“In the past we have lived in one room together, which was intense and great….but right now we live in separate houses.”
This is Hana Elion’s response when asked about the particular details of her friendship with Overcoats bandmate (and bff) JJ Mitchell. Though they now reside in separate houses — and boroughs, even! — the two are clearly as connected as ever, as anyone who bears witness to one of their riveting live shows can attest.
“We get up there and we’re like, ‘Okay, about to bear our souls!'” Elion says of that jittery pre-performance moment. “Then we hug and it’s like, ‘Okay, we did it.'”
On this episode of Soul Sisters?, recorded at NYC’s Chord Club, the duo spills about their meet-cute as freshman at Wesleyan College walking home from class together one day (“We both walked into a low-hanging tree branch and kind of stumbled backwards and that was the point at which we both had to be friends” says Mitchell) and how they transitioned from a cappella buddies who would practice harmonizing in campus vestibules to being on the verge of a huge break-through with their debut album Young, out April 21 (and an electric new track “Leave The Light On” just dropping this week).
“We’re not actually sure how this works” says Elion, “but we’re just going to go really hard, and see what comes of it.”
Listen to the full episode below, hosted by Darah Golub and Jessie Katz, which features a live performance of their single “Hold Me Close,” and be sure to subscribe to our iTunes channel for all future episodes of Soul Sisters!
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