late night drive home (yes, spelled all lower-case), is the kind of band you’ve always wanted to see succeed. The young three-piece creates empathetic, enduring music that carries itself with an air of youthful poetics, quickly separating the El Paso-bred rockers from the rest of the burgeoning scene. What started as an earnest effort to simply create exploded into a towering creative endeavor with an iconic label backing them and a cult-like fan base.
LNDH began in 2019 with a string of SoundCloud releases crafted by founding members Andre Portillo (vocalist/songwriter) and Juan “Ockz” Vargas (guitarist). These initial drafts began to take shape as a sonic exploration of the limits of modern music, with the addition of drummer Brian Dolan. Just as LNDH was finding its sonic footing, something miraculously happened: People started to take notice. It was in 2021 that the band released “Stress Relief,” a dark, thudding, and infectious single that quickly caught the attention of labels, critics, and fans alike. From there, the legacy of late night drive home began to take shape.
With the attention of all and an open sonic field to play in, LNDH did what any band with instant success should do: kept their heads down and began experimenting. This brings us to As I Watch My Life Online, the daring, twisted, and sprawling debut album from late night drive home, set to arrive on June 27 via Epitaph.
The 13-song album proves that this band is far from a one-trick pony, and something way more than the latest trend suggests. LNDH implements moments of electronic spurts that seamlessly transition into soaring pop ballads, all being tied together by Portillo’s acrobatic vocals and the daring concept the album is centered around. The band’s limits have never been tested like this, and the results are beautifully executed and sonically diverse. Moments like “If I Fall” and “Uncensored on The Internet” are emotionally dense yet delivered on a warm breeze of sleek production, while the warping “Terabyte” and hypnotic title track hint at the risk-loving side of LNDH.
As I Watch My Life Online is set to cement late night drive home as a durable recording and touring indie band. life had the pleasure of speaking with Portillo and Dolan about their new album, handling the attention they’ve garnered, and balancing art with the internet. You can read our full conversation below.
We’re nearing the release of your debut album, As I Watch My Life Online. What emotions are being stirred up as we approach the release date?
Andre: One, we’re very excited for everyone to hear these songs and all the effort we put into writing this album. We also have a tour coming up, so it also feels like the calm before the storm.
So, how long have these songs been completed? Was there a long period between finishing recording the project and the release of the album?
Andre: I think the oldest song on the album is about two years old, maybe three. We’ve been working on this album for a really long time. For people to have the opportunity to hear it and listen to our work, it’s amazing.
Brian: We finished recording up in Sonic Ranch in January, so this whole time we’ve just been getting ready and hyping ourselves up for the tour.
Speaking of live shows, you guys just played Coachella. What was it like performing on such a large stage, and did it change the way you approached your live shows?
Andre: It was really interesting going from the venues we were playing at the time to a big stage with over 3,000 people in front of us. It was an inspiring moment; it kind of boosted our drive and motivated us to push even further.
Was this your first major festival appearance?
Brian: We had only played one festival before Coachella. We did a Nothing Fest in Los Angeles. That festival was crazy too, because it was our first one, but it was nothing compared to how jarring it was to play Coachella. Obviously, it’s one of the biggest festivals, and we didn’t expect to play that kind of stage so early in our career. Jarring is the best word for it.
You bring up an interesting point about all the attention the band has gotten for how young your career is. Did this attention play a role when you were recording As I Watch My Life Online?
Andre: The attention we were getting on social media and the increasing popularity of our music played a big role in the process of writing this album, especially in terms of the themes the album talks about.
A social media presence is a big part of becoming a young band. Does the quick rise in popularity on the internet relieve any of that pressure?
Andre: There are pros and cons to it all. It’s not always so black and white. The pressure of having so many eyes on you builds, and works towards your art in a sense. Especially this album that we were writing. Obviously, it’s about the internet, but I think to put it in shorter terms, it’s the thing where we witnessed something that not a lot of people get to see or be a part of, that thing being gaining popularity in a band and being able to show your art to everybody.
