Perth’s LATE 90s have emerged as masters of emotionally-charged alternative-rock over the past 18 months, with their new track ‘Respawn’ a continued marker of their rising prowess as songwriters.
Inspired by a constant fear of failure, second guessing decisions & the sense of dread that comes along with it, the band wrote ‘Respawn’ as a way to shed the anxious energy that was surrounding them, the track ending with a feeling of optimism. LATE 90s continue to expand their voice throughout the track, their sound growing more defined with every release.
With the opening guitar riff initially sitting dormant in Stephen Loreck’s demos, he showed lead guitarist Zaac Morgan the lick, who liked it instantly. He ran with it & the rest of the song came together quickly, with the band conscious to finish the track with a moving & syncopated breakdown, to continue & finalize the journey the listener had been on.
Teaming up with trusted producer Matthew Templeman (Birds of Tokyo, Sly Withers, Voyager), the band worked intently with him on the track, before taking it to Simon Struthers (Karnivool, The Leap Year) to handle mastering.
“Respawn is about feeling like every decision you make is the wrong one and the constant fear of failure and dread that comes with that. It ends with a mixed feeling of optimism and looming ominosity.” LATE 90s
“I had the opening guitar for ages but had never done anything with it. I showed Zaac and he liked it so we ran with it, writing the rest of the song really quickly. We knew that the song needed something huge at the end to take the listener on more of a journey. We wrote the big breakdown as a band, adding some syncopation and chugs to make it bigger, energize and give it a bit of an “oof” appeal.” LATE 90s
LATE 90s debut EP ‘Everything is Closer Than It Seems’ was released in late 2022, alongside it a tidal wave of support & the emergence of a healthy & rapidly growing fanbase.
The EP ticked over 550,000+ streams on DSP’s, with the band supporting FIDLAR, DZ Deathrays, Between You & Me & DICE in its wake. Locally support was strong with triple j (Home & Hosed, Short.Fast.Loud) airplay, triple j Unearthed (rotation), & Spotify (All New Rock, Rock Out, Local Noise, New Noise) all leaping to get behind the Perth upstarts, alongside a signing to national booking agency Destroy All Lines.
Furthermore, the band found a voice overseas, with BBC Radio 1 adding two singles to rotation, as well as Nels Hylton of BBC Radio 1’s ‘Future Alternative’ naming ‘Title Track’ from their EP his track of the year.
‘Respawn’ marks the band’s next chapter, as LATE 90s continue to secure themselves as one of Australia’s premiere alt-rock bands.