This year, Late Night Drive Home was invited to play at Coachella! This indie rock band has started to make its way up after performing at small concerts.
They released their first album called “Am I Sinking or Am I Swimming?” on Sept. 17, 2021. Their hit song from this album, “Stress Relief,” has over 73 million streams on Spotify. After this song took off, the band continued to release new music. They have released four albums in total, but they have also had many singles. They are continuing to release new music this year with a different sound than their usual music.
The band originated in a small town in El Paso, Texas. Their band members are lead singer Andre Portillo, guitarist Juan Vargas who goes by “Ockz,” bassist Freddy Baca, and drummer Brian Dolan. The boys came together as a band in high school and started playing singles by 2019. The boys are in their early 20’s and have already made themselves known in their music career.
Although they haven’t been playing for long, their music has changed throughout their albums and singles. Some of their earlier songs have a more lofi vibe to it, while others have a more rock feeling. Their latest songs, “Believe Me (Even If I’m Lying),” “Worms Eat My Brain For Breakfast,” and “Feeling Grey,” are all new songs that have come out in 2024. These newer songs include more rock than their previous albums, making a change to their music.
In an interview by NME, Portillo was asked, “How do you find the reception to Late Night Drive Home’s experimentation – has it been embraced by existing fans?”
Portillo answered, “It’s always a scary thing when you decide to stray from what you’ve been doing for the longest time and try to develop as an artist in terms of being more experimental. For me, there’s always a concern, like: I love the way this sounds – it sounds very different – but are my fans gonna like this?”
“I also find that switching it up a bit does tend to bring more interest. One of the biggest [examples] I can think of is The Strokes – they had this whole [indie] thing going on; then they started becoming more electronic-influenced, putting weird sounds in their music. Some people liked it, some didn’t. The way I see it is if we develop long-term fans – that’s all I can hope for – they’ll be people who support our music and whatever we create.”
As the band continues to make music and grow into their career, they continue to perform and make their music known.
