Overcoast started the way all great companies do: five semi-broke creatives who barely knew each other, busted laptops, makeshift studios built out of whatever they could find — and an app called ooVoo that… still technically exists, but come on.

It was 2012. Chris and Colin were in London trying to become famous rappers/producers—which mostly meant yelling into microphones in the middle of the night and living off corner shop snacks. Meanwhile, in Richmond, VA, Matt, JL, and Travis were making music, freelancing, touring, and generally dodging anything that looked like a normal career.

One day, we all got on a video call. The vibes were strong. No business plan. No money. Just a bunch of fresh-faced creatives tossing out big ideas like:

“Should we start an international music house even though we have no idea how any of this works?”

Naturally, we said YES!

The name? Overcoast. UK and US. Over the coast. Somehow both obvious and iconic.

Over the years, people have lovingly misheard it as Overcost, Overcast, and our personal favourite Overcoat.

We started emailing everyone we knew, chasing gigs, pretending we were way more legit than we were. After a heroic amount of hustle, we landed our first real job with Max Factor. We celebrated like we’d just won an award.

Narrator voice: There was no award. Just an invoice and a whole lot of pressure.

For years, we only knew each other from the neck up—pixelated boxes on a screen. Then finally, Colin and Travis met in person, outside a TGI Fridays in NYC (because where else in NY do friends meet?). Colin thought Travis would be taller. Travis thought Colin would be shorter. They hugged. They drank. They took blurry tourist photos in Times Square. The bond was sealed.

Sadly, Chris left the company and moved to Spain to sell very attractive tiles (true story), and Colin moved to Richmond, met JL in person, and reconnected with Matt.

It felt like the band was finally getting back together — even though, technically, we’d never all been in the same room before. But somehow, it worked. The chemistry was instant — even if the logistics weren’t.

We had the squad. We had the momentum. And for the first time, it felt like Overcoast was less of a side quest and more like the main campaign.

We had different skills, similar instincts, and one collective goal:

MAKE GREAT WORK AND HAVE A DAMN GOOD TIME DOING IT!

We hustled. Hard. Like sleeping-in-the-studio, pitching-ideas-between-bites-of-leftover-noodles kind of hustle. We said yes to everything. Wrote original scores in record time. Learned to edit voiceovers in moving vehicles. Got feedback at 2 a.m. from clients in time zones we couldn’t locate on a map. Somehow, we kept showing up, and the work kept getting better.

Since then, we’ve grown. We expanded to New York. We hired new people – without really knowing how to hire people. It felt bold and slightly terrifying at the time, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We’ve built a global network of composers, producers, and engineers we trust to help carry the Overcoast sound into the world.

We’ve had the ridiculous pleasure of working with some of the most talented people in the industry. We’ve taken on projects big and small, and won a shit ton of awards for our efforts (technical term). We bought motorcycles. One of them never worked and still doesn’t. A Vanagon was acquired, purely for the vibes. Some of us got tattoos. Some of us had kids. We became adults — sort of.

We started making candles for client gifts (it’s a long story), threw parties that still get talked about today, and our merch turned into something people genuinely ask us for. Still wild.

Now? 15 years deep. Three studios. A crew of insanely talented humans. And we’re still doing what we love:
making music, chasing stories, and somehow pulling it off.

OVERCOAST:

BORN FROM ooVoo,

BUILT ON BLIND OPTIMISM,

AND POWERED BY PEOPLE CRAZY ENOUGH

TO BELIEVE IN THE MAGIC OF MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING.