Halifax sibling duo Overnight (Carla & Lynette Gillis) return with “Strong & Good,” the tender and reflective new single from their upcoming sophomore album, Put Me In Your Light (out November 7th via Label Obscura). Written in the wake of their father’s sudden passing and a difficult move home from Toronto during the pandemic, the song captures both the weight of grief and the forward motion of resilience.

“I don’t typically have anything clear in mind when I sit down to write lyrics, but this one turned out to be about grief,” shares Carla Gillis (guitars, piano, lead vocals). “It was really hard to lose our dad, and it was really hard to leave Toronto and our community. The song came out of grief, but it’s also about the impulse to not be entrenched in it all the time. To shake it off and keep going. Rhythmically, it has a forward propulsion to it. Melodically, it’s fairly upbeat. To me, it’s shaped as much by resilience as sadness.”

The single’s title comes from a simple lyric – “coffee tastes strong and good” – though for the Gillis sisters, the phrase also reflects their father’s character. 

Recording the song proved challenging, as the duo struggled to land on a guitar arrangement that felt right. “Everything kept sounding frustratingly dorky,” Carla recalls. “Eventually [producer] Charles [Austin] suggested having an acoustic guitar play quietly underneath everything, and it was the glue we needed.”