Pacific Coast Highway new single for 7 Miles To Pittsburgh – With Andrew Elt

May 2, 2026 Rosine Alleva Albums, EU, Hot News, Interviews, New Releases, The Netherlands

By Rosine Alleva – Rock At Night EU Editor

The Dutch band 7 Miles To Pittsburgh has signed with M-Theory Audio and released a new single “Pacific Coast Highway” announcing their third album “Beyond Repair” on 4 September, 2026.

7 Miles to Pittsburgh

Founded in 2017, they have been recognised on the Dutch rock scene, particularly in connection with the legacy of the band Sleeze Beez (with frontman Andrew Elt.)

Originally starting as a trio (Andrew, Joris, Martin), the band has evolved into a formidable unit that balances progressive technicality with raw, bluesy soul, often described as “Plant meeting Rodgers” with a heavy, modern edge.

Gathering critical acclaim with their first self-titled album released in 2017, the band performed alongside Tyketto and appeared at major festivals. 2019 marked the second album, Revolution On Hold and solidified their reputation. The band’s upcoming third album Beyond Repair promises to mark the most ambitious and polished work of the band to date.

Lineup: 

Andrew Elt -Vocals

Martin Helmantel -Bass

Dirk Bruinenberg -Drums

Joris Lindner – Guitars

Remco van Zandvoort – Keyboards

We had the chance to share a moment on line with 7 Miles To Pittsburgh great frontman Andrew Elt.

Interview

RAN– Hi Andrew, great to have you on the line. Let’s start with these great news for 7 Miles to Pittsburgh! You just signed with M-Theory audio. Your two first albums were released independently. What made you take the decision for this third album “Beyond Repair”?

Andrew Elt-  We didn’t really decide to do anything different. We recorded the new album like we did the other two, planning to release it independently because in the past we tried to see if we could get interest from labels or distribution options But it turned out we couldn’t get anything. We just proceeded like we always do.
And all of a sudden this opportunity came by. And Theory were interested in taking over the distribution and the promotion, stuff that you really can’t fulfill automatically as an independent, it’s really hard when you don’t have the connections. So this is great that   Theory was willing to take us on board. And welcome some more opportunities and availabilities for the band.

RAN– How did your music evolve since the first album?

Andrew- Since the first album? If it has evolved, it’s a natural progression. It’s nothing that we really sat down and kind of discussed. I always feel it kind of evolves naturally anyway if you don’t think about it too much, and I think the rest of the guys feel that too. Sometimes successful bands, with their successful albums, tried to come with a next version of the big hit that they had. A lot of the time it doesn’t work…it just turns into like a copy of what happened already anyway…

We’ve got ideas coming and we just start writing. A natural process. If there is a red line that goes to all these albums, then it’s just because that’s the way we sound when we write, we don’t think about it too much.

RAN– The video you created for your new single “Pacific Coast Highway” is really cool. Did that influence the lyrics or was it the opposite?

Andrew– For Pacific Coast Highway, straight away I thought it would be a driving song. A song you would sit in your car, put on your cd that you’re listening to, the music had that vibe… And then it came to me…I’ve been on that stretch of road in California a few times and it’s beautiful. If anybody hasn’t been there, it’s inspiring. Even the words just kind of came to me based on my memories of driving on that stretch of road. And then a year and a half ago, 2 years ago I went on vacation there with my son. The song was already written and I  already had in mind that if we would do a promo track or a single. When we were there we thought “ let’s shoot the video for it or at least let’s shoot some footage. That’s what we did!

RAN– And the result is amazing, and couldn’t fit better with the song! I really like it very much!  After seven years, what was the specific moment that made you all decide to go on with the third album?

Andrew Elt

Andrew– Well actually it didn’t really take seven years to start the album. We started the album before Covid actually, talking 2010/ 21. Then obviously Covid happened, not too inspiring to work, I guess for everybody, not only people writing songs but everything. I couldn’t go to the studio so I did some stuff from home. Some vocals here in the house. So it kind of just went from a good flow of writing and recording to barely anything. When we kind of came out of that, we left it there for a while. People were getting their life back on track so it kind of laid there waiting for a long time. I think we finished it and honestly it was mixed and finished two and a half years ago. It just laid there, there was no real interest. We were not really pushing it cause we would release it independently again, it’ll only gonna come out in Holland, we’ll do a couple of shows. There was no drive anymore. Although the drive, the passion, all the good stuff was already on the album. It just has been a bit lazy in getting it printed and finished, that took a while, yes.

RAN– I’m sure you must have a lot of music ready in a box…

Andrew– To be honest with you, not really! We’re that kind of band that needs a goal to get into gear. I’m not gonna sit with an acoustic guitar all day long writing songs. That’s not the way I write. They have to send me stuff for me to write. When I get something, that’s when I start working.  We’re actually pretty quick, it doesn’t seem that way,  7 years seems a long time, it’s a long time but we’re actually pretty quick when it comes to writing something and get the tracks recorded. It’s just the rest of the process that takes so long.

RAN -You write the lyrics all the time with the band right?

Andrew– Yeah, the guys write the music, I don’t have a big say in that. They send an idea and our bass player usually gives the idea a title, it has a name. And that helps me cause then I have a subject. That gets me going. Then I arrange the song from the parts they sent me, write the lyrics. I send it then back to the guys, they have a listen to it. What they get is always a surprise, a “wow” because it turns out different than the idea they had in their head. The chorus can turn to be the verse …Then we get together, discuss how it’s gonna sound, what instruments is gonna be used. That’s basically the process, then we take a demo and once we have all the parts in place we record it.

RAN– Why was the song “Pacific Coast Highway” chosen to announce the coming album?

Andrew– It’s maybe one of my favourite songs on the album. It’s an easy song to kind of listen to, it’s just a really cool rock song that I think a lot of people can get into. It’s a happy, positive song. I mean there are some songs on the new album with a lot of social commentary on what’s going on in the world, that’s kind of my vibe when I write. This song came out with a more positive vibe, that was what we wanted to put out as a first impression, some positivity in all this negative stuff that’s going out in the world! All the negative stuff is still yet to come…

RAN: Let’s hope not… We have enough of it.

Andrew– No, there is some good stuff in there. Negative is the wrong word. There are some songs with lyrics encouraging reflection. Pacific Coast Highway is about what it is getting in your car, driving and enjoying. But the other songs there are different ways of relating to them. I had a reason for writing them, somebody else might feel that it’s related to something else. There is more depth to those songs.

RAN– How did your individual experiences over the last years influence the music for this new album?”

Andrew– You know what’s strange, what’s also kind of eye opening, is that even if I listen to the lyrics I wrote on the 2 first albums, I hate saying this, but nothing has changed in the world since 2017. I was always afraid that if you sing about something that is politically, socially happening at the time you write it, by the time it’s released on the album, it will be old news. For some reason these lyrics are holding up. And that’s kind of scary, really. It’s funny cause I wrote the lyrics five, six years ago, and you think that it would be ancient history now. But it’s not, it’s still pretty much happening. In a way we’re lucky, but I wish we would be at peace in the world, and that my lyrics wouldn’t be relevant anymore, but they are.

RAN- Particularly now…Due to the gap of seven years, I’m sure all the musicians are very busy,  but I’m talking now about your activities with the tribute to Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti, and you’re touring a lot with them, tour manager for Wouter Trout, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, or with Sleeze Beez and sound engineer for several well-known bands. Is it due to your activities as well that you couldn’t take out the album before?

Andrew– Yeah, you’re right I think it has always been the case since we started this band. It’s always been trying to fit into the schedules of everybody, I mean, I may be  probably the busiest of all of everybody as far as, you know, being available. I stopped working with Wouter Trout two and a half years ago now. That took up a lot of time. There’s really no excuse now, not to do stuff.  I’m more available because I’m home a lot more. With Physical Graffiti, yes, we tour, we play a lot, but it’s usually just weekends and stuff like that. So there is more time now. But yeah, not having the time and also the other guys are busy too you know. Joris plays in two or three other bands. I mean, everybody’s really busy. Martin, he used to be in a band and they’ve just reunited for some shows with a band called Elegy. Yeah. And he’s also working with an Italian metal band called Headless. So they’re all, you know, everybody’s busy. And our drummer, Dirk, he’s out now with…he’s going to kill me for not knowing, but he’s out with a French guitar player (Patrick Rondat). And yeah, he’s doing some other stuff with Chris Gildenlow, who’s a progressive rock guy, guitar player. So everybody’s doing bits and pieces, you know, it’s not like it used to be back in the 90s when I was, you know, signed to Atlantic Records with my band Sleeze Beez. That was it. You were in a band. Nobody, nobody would be in more than one band. But those times have changed you know. Even the well-known guys are in different projects, they have a lot of different things going on, you know. And I guess it’s probably out of necessity as well, because you can’t just, you know, make a living or make a career out of just one band or one project anymore. It’s really hard, you know.

RAN– Well, are you going to play at a festival this summer or are you waiting for the album to be released?

Andrew – Yeah, I think the best thing for us, because the album’s coming out on September 4th, I believe. Yes. So, you know, good timing on our behalf, because that’s just after the festival season. But it means that there’s plenty of time for the next year. So I guess that’s probably what we’ll be looking at is trying to get some festivals for next summer. And in the meantime, we’ll probably do one or two shows in Holland as a kind of a CD release, album release thing. Yeah, I’m still working on that. And then we’ll take it from there. We’ll see what the response is to the album, and to the other two albums, because a lot of people probably didn’t even know about this band up until now and see if there are festivals interested at all in booking a band, you know, that’s something we’ll just see how that goes. It’s again, that whole scene has changed as well, you know, going out on the road and performing it’s an expensive endeavour to say the least. So, you know, we’ll have to see how it goes and see what the possibilities are and if we can maybe, you know, go as a support act with some band or just do festivals or something like that. But we’ll just have to wait and see what comes our way.

RAN- Last question. Why did you choose that name?

Andrew– So you start a new band and then, you know, we were writing songs for the first album. So this is 2017. I was still working with Walter Trout back then. And so we finished the album. We have the sleeve, everything’s done, but we don’t have a name for the band. We had a couple of names that passed through and then, you know, you look on the Internet and there’s ten bands that already have that name, you know, look for another name and all this. So after a while, we just kind of gave up on coming up with a name. And then I mentioned, let’s just call it, you know, after one of our songs that we’d written. And I said, how about 7 Miles to Pittsburgh? And everybody’s like, that’s weird. But we looked it up. There was no band called 7 Miles to Pittsburgh. The only thing that we came across was when we decided to come up with a web page, a website. We had 7MTP.com. Nobody’s got that. And we found out that there’s actually some store in the U.S. that, you know, you can go to and get your copies made and print it out. And it’s called 7 Minutes to Print. So that so that was taken as 7MTP.com was taken. We’re like, oh, no. But anyway, we just changed it to 7MTP.NL, which was fine.

7 Miles To Pittsburg – 2017

But yes, the 7 Miles to Pittsburgh, that’s another song that was written out of experience on the road. And it’s about a small club in Pittsburgh where Walter used to play every year. So, you know, it was one year and the roof was leaking or you’d go there the next year and half the PA wouldn’t work or a year after that, you know, three of the lights were out. It was just a kind of hole in the wall thing, but it had a charm to it, you know, and it kind of just stuck with me. And there you go again, here comes an idea for a song and I got to come up with some lyrics and I just let the song take over the writing process. So if an idea pops up in my head, I’ll go with that. You know, there’s no use in fighting the song. The song really, for me, the music, the melody determine the outcome of the lyrics and the melody that I put on there. So that song became the title of the band, the name of the band, 7 Miles to Pittsburgh.

RAN- I’m wishing you all the very best for, I would say, kind of a new era now that you joined a record company.

Andrew- Yeah, yeah I’m really looking forward to working with these guys up until now. They’ve been nothing but, you know, great and positive. And they really love the stuff that we do. There’s no, you know, anything that we come up with. They like what we do. There’s no changing of stuff. You know, the video I made, they went “ yeah, great. Let’s do it”. So as far as artistic freedom or artistic choices, we’re kind of left to our own devices,  we kind of like that. And up until now, they’ve been great. Everybody at the record company.

RAN- Where are they from?

Andrew- It’s a U.S. company. They’re based out of Las Vegas. That’s M-Theory. But Elio Bordi, the publicist, is based in Italy, he’s actually an independent promoter that works for M-Theory. And yeah, before the album comes out, there’ll probably be a second single. I’m pretty sure that they’re gonna want another single on the way to releasing the album. I haven’t heard about it yet, but I’m pretty sure they’ll, you know, bug me. “Hey, we need a video next week. “OK, I’ll see what I can do”

RAN- Well, thank you very much for this interview and looking forward to discovering the new album and seeing you in concert!

Andrew- You’re welcome, thank you!

Beyond Repair  Tracking list

1. All Men Are Created Equal

2.Don’t Fail Me

3. Pacific Coast Highway

4. Half Way There

5. Kansas

6. Speed Of Life

7. Saving Grace

8.Elevator Music

9. The Lies You Promised To Keep

Pre-order here 

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Rosine Alleva
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