Up next from their debut album, as I watch my life online, late night drive home today releases the third single ‘american church.’ At first glance, the new offering is rooted in more tangible addictions than the last two singles. But as organic matter shifts into glitched-out cyberspace, the album’s ongoing throughline of mistaking online connection for something real is masterfully coded in. A metaphor for old habits turning into internet habits, late night drive home calls out the World Wide Web as the modern American church, and congregants can’t help but worship at its flawed altar.
late night drive home – ‘american church’
“The first two songs on the record are really analog, but this one just glitches out on the outro — descending into digital madness,” guitarist Juan “Ockz” Vargas says. “That’s mirrored in the lyrics, which are about seeing someone you love spiral — whether because of the internet or another addiction.”
So far from as I watch my life online, late night drive home has released ‘terabyte’ and ‘she came for a sweet time.’ The former a rumination on an addiction to adult content and the unending cycle of seeking online validation and destroying self-worth. And the latter a case study on the endless, mindless swiping on dating apps that is so intoxicating. The band’s debut album will be released in full on June 27 via Epitaph.
Praise for late night drive home
“…their sound, and goals, are all their own — reinventing indie music for a modern age while increasing representation for Latin artists in the genre.” – Alternative Press
“…an extraordinary fusion of different sounds and approaches.” – Clash
“Somewhere between The Smashing Pumpkins and The Cribs, US band late night drive home are laying down a marker with a run of excellent singles in the run up to their debut full-length album due in late June.” – Wonderland
ABOUT LATE NIGHT DRIVE HOME:
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 record is a critique and a meta representation of the current online landscape: a whole new world or giant united country that connects us between cities, forcing us to be online. Instant gratification is at our fingertips — likes, follows, and entertainment a click away,” says guitarist Juan “Ockz” Vargas. “It shows the listener how we grew up in the early days of peak internet — how we saw it all unfold. We want to give our perspective on the internet while creating art alongside it.”
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 guitarist Juan “Ockz” Vargas, singer Andre Portillo, drummer Brian Dolan, and bassist Freddy Baca, the entirely self-taught quartet 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 the record is expertly produced — it was the first work we put out that was recorded in professional studios and not our bedrooms,” Vargas says about working with producer Sonny Diperri. “Topically, the album is about the internet. As a Gen-Z band, we want to give an accurate representation of how it feels to be always online. Our generation is forced to care so much about its online identity, it’s like ‘your profile is as important as your outfit.’”
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.
Late Night Drive Home
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