Biography
Meet Rob Overseer, a sonic producer who appreciates the finer ironies of life and music while crafting thunderous soundscapes brimming with the kind of bristling beats and layers of post-apocalyptic power chords that would have Angus Young banging his head. With the release of Wreckage, his first full-length album, Overseer signals the arrival of a massive new sound on the high-tech horizon.Despite his grandiose moniker, this Leeds, England-based bloke stands a mere five-foot- four. "I don't oversee anyone," Rob laughs. "The name gives off the impression of a big entity, which is how I like the music to sound." Two of his earlier tracks -- "Stompbox" and "Supermoves" (the latter included on Wreckage) -- found their way into the soundtrack for Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday" with "Supermoves" also appearing in Guy Ritchie's "Snatch." But, more and more, high-tech video game designers, producers of cutting edge television advertising, and purveyors of extreme sports action are finding usages for the exhilarating rave-ups of Overseer. The aforementioned "Supermoves" can be heard in the X-BMX film "Expendable 3," the Grand Turismo video game "GT3," episodes of "C.S.I. and "Alias," and movie trailers for "Formula 51" and "Iron Monkey." His track, "Horndog," can be heard in the ad campaign for the Mitsubishi Endeavor. Overseer's scorching new jam "Velocity Shift" has been picked up for the trailer for "Daredevil," the Fox film starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, as well as a Michelob commercial, a set of Dodge SRT television spots and the "Stuntman" video game. Overseer's increasing popularity in the video gaming community is a bit ironic, considering the fact that Overseer does not yet own a PlayStation 2. "I do have a Nintendo," he deadpans. "It's been sitting around gathering dust." Perhaps that's because he already treats music like a three-dimensional futuristic game. Working in a medium of frantic blips, bleeps and breakbeats, Overseer has something of a checkered musical past. As a teenager, he played guitar in school bands, dressed in all-black and worshipped The Cure, Smiths, Pixies and Sisters of Mercy. After hearing Pop Will Eat Itself, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest's first album, he fell in love with the possibility of throbbing beats and pulsing electronic rhythms. Meanwhile, his brother pumped British heavy metal into the Overseer's music 24/7, and, in 1995, the two styles fused to form the blueprint of the Overseer signature sound. To think, that all this noise and assault comes from the brainpan of a closet melody freak who name-checks Neil Young, Frank Sinatra and Radiohead as a few of his personal favorites. "There's always been a rock element to my dance music," Overseer says. "My brother listened to AC/DC and Mot?rhead and I picked up on that. I think of everything in terms of sounds. If I want something that is going to push that button, which is the equivalent of a big rock number, lots of times you have to go back to the guitar." Once the Overseer project was properly launched, he released two indie EPs -- "The Zeptastic" (1996) and "Hit The Tarmac" (1998) -- and began receiving rave reviews (including a big two-thumb's-up from Norman "Fatboy Slim" Cook). After doing a bit of live DJing and performing nearly two dozen live dates in the UK, Overseer signed with Columbia Records.
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