In terms of posting, it’s interesting now that we’re in an area where we have to market ourselves and self-promote. When you make an album as good as the one we’re about to release, it would be criminal not to promote your own art on social media.
How did you guys land with Epitaph for your debut record?
Brian: We went with Epitaph because, when we talked to other A&Rs and other label people, we didn’t feel as at home. Epitaph is a lot more independent and artist-oriented. We really felt like they understood what we were doing, and we felt like others didn’t. It might not be that they didn’t understand, but they didn’t have the same passion that we did for our music.
Given how grassroots Epitaph is, does that relieve any of the social media pressure from you guys?
Andre: It’s an interesting thing, I feel like every label you might go to, you’re required to post to sell your art. It could be looked down upon as bad, but people are just trying to get their art out there. I wouldn’t say that signing to Epitaph relieved the stress of social media, but they have been a really big help to us. We have such a wonderful team.
The album, lyrically, has a consistent theme, but musically, you guys sound far more daring and expansive. Is this a result of the band becoming more comfortable with experimentation, or are there simply more resources available?
Andre: Nowadays, we find ourselves growing more comfortable in the experimental territory of music. I’m surrounded by such gifted musicians. It’s really easy to make a song, but to make a song sound interesting and nice, that’s where the fun comes into play. It’s like “Okay, we have a song, but now what do we want that song to sound like? Do we want electronic components in it?” It was a lot of trial and error.
What is LNDH’s writing process like? Is someone coming in with a blueprint intact, or is it more involved where everyone is throwing out ideas while it’s happening?
Andre: For this album specifically, I would say it was more of a collaborative effort. We have some songs that were just made in the studio, but we do have others that were done by all four of us in our practice space, just jamming the songs out live. We even went as far as to perform some of these songs live prior to the release of the LP. Some of these songs, we’ve been practicing and road-testing them before even hopping into a studio with them.
Has there been a favorite song from As I Watch My Life Online that has been your favorite to perform live? Were you shocked by the crowd’s reaction to the new material?
Brian: When we played “She Came For A Sweet Time,” at the time it was called “Little Things,” we were so excited to play that song because we wrote that song thinking of the live performance. I think that’s one of our strongest live songs, because all the instruments come in at once, there is a stinging guitar lead, all the fans went crazy for that song as soon as we started playing it.
Usually, we’ll play new music, and fans will be digesting and listening to it, trying to understand it better. For “She Came For A Sweet Time,” it was just hype; our fans were so excited.
Andre: Everyone was dancing, it was a beautiful moment.
Are you guys consuming other art when recording your music, or do you guys enter a sort of artistic isolation period when working on a project?
Andre: It’s an interesting thing. For this album specifically, I wasn’t leaning towards anything. For the most part, I was just really focused on my vocals the entire time and making sure everything sounded right. For me, I drew inspiration from The Killers’ Brandon Flowers. The entire time we were writing the album, I was seeking influence from newer artists. I would ask people for recommendations and see what I could find and what sounded good.
Speaking of recommendations, do you have a book or movie you would recommend fans to accompany As I Watch My Life Online?
Andre: Actually, it’s funny you mention that. What was that one book we were talking about, Brian?
Brian: It’s called Brave New World. That book is insane to me. It’s a novel I read in high school, and I think a lot of other people did as well. It takes place in a dystopian world, like a retro futuristic world, where people are drugged into a state of calm and being okay with the status quo. I feel like that’s what’s happening with social media and content nowadays. People are being pacified; they’re not as expressive as they once were because they’re just consuming content. Andre has a lyric about this, actually, but the drug in the book is called “soma,” and it makes one submissive.
Going back to the experimentation on As I Watch My Life Online, the album sounds beautifully consistent for how far you guys branched out. Was this due to the concept already being in place, or did it come together as it was being worked on?
