late night drive home have never known a world without internet — without access to the endless stream of joy, sorrow, and titillation that we all tune in and tune out to on the daily. In many ways, the guys can’t extricate themselves from that reality, but they’re trying to grapple with it. The culmination of that, then, is the buoyant yet ominous as I watch my life online, the band’s debut album on Epitaph, out June 27th.
The band shared, “The record is a collection of different meta perspectives of our lives online. Sometimes you’re an observer from in front of the screen, sometimes you’re the one looking at people from the inside out.”
late night drive home was born in El Paso, Texas, and Chaparral, New Mexico, hardworking communities where the collars were mostly blue — a quality that the band would bring to their music as self-taught craftsmen. Comprising singer Andre Portillo, drummer Brian Dolan, and bassist Freddy Baca, the entirely self-taught group released their first EP as a full band, 2021’s Am I sinking or Am I swimming?, and blew up with the single “Stress Relief,” a blast of early-Aughts indie that racked in tens of millions of streams. Their first pull compilation of songs, How Are We Feeling? dropped in 2022, and after signing with Epitaph in 2023 — and releasing 2024’s grunge-inspired EP i'll remember you for the same feeling you gave me as i slept — they found themselves playing stages their indie idols previously shredded: Coachella, Shaky Knees, Austin City Limits and Kilby Block Party.
Since the end of the pandemic, though, the band has been dreaming up as I watch my life online. “Sonically and stylistically, the record as a whole is a testament to our growth as a band. As our first record produced professionally, with the help of Sonny Diperri, staying true to our roots while exploring elements of our favorite genres was definitely a one of a kind experience,” they share. “As a band that grew up on the internet, we feel the need to share our perspectives of how the internet has shaped our lives.”
The resulting suite of tracks is a series of online vignettes that hammers home the band’s message: the photos on your phone shouldn’t be your identity; your posts aren’t your inner monologue.
