing a tour?

This release cycle will mark the end of the initiation of the band. My band has been working on new material that we are going to record soon. We don’t have any tours lined up at all, we’re still kind of getting going. We want more local support and to continue making connections with other bands and other towns, which we’re doing — we have a pretty good network right now. What we’re going to do is record the songs we’ve been working on that are actually the band’s songs. This EP is kind of being integrated into that to some extent, but it was largely a solo effort. What we’ve actually been playing live is a set of new material that we’re going to be recording. I don’t know if it’s going to be an EP or an album, but we want to get a set of songs recorded — we might go up to Washington, there’s a studio in Anacortes — and then hopefully we can tour on that.

Photos courtesy of © Wooden Overcoat

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others