Andre: Interestingly enough, the idea for the album began to take shape when AI-generated videos started to become very popular and interesting, becoming more realistic and even scary.
Brian: The album is really a culmination of all of our experiences in the past two years, and also growing up on the internet, all fused into one project. I feel like our inspirations came from our everyday life; we would see something and talk about it as a group, and that might inspire Andre to write a lyric about it.
Andre: Oh yeah, it was definitely a culmination of everything. We talked about how young we were when we first started browsing the web and what we encountered, whether it was good or bad. Some of us had unsupervised access to the internet, and all the pros and cons of growing up on the internet.
I want to go back into the history of the band. What was it like transitioning from a duo to the full band? Was that always the vision?
Andre: When the band was starting, it wasn’t a thing about trying to make it. We were just really intrigued with the idea that we can make music at all. We were just learning as artists and musicians. Right around the time the band came together and we started making music, it was really inspiring because we all knew deep down we wanted to do this as a living. During the early days, such as our SoundCloud era, I was still in high school. It’s shocking to me that we’ve made it so far in so little time.
I knew deep down that we always wanted to make an album. We’ve had efforts to make and work on an album, but it never came through. When we got signed to Epitaph, we were already working on an album, but the idea for the album came into fruition once we got signed.
Was there a moment you can pinpoint where you guys had the realization that Late Night Drive Home was becoming a popular band? Did you guys have that moment of “Whoa, it’s all happening?”
Andre: I think there are a lot of moments of mixed emotions. A lot of happy and joyous memories, and a lot of somber memories. The whole thing with blowing up as quickly as we did was that you never know when the attention can get stripped right from your band. You can go from being a massive success to nobody the next day. It’s a beautiful thing that we don’t take for granted.
You guys are heading out on a massive tour for As I Watch My Life Online, and one of the stops is your hometown of El Paso, Texas. Have you guys been home since everything started getting big for the band?
Andre: El Paso is still the home base, we love El Paso.
What is the local music scene like there?
Brian: It’s a lot of hardcore punk. It started in hardcore punk back in 2014. It was a lot of punk, and that’s what inspired us to make a different type of music, a softer sound. These local hardcore bands surrounded us, and not even in a bad way; we just wanted a change of pace. When we found our pace and an audience, and we played a show called Indie Fest, that was a moment for me where I realized that this was something I really enjoyed doing, and I could keep doing it if we stayed consistent and kept getting better.
Andre: The scene is very DIY. It’s just so interesting, being as big as we are, we still carry the essence of that DIY with us.
Brian: I feel like we definitely influenced the El Paso scene, and it definitely influenced us.
Is there a venue in El Paso that you consider a home base? What are some bands that you guys started with that you can see having a similar trajectory as LNDH?
Andre: One band I can think of is Tony Jupiter. There are other acts like Cigarettes After Sex and Khalid, who are from El Paso. It was just a really good environment growing up there. Everyone was doing their own thing, and it was really inspiring to see everyone get up on stage with little to no equipment and still make a show out of it.
Do you find the El Paso scene still as welcoming now that LNDH has seen some success?
Andre: As we’ve gotten bigger, our attention is drawn to the bigger shows. Every time we return to El Paso, it’s always a warm welcome. Everyone is so appreciative of the music out there.
Since As I Watch My Life Online is your debut album, what are some of your guys’ favorite debut albums?
Andre: The Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. For the longest time, that album was a big inspiration for us. The Strokes were a big influence on us as well when we were just starting. Is This It was big, but really, The Strokes’ whole catalog.
Wrapping up, As I Watch My Life Online will be released on June 27. Are there any songs in particular you’re excited for people to hear? What do you hope people take away from the new album?
Andre: For me, the album in itself is a critique of what it’s like on the internet, whether it’s good or bad. Two songs off the album that I can think of are “Modern Entertainment” and “If I Fall.”
