Making it in the music industry is no easy task in this age of algorithms and online platforms. The bands who do go viral are usually viewed as “lucky”—but often times, a more appropriate adjective is “deserved.”
The group late nite drive home is one of those deserving bands. The four-piece band from El Paso, Texas, mixes rock and indie in the music, and English and Spanish in the lyrics. Thanks to SoundCloud and TikTok, the band’s song “Stress Relief” catapulted the band from DIY to headlining tours with sold-out crowds. The single features catchy and jangly guitar riffs, as well as soothing vocals that both serenade and narrate.
You can catch late nite drive home at Coachella on Friday, April 12 and 19.
During a recent phone interview with lead singer Andre Portillo and guitarist Juan “Ockz” Vargas, they explained how performing at Coachella will make an inside joke become true.
“It was something we always joked about, like, ‘Oh yeah, when we play Coachella,’” Vargas said. “It was a running joke, and now we’re actually doing it.”
Added Portillo: “I think deep down, we’ve always wanted to play big festivals. I just think what caught us by surprise was how soon it was.”
It has indeed been a quick rise for late nite drive home. The band began in 2019, but their first release came in 2021 with debut EP Am I sinking or Am I swimming? “Stress Relief” garnered more than 100 million streams across multiple platforms, and the band signed with Epitaph Records late last year.
“One of the things that I’ve had to learn quickly was how to talk to people,” Portillo said. “It’s kind of crazy how many people we have to talk to, as opposed to just talking to a bar owner to play a show or something like that. Now we’re talking to interviewers, and we have to know the right words to say, or if it’s on radio, not cursing. I think that’s what’s been the hardest for me to adjust to, but also learning how to live on the road as well. When we go on tour, it’s something new. I would honestly say it’s more of a lifestyle than it is a career.”
Tour life has been tough for Portillo, the self-described “homebody,” but both he and Vargas said they still can’t get over the rewarding feeling of playing live.
“I’ve gotten to travel way more in the past three years than I ever had in my entire life,” Vargas said. “It’s a blessing, because I love to travel, and just being able to play music in these different cities and seeing people show up for us in different cities is something that you don’t take for granted.”
The platform SoundCloud attracted the band because of the simplicity of its upload feature.
“I feel like we’re an outlier, especially in the SoundCloud days,” Vargas said. “I couldn’t find that many alternative artists or bands posting their music on SoundCloud; normally, they did on Bandcamp. I don’t really know why we chose SoundCloud over Bandcamp, but I think it is because it was easier for us. We just started uploading music on SoundCloud, and it worked. That’s how we got some of our first fans.”
Added Portillo: “If you could blow up on SoundCloud, you’re doing something right.”
While late nite drive home started with the members making music in a bedroom, the thought of an audience enjoying their music was always on their minds.
“For us, especially when we’re performing onstage, it’s a lot of, ‘How do we interpret this song in a way that the audience could re-live the experience?’” Portillo said.
Added Vargas: “Especially in some of our older music, there’s a lot of layering in the recordings. Being able to transcribe them and execute them perfectly in the live setting is something that is challenging, but also just fun in the same context. It’s like transcribing a book into a movie.”
Since signing the record deal, the band has gone from translating bedroom recordings into live shows, to translating their original recordings and demos into studio works.
“We recorded recently in the studio, and we were able to experiment with a lot of different sounds,” Vargas said. “When we first started branching out into the studio sessions, we didn’t really know how to fully express ourselves in the creative aspect, but since we’ve had practice, and we’re going to be working on the second record, we’re able to understand exactly how we want to execute the process of recording. We’re producing the album alongside a different producer, but we’re giving the ideas that we’re forming to them.”
The members of late nite drive home wear their Hispanic heritage proudly on their sleeves through their Spanish lyrics and the occasional Latin-rock influence.
“In terms of creative aspects, it’s super-cool when somebody takes something from one culture and just brings it into the spotlight so that everybody can see it,” Portillo said. “For instance, there’s Bad Bunny, and I know a lot of people throw shade at him for being so popular, and maybe they say his music sucks, but I like it, personally. I think it’s really cool that the origins of that sound are being broadcast around the world. I think it’s the coolest thing ever when a culture is able to break out of their little groups and is able to spread out around the world. There’s a very creative way about going about that route, and I think if you execute it just right, it’s the perfect amount.”
Regarding the use of Spanish in their lyrics, Vargas said: “We don’t try to overdo it. My first language was Spanish, so I have heavy Mexican and Latin roots in my family, and I always try to think that if a song is going to have a Spanish part or a Latin influence, it has to be right, and it has to be proper. I don’t like the idea of just throwing in a random Spanish verse.”
Portillo said he loves how their music has spread appreciation for the Spanish language.
“Some of our fans do learn Spanish, which I think is the coolest thing,” Portillo said. “Even people who don’t come from a Spanish background or aren’t Hispanic, they still try to learn Spanish to sing to our music. It’s really fucking cool.”
The band’s Coachella set is sure to be representative of the band’s roots, both musically and culturally.
“We’re going to try to represent everything, from where we started, and then from the new era,” Vargas said. “The Coachella set is going to be very special, because it’s a long way from playing the backyard of Andre’s house and the backyard of my grandma’s house to Coachella. We’re going to try to include something that’s new, something that we’ve never done before—but also the roots that we had before.”
