Get To Know Jake Cicciotelli From Overgrow and His Latest EP, "The House You Made"

If you love Indie-rock, you're going to love Overgrow. Overgrow is a band located in Ohio, started and lead by Jake Cicciotelli, who I had the pleasure of talking to about their latest EP, The House You Made

The House You Made is a five song EP, composed of songs such as, "Ease", "No Rain", At Least I'll Try", "The House You Made", and "51". When talking about the EP and how the band formed, Jake had a lot to explain.

"This band really started as a solo project about two years ago." explained Jake, he continued. "I was touring with another band and I wasn't the main vocalist or anything. I like to use music as a way to vent, so I started this [Overgrow] on the side to do that. I wrote this record and really strongly felt this is where I should be."

"Overgrow became this thing where it almost discovered itself and became a solo record. I'm really the only member with a rotating cast of people who fill in for the live shows. It's kind of a fun thing to be apart of. It's just a fun group of friends who will come out and do shows."

Along with taking his own path, Jake decided to take manners into his own hands. When he said he wrote the record, he literally wrote the whole record. Jake played the guitar, bass, and also wrote and sang the vocals, in exception of having a friend play the drums for the EP.

On behalf of the EP, which is very emotionally driven, Jake took it to himself to sit down and write about the hardships he was facing during the time and wanted to take the challenge and push himself musically.

When talking about the music scene and the influence of his own, Jake touched on the importance of lyricism and how it can tell a story and really touch on what matters most.

"I've always used lyrics as a way to vent about things I'm personally experiencing and are worth sharing. I don't mean to dog on anybody who writes songs like this, because I think they're important and like any form of art that doesn't hurt people. I just don't feel right writing about breakups and all that. I wrote songs about mental health, a lot about my dad who passed about a year ago, so this record was venting about personal topics."

With a heavy mindset on what he was going through, Jake took the route to touch on very important subjects that a lot of people have/are going through. It's very rare to see artists take that form and push through on subjects that really matter, and not slipping out and focusing on what's major appeal in today's world.

The biggest takeaway from the record, for Jake, was who many people connected emotionally to his music and how important that was in the art of music in today's world.

"The project is very much an exercise of me letting out the darkest thoughts that I have. It's always been a thing about the subjects I can't let out on my own and I've always leaned on that. I guess there can be a lot of comfort to be found where someone is going through a similar thing. If it helps someone find peace, then it's something that I want to do."

Musically, the EP has a very atmospheric presence that a lot of Indie bands don't have, making it truly unique. With that, Jake talks about his previous orchestral past that played a huge role on the EP.

"I'm a huge fan of Moving Mountains, the Manchester Orchestra, and Now Now, where it's very pretty music, but with a lot of aggression to it. I think that it's really cool to incorporate, especially since my first instrument was the violin."

For the future, Jake says he's working on new music, but doesn't want to promise anything too soon as he's touring for the foreseeable future.

"We're currently writing for the next EP, however it's not coming soon. I'm not one to sit down and force himself to write. I'm hoping for spring of next year. We have some tours and a bunch of shows coming up that will be released in a couple of weeks. We're really hitting the ground running and we'll be everywhere we can be."

It was a pleasure to be able to sit down and talk with Jake about the powerful message and the music he's released with Overgrow. Thankfully, it won't be the last we'll hear of him.

With that in mind, make sure to keep an eye out for more content and news on their twitter, Also check out their latest EP below!