Formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota the highly creative Olsen brothers, Andy and Spencer started to break the mould after years spent performing in Punk and Classic Rock cover bands. As the passion grew stronger to express themselves further and be more creative, the decision was made to go it alone as a duo, and by 2014 started recording in their basement studio creating demos as a production duo, releasing their debut ep by 2015. By 2018, despite knowing they were onto something, felt there was something missing, and so enlisted the help of AJ for drum duties to complete the line-up and to create more impact live.
Now, with more songwriting options as a trio, the boys could maximize on their potential rather than just being a studio project, and soon started to shake up Minnesota and toured the Midwest States, taking them as far as Austin, Texas for the

South By Southwest festival. Since that time they have performed with Stone Sour, Authority Zero, and Mushroomhead with a

line-up now consists of Spencer Olson – Production/Vocals, Andy Olson – Songwriting/Guitar and AJ Rowe on Drums.

In a recent interview I asked them what drives them as a band, they told me;

“A complete and unrelenting desire to be famous”.

So I went on to ask about the meaning behind the band name, they explained;

“When we recorded the initial demos of our early songs, we found that by the fifth version of any song, the tune was basically finished, so we stuck with Version 5”.

With that said, I asked the boys about their songwriting process and how they would overcome any creative blocks, they went on to add;

“The initial ideas come from all night alcohol fuelled sessions inspired by Minnesota’s seemingly constant winter darkness.

Soon after we cleaned up our act enough to polish and separate our good ideas from bad ones.
From our experience, there is no real way around it, you have to keep grinding through, and be completely ok with throwing 90% of the ideas out”.

I followed this up by asking if they have the same persona on and off stage, they went on to tell me;

“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, what you see is what you get. We think a lot of bands are so concerned with their image that it comes off disingenuous”

Finally, I asked them what they enjoy the most about being in the band and if there was anything they wished they had known before starting a career in music, they went on to say;

“It’s really the rush of a great performance or the satisfaction of a finished song that keeps us going. We have learnt not to write too many songs and throw most of them away. Early on it’s so easy to over think and try to finish every idea”.

To close, I asked the band if there was anything else they wanted our readers to know, they wrapped things up by telling me;

“2021 is going to be our most active year yet. We also have an EP coming out along with a few new singles and music videos.

Thanks for your support and please follow us on our socials to keep up to date, all listed below”.

So why not clear a space in your collection and give Version 5 a try for 2021.