www.facebook.com/latenightdriveofficial
From: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sounds like: Pop Punk
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Late Night Drive” and is there any meaning behind it?
Each member had projects of their own prior to LND with which they were introduced to the local scene. We started gaining knowledge, Jan & Oscar met, dropped their initial projects, and decided to build LND. Later on Gilbert and Christian joined. Our sound is highly influenced by bands like The Story So Far, Basement & Real Friends. However we are quickly evolving on our way to our second EP.
The name "Late Night Drive" was coined by Jan & Oscar, both from Real Friends lyrics from their song Short Song, and from the fact that actual late night drives were a thing between them.
2. What do you want listeners to take away from your "All Wave And No Goodbye" EP?
This EP is a sort of a presentation card to grab local attention. We were still finding our sound in the process of it. We'd like for people to listen to it and basically have fun. At the end of the day, what we put out there is for people to engage and to be brought closer together.
3. What can people expect from your live show?
Lots of energy, jumpy beats, and lots of Spanish cursing. And us roasting ourselves.
4. What's your favorite track to play live?
Right now, that would be "Exeunt", for sure.
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
We'd love to tour with Belmont from IL, Homesafe also from IL, and maybe Noise Brigade from AK.
6. Any crazy show stories?
This one time we were going to play a private prom night show at a very high class neighbourhood. When we got there it turned out we were going to play outside under a tarp, the nearest output was 100ft away and we had no large extensions, we were missing a power supply, we had trouble with the voice monitor and had to connect the vocals to the bass amp. We managed to play, but had to sacrifice our lead guitarist Gilbert for it to work (he's ok).
7. What’s your take on the current state of pop punk?
At least in our country things are rapidly blooming. The acceptance for pop punk in the scene is increasing, new bands are forming very fast, and people are extremely receptive to incoming music from all of them. As for the general state of it, we think the genre is evolving into one with more technicalities and attributes that will slowly make it more respectable among the music world as a whole.
8. What’s the current music scene like there in Puerto Rico both locally and country wide?
Puerto Rico is really small. One hundred miles long and thirty five miles wide isn't much, specially when more than half of the population concentrates in a single metropolitan area. The scene is pretty enclosed, too. Almost everyone knows each other or has seen each other before. For the last couple of years the predominant genre in clubs and pubs was hardcore music. Puerto Rican musical culture is extremely rythm-oriented, and so heavy bands find it natural to produce great chuggy breakdowns and heaviness. As of today, as we mentioned before, pop punk seems to be getting a hold of the local scene.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
This is a buffy subject. To leave it simple, we highly encourage systems like those of Spotify where the artists takes in a percentage per stream. Blatant illegal downloads are out of the question, though. Between fans and artists there is always a win-win middle ground that could be considered when thinking of downloading music.
10. What’s next for Late Night Drive?
We are currently finishing the writing process of a second EP called "Bloom" to be released hopefully before summer 2017. We are also planning a US tour for it. And, basically we're looking to keep growing and exposing our music all around the world if possible.
11. Any shoutouts?
Shoutout to Safe So Simple, Automatic 253, Tonight We Fight, Belmont, Noise Brigade, Abandoned By Bears, Southview, and our moms.
