Overpass have spoken to NME about their cover of Harry Styles’ ‘American Girls’ and how it’s helping them to tap into a new way of songwriting. Watch the interview in full above.
The rising Birmingham indie stars caught up with NME backstage at Mad Cool 2026, shortly before they took to the stage in the Mahou Reserva tent on Saturday night (July 11).
Their slot at the Madrid festival came on the heels of them releasing ‘Elsewhere, Always’ last month – their highly anticipated debut album and the follow-up to the 2025 EP ‘Dependent’.
Discussing what it has been like to see the response from fans at festivals across Europe this summer, singer and guitarist Max Newbold explained that the record was already going further than “where we thought it was going to take us”.
Bassist India Armstrong agreed: “We’ve done a few overseas festivals so far, and because we’re still quite new to this market, people won’t necessarily know all the words… But still it’s been great to see people really buzzing for it. In the UK especially, it has been so special. In the few shows we’ve done so far since the album has been out, it’s been really nice to hear people singing along.”
Part of that connection, they explained, was from the relatable subject matter tackled across the 10 tracks on the album, which explored the feeling of self-doubt, burnout and the toxicity of “hustle culture”.
“I think it was about getting something off our chest, in a way,” Newbold said when asked why they wanted to integrate those themes into their music. “Everyone has those kinds of feelings, where you’re still figuring out what you want to do. So for us, writing about it in a way that everyone could understand was really important. That’s how you get a connection with people, and then the gigs feel that bit more special.”
Since releasing the debut album, Overpass have also got fans talking with their cover of Harry Styles’ mashup of ‘American Girls’ and Underworld’s techno classic ‘Born Slippy’, which they recorded for BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists.
Explaining what drew them to put their own spin on the track – which Styles has been playing regularly at his huge ‘Together, Together Tour’ – Newbold revealed that it was because they had been listening to the ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally‘ song “for ages now” and were intrigued by the idea of doing “something a bit poppier” than they were used to.
“We wanted to do it in our style because the covers we usually like are the ones where they mix them up and add something that you wouldn’t expect in there. So we gave it a go and we think it came across alright,” the singer shared. “We approached it like ‘If Kings Of Leon were going to do this as a cover, or U2, what would they do?’”
That determination to step outside their comfort zone has already started to shape their songwriting style too, Armstrong explained, adding that they have started writing new material to follow up their debut album.
“When we were deciding what song to choose, we were starting to learn the structure of it. We wanted to try and work it out as if we were writing a new song,” she shared. “Because it is like a pop/dance song, it was hard to get our heads around what Harry was doing there, so we thought ‘OK, let’s try and strip this back a bit and work it out in our own way.’”
Drummer Jake Bishop continued, saying that the band have become intrigued by the idea of doing “something more outrageous” and “something that people think we’d never play”.
“Rhythmically, now [‘American Girls’] is pretty similar to what we’re writing at the moment,” he added. “So to take inspiration from those kinds of songs… it’s definitely there.”
As for when to expect the new music, Armstrong said that while it is “still quite early days”, they have been “writing a lot” and are determined to stay “inspired and creative”, having just put their first album out.
“Hopefully we’ll get something together soon,” she said, and the frontman added that they were “just itching to get back into the studio” as soon as they can.
You can revisit all of NME’s coverage from Mad Cool 2026 here.
NME is the official media partner of Mad Cool.
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