The brand new EP, The Name We Share, from Ohio-based act Overgrow debuts tomorrow Friday, May 3rd on Common Ground Records. The mastermind behind the project, Jake Ciccotelli, took us behind-the-scenes of The Name We Share and discussed the inspirations that helped create each of the six tracks on the new release.
To put it as simply as possible, The Name We Share is about the grieving process. This record, like much of the last EP, is all about the passing of my father in October of 2017. The title is a reference to the fact that my father and I share a first name, last name, and middle initial. The thought of that was something that I kept coming back to when I would start to write lyrics. It was a constant reminder of pain, but also of joy and simpler times. I think that dichotomy is a very important aspect of this record to understand.
“The Name We Share”
In my mind, even though this song is only a little over a minute long, it truly is one of the most important tracks on the record. Everything ties into this song in one way or another. I really wanted something that would almost pick up where The House You Made left off lyrically, but also serve as a starting point for the rest of the record. One of the main overarching themes of The Name We Share is this old picture of my dad and I that hangs in the hallway where I live. At the time when this song is supposed to take place, I was only able to see that picture as a reminder that he was gone. I was bitter, and I just wanted things to be easier, but I didn’t want to let myself be vulnerable and face the things causing me pain. I let myself occupy this space where I was just numb and angry. It was a really unhealthy place to be, but I think it was important for me to document that.
“Twelve Eighty-Nine”
This was the first song I wrote for this record. Besides the song “The Name We Share”, every track of this EP was written in the order it appears on the album. Lyrically, I’d wanted to write this song for a while, but didn’t quite know how to when we were making The House You Made. My dad had this small sailboat that he would race. It was really his favorite thing to do. When I was younger, he always tried to include me, but I never took him up on that. I think I was just rebelling at the time. All he wanted to do was spend time with me and share his favorite thing with me, but I didn’t see it that way. But regardless of how I treated his passion, he always made it to any show of mine that he could. This song is about looking back on that and regretting that I didn’t give his passion as much care as he gave mine. The name comes from the sail number on my dad’s boat. He never gave the boat a different name, so we always just called it Twelve Eighty-Nine.
“To You & Sober Truths”
This song is probably the angriest song on the record. As awful as this sounds, at the time I wrote it, I was really frustrated by the fact that I was constantly reminded of my dad. I saw him in literally every single aspect of my life. It brought me a lot of pain, and I just didn’t want to feel it anymore, but I also didn’t want to deal with it. I specifically hated hearing that people saw him in me because I wasn’t able to look at myself in the mirror without feeling like I was going to break down. I’m not proud of the fact that I let my mental health degrade to that point, but it’s really how I felt at the time. This song is a little ugly, but it’s honest, and I think it’s something that I needed to let out. And while it is so intense, it’s also the first time I actually looked at myself and saw that I wasn’t as okay as I thought I was. Musically, it’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.
“Bad Heart”
“Bad Heart” is my favorite song I’ve ever been a part of making. It’s about coming to terms with the fact that my family has a history of heart problems and that I need to be mindful of that. My dad passed away of a heart attack suddenly, without any prior incidents. Life is short and you don’t know when your time will come. This song is me talking to my dad about my own mortality. It also touches on the fact that I didn’t want to handle my problems, and that I thought it would just be easier to ignore any health concerns I might have in the future. Not that I think that’s a smart way to live, but I was really afraid of my own body at the time and didn’t know what to do. Regardless, I think the bridge of this song in particular is my favorite moment on the EP. I really love this song.
“The Earth Will Swallow Me Whole”
This one is the turning point of the record to me. This is the first time where I decided that I wasn’t going to let myself be miserable forever. I realized that I could waste my days waiting around on my turn to die, or that I could try to pull myself back up from rock bottom. It’s not an easy thing to do by any means, but I owed it to myself to try. And this song is really just about that decision to push myself to get better. It’s also the first time since my dad’s passing where I felt relief in the fact that we share a name. For some reason that I still can’t pinpoint, I finally let that be a source of comfort for me.
“A Spot on the Wall”
Besides “Bad Heart”, this is my favorite song I’ve ever written. Without giving away too much, I love how everything comes full circle here. I have so many thoughts on this one, but it is essentially a part two to “51” from the last EP. That song was me telling the story of the time between my dad’s passing and his memorial. This one starts with me reflecting on that time as I was cleaning out his bedroom. Right before I wrote this song, my grandma had shared this poem that she’d found with me. There was this line that said something along the lines of “grief never ends, but it changes”. Reading that was the thing I needed to finally start actually feeling better. I starting finding comfort in those reminders of my dad – like the name that we share, and that picture that hangs at that spot on the wall.
