Writer’s block, Abbey Road, and a music video shoot in LA. Athens-born punk outfit The Overjoyed descended on London’s Signature Brew last week to launch their new album in secret, and brought the sun with them.
Words by Felix Bartlett | March 09, 2026
There’s a guy outside Signature Brew in Haggerston drinking a pint at noon on the first proper sunny day of the year. The doors don’t open until tonight, but that doesn’t matter. When the weather finally turns in Britain, you drink. That’s law.
Inside, The Overjoyed are getting ready to do the same, well, after a quick chat. The Greek punk outfit, fronted by the quietly magnetic Leo and completed by Thanasis Manolopoulos (bass), Vangelis Dimos (drums), guitarist and Stefanos (guitar,vocals), are in the midst of a run of UK dates marking the arrival of their new record. Tonight’s show at Signature Brew is the launch, a secret affair in one of London’s most beloved DIY venues, and the whole thing has the energy of something you’d regret missing. Which, if you’re not already at the bar, you probably did.
“It always feels good to play new songs,” Leo says with a grin. “It feels like a fresh start.” Stefanos agrees: “We all contribute.” On a record that, by their own admission, is the most collaborative thing they’ve ever made, that matters more than it might sound.
How does it feel playing these songs in front of a crowd for the first time?
“We really love this album,” Leo says. “So we are very excited to play the new songs.” And is there one in particular he’s been waiting to get out there? “Spark,” he says, without much deliberation. “From the first time we rehearsed it, it just has something. Something. I don’t know how it is.” He searches for the word. Can’t find it in English. “It’s got the thing.”
Stefanos has two answers. “Final Lap,” he says first, because of the bass and because it represents the band pushing into new territory, “exploring something different.” But then he lands on Spark too. “It clicked right away. And we have a potentially very nice lead coming in low for it.” Leo nods. “Nice.”
We agreed on not overthinking things. If we played it in rehearsal and it made sense, that’s it.” — Stefanos
Can’t Write Music opens the album, and the story behind it is one of the most honest things a songwriter can admit. For two or three years, Leo couldn’t write. Not a thing. “I was really struggling,” he says, looking almost amused in hindsight. “So I said: okay, if I cannot do this, I’m going to write a song about me not being able to write songs.” It worked. The block broke, the songs started flowing, and Camera Music ended up not just the first track they wrote for the album, but the right one to kick it off. “It’s a short song with a strong hook,” Leo says. “It made sense to be the first single. The song we come back with.”
I ask whether they ever considered whether something that personal was the right way to lead with. Leo doesn’t hesitate. “We decided after. That was the right way to start the album.”
The album was written differently to anything they’d done before. Previously, Leo would write mostly alone, bring it to the band, and they’d shape it together. This time, they chucked the blueprint. Ideas came in loose, got jammed out in rehearsal, and if it made sense in the room, that was enough. Was it a smooth process, or did it take a moment to get used to?
“For me, it took a second,” Leo admits. “I was used to writing on my own. But this time we’d just have random ideas and connect them together in the studio, altogether. It took me a moment, but it’s much better this way.” Stefanos puts it simply: “We agreed on not overthinking things. If we played it in rehearsal and it made sense, that’s it.” It also helped that their newest member was throwing ideas into the mix from the start. “It was the first time we could bring ideas in and have a song from that,” Stefanos adds. “It’s so much more organic.”
And was there a song that came together more naturally than the others, with less pre-production?
Stefanos doesn’t miss a beat. “Spark.” They were halfway through the record and felt something was missing. They had a loose idea, tried it out, and within two hours had a song. “That’s why we love it so much. The moment we played it, we were like: okay.” The kicker? Spark was the last song they recorded for the record, yet it became the second single. “Yeah,” Leo confirms, still seeming mildly delighted by this fact.
It also, incidentally, is getting a music video shot in LA. On Saturday. As in, the day after this interview. The director is someone Leo met in New York. “He’s going to do it tomorrow,” Leo says, barely containing the absurdity of it. The production? “Looks very nice,” Stefanos says with a measured nod. “Fingers crossed.”
The record is rawer than anything The Overjoyed have put out before, and was that a conscious decision or did the songs just pull them in that direction?
“Conscious,” Leo says, “but not like we sat down and said, now we have to be more dirty. It just happened. We started listening to bands that were more raw and more direct, and it came through.” Green Day gets a name-checked influence. The Buzzcocks too. There’s also a band Leo brings up that is, apparently, playing Athens in two days, at which point there’s a brief, pained silence. “We were supporting them on the previous show in Athens,” he says. So that’s something.
The album was self-produced in Athens. Mastered at Abbey Road. The latter is either a dream or a joke depending on how you hear it, and The Overjoyed treat it as both. They didn’t go there in person. But the question of how it feels to have your record touched by that studio? “Insane,” Leo says immediately. “It is inherently insane.” They didn’t go in person, but still. Stefanos: “It’s been involved.”
The mastering engineer took the mix and, in Leo’s words, “just made it louder and better. They didn’t change it, and that’s what we wanted. Every mastering person always tends to change things. But she understood completely what we were going for.” Stefanos nods. “Enhanced it. Without doing anything weird.”
Why London for the launch? Why tonight, why here? Stefanos points to the shift in what they’ve been listening to: more English bands, less American. “We’ve been here before. It feels friendly. Very cozy.” Leo, for his part, has something more direct to say about Signature Brew itself: “It’s really nice that there are still places like this. In this era we’re living in, you can’t see many rock and roll places. It’s nice to see somewhere keeping the spirit alive.”
“It’s really nice that there are still places like this. In this era we’re living in, you can’t see many rock and roll places. It’s nice to see somewhere keeping the spirit alive” – Leo
Outside, the guy with the pint is now joined by several more. The sun is still going. The band arrived this afternoon to find London packed out, pubs spilling onto pavements, gardens rammed at 1pm. “In Greece,” Leo laughs, “it’s news when it rains.”
Tonight, at least, they brought something warmer with them.
What can people expect from this tour?
Leo barely misses a beat. “New songs. A little sweat. Energy. Groovy bass.” He thinks for a second. “Just good rock and roll. That’s it.”
That’s why we’re here. That’s all we need.
Listen to The Overjoyed below:
And catch The Overjoyed on tour now.